Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais were victorious on the streets of Long Beach after an incident-ridden Round 3 of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Chip Ganassi Racing became victorious after their strategy decision to not change tyres gave them the leading track position.
The increased risk of driver error around such a tight street circuit proved more influential than expected for those who demonstrated good form, but were either victims to the mistakes of others or to their own doing.
An exciting qualifying session saw Wehlen Cadillac Racing’s Pipo Derani secure his third consecutive pole position with a damaged #31 Cadillac V-Series.R, and Vasser Sullivan lock out the front of the GTD field.
Just one point separated the GTP championship leaders prior to the race, with the #7 Porsche Penske 963 ahead of the #40 WTRAndretti – which won last time out at Sebring – due to their respective qualifying positions.
For the race start at a bright and warm Long Beach, the reigning GTP champion retained the race lead in the #31 as Bourdais pulled an opportunistic move on Nick Yelloly’s #25 BMW Team RLL at Turn 1.
During the opening portion of the race, Derani built his lead as his competitors behind fought fiercely for the other podium positions which involved Bourdais, Yelloly, Tandy.
A Full Course Yellow was deployed due to an incident involving two GTD cars which temporarily thwarted Derani’s near-four second lead.
When the race continued, Derani seemingly got away before he was chased down by Bourdais’ #01 Cadillac, although that effort was prematurely ended when a second caution period was deployed.
Unfortunately for the most recent race winner Louis Deletraz, he found himself into the wall at T1 after his #40 Acura ARX-06 snapped during corner entry thus prompting an overcorrection and significant front-right damage.
This caution guaranteed the GTPs to have enough fuel to make it to the end, though the #01 was the only car to not change tyres as the time under caution favoured their strategy and their all-important track position.
The other strategy in play by most of the field was to solely change the left-side tyres which takes on most of the degradation around Long Beach.
Green flag conditions resumed the racing action as van der Zande in the #01 led ahead of the #31 of Jack Aitken and the #6 of Mathieu Jaminet.
Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s other #10 Acura GTP endured drama after Ricky Taylor turned around Richard Westbrook’s #85 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 after attempting an ambitious move on the inside at Turn 7. Taylor was subsequently penalised with a drive-through penalty.
Towards the sharper end of the field, the tension heated up as BMW RLL’s #25 of Connor De Phillippi was keen to overtake the #7 of Felipe Nasr. In his eagerness, the BMW nudged the rear of Nasr’s Porsche into Turn 9 as their fight continued nevertheless.
Van der Zande was unable to increase the gap at the front of the field and as a result, he was closely followed by Aiken, Jaminet, Nasr and De Phillippi.
The racing action was promptly put on pause when Nasr attempted a move on the inside of the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Loris Spinelli at T11, however, his contact into the Lamborghini also tapped the #6 of Jaminet around.
This caused a brief traffic jam at the hairpin as Spinelli was made responsible for the incident with a drive-through penalty.
Shortly after the pileup cleared through, De Phillippi found himself into the tyre barrier at Turn 6 after he pitted from shedding bodywork due to a previous moment of contact.
He was pulled out and continued on his way albeit at the back of the field ahead of Spinelli.
The final spur of green flag racing took place with 8 minutes remaining as Aitken chased van der Zande for the lead, in spite of Nasr behind in third challenging Aitken.
At the chequered flag, van der Zande took victory for the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R and his teammate Sebastien Bourdais after 68 laps completed, followed in second position by the #31 Wehlen Cadillac Racing duo of Jack Aitken and Pipo Derani.
Third position was claimed by the #7 Porsche Penske 963 drivers of Felipe Nasr and Dane Cameron, as fourth was taken by their #6 Porsche Penske teammates of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
Gianmaria Bruni rounded off the top-five in GTP in the #5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, along with his teammate Mike Rockenfeller.
Meanwhile the GTD race began was drama straight away, when Frankie Montecalvo of the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 switched lanes before crossing the start-finish line, awarding him a drive-through penalty.
Albert Costa Balboa showed promising form in the #34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 as he found himself strong on pace and fighting his way up from third to second place.
The other Vasser Sullivan Lexus, the #89, retained the lead in the hands of Parker Thompson who focused on opening the gap to his rivals behind.
Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe lost the balance of his #70 McLaren 720S GT3 EVO at T5, which led to him hitting the wall and bouncing into the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3.R of Adam Adelson, who was unable to avoid the contact and thus incurred race-ending damage.
In addition to the #120’s misfortune as second-placed GTD championship runners, the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG team with Philip Ellis driving faced a drive-through after too many pit crew members worked on the car during a stop.
Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus and their chances fell through when driver Jack Hawksworth took on left-rear suspension damage and a flat tyre after hitting wall at T5, losing his sixth position as the third official retirement.
In the final sprint to the end, it was an exciting affair for Gradient Racing’s Stevan McAleer who was fighting intensely for a podium finish against the #32 of Mike Skeen and Corey Lewis in the #55 Ford Mustang Proton car.
After 65 laps completed, the #89 Lexus sought victory for Ben Barnicoat and Parker Thompson, followed by Turner Motorsport’s #96 BMW M4 and their drivers Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher.
Third was taken by the #32 Korthoff-Preston Mercedes-AMG drivers Mikael Grenier and Mike Skeen.
Fourth and fifth positions were secured by the #66 duo of Stevan McAleer and Sheena Monk, and the #55 Proton crew of Giammarco Levorato and Corey Lewis.
