Long Beach Friday Notebook

Photo: Brandon Badroui/IMSA

***Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach pole-sitter Nick Yelloly believes tomorrow’s 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint race could have a “more open” strategy with the new Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tire, which is making its street race debut and the first weekend-long use of the Soft tire in the series.

***Yelloly said: “It’s much more open. The switch-on of the tire seems to be quite a bit faster. You can see that in the qualifying times anyway. So it does open a few more strategies. It will depend if there is a safety car, as and when it is, and what position you are at the time. Obviously what you don’t want to be doing is swapping tires and someone else not.”

***Frankie Montecalvo said losing the first one-third of the GTD qualifying session put him in a stressful position. The GTD class pole-sitting No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus, as well as the sister No. 12 entry and the No. 46 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Temerario GT3, were all handed a five-minute stop-and-hold penalties for failure to perform the mandated torque offset sensor test.

***Montecalvo said: “In my mind, five minutes felt like forever. We were sitting there, we had everything [going] for us. We were at the beginning of the pit lane, so our goal, when it went green, to go right away and just try to get some clean air. That kind of definitely got me stressed a bit in the beginning there.”

***Orey Fidani, in the 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, was given a black flag in qualifying for driving the wrong way on track into a cut-out at pit-in after spinning in the hairpin. Fidani was barred from further participation in the session and will start dead last, 17th in class as a result.

***Kevin Estre’s brush with the Turn 1 wall in opening practice left the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 with a broken rear axle and bodywork damage, which was repaired in time for Practice 2, where the Frenchman ended up fourth in the session. He told Sportscar365: “I don’t think I was faster than the lap before but just around the apex the rear of the car stepped out and I had no room and went into the wall. It was not a massive crash. Turn 1 is first or second gear, not so fast, but still, a concrete wall hurts.”

***Additional special liveries for this weekend were revealed, including a light blue-colored design on the Pfaff Temerario GT3, celebrating 80 years of Lithia and Driveway, which acquired Pfaff Automotive partners in 2021, the return of an eye-popping Anti Social Social Club design to DragonSpeed’s entry, now a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and a gold-and-blue design on DXDT Racing’s Corvette for new sponsor Wealthspire.

***DragonSpeed team owner Elton Julian revealed their Corvette’s chassis was damaged in three places following Henrik Hedman’s accident in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring that was triggered by Parker Thompson’s LMP2 car. “We returned [to the Sebring race] with a gimpy car, cracked chassis in three different places, to collect the two more positions for the Bronze Cup,” Julian told Sportscar365. “Once we saw we were 85 laps behind the next guy, we parked it and that was it.”

***Post-race, the car was sent to Pratt Miller for repairs, which the North Carolina-based team received back only one week ago, and finished building up the car in the Long Beach paddock on Thursday.

***Julian said the connection from the Anti Social Social Club, which the team had on its Ferrari 296 GT3 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last year, came through Juan Pablo Montoya, as the apparel company’s founder and creative director, Ian Coates, is Montoya’s cousin. “Obviously the three years Juan Pablo was with us, Ian came to a lot of races,” said Julian. “He’ll be here this weekend and he’s the engine behind it. We’ve hit off.” Julia said the livery will remain on the car for Laguna Seca next month as well.

***WeatherTech Championship debutant Zachary Vanier, who is sharing the Pfaff Temerario GT3 this weekend with Andrea Caldarelli, revealed that he got his first laps in the car during its rollout at Vallelunga in February. “It’s been a hard kept secret,” the 23-year-old FIA Silver-rated Canadian told Sportscar365. “I got my feet wet and got a taste for working with Lamborghini, driving the car. Since then it’s been working closely alongside the team prepping for the event with a lot of sim, a lot of video and meetings. This morning was my first taste of Long Beach as well.”

***One of the key reasons for Acura’s impending exit from the GTP class, at least in a factory capacity, is understood to be due to parent company Honda’s recent projected loss of $15.7 billion for the fiscal year ending on March 31, due to a downturn in the North American EV market. The company has canceled three U.S.-bound EV vehicles as a result.

***This weekend marks one of the first major clash-ridden dates in international sports car racing of the year, with the FIA World Endurance Championship kicking off its season in Imola, GT3 manufacturers and drivers focused on the Nürburgring 24 Qualifiers, with four-hour races on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the Michelin 12H Spa, not to mention other races around the world.

***It led to several full-time WeatherTech Championship drivers, Earl Bamber and Tom Gamble, prioritizing their WEC commitments, with dual-championship drivers Jack Aitken, Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde, missing the season-opening race of the world championship.

***A second IMSA/WEC clash is set for July between Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Interlagos, although it only affects the WeatherTech Championship drivers in LMP2, GTD Pro and GTD, with the CTMP race being a LMP2 headline round. Peugeot factory ace Paul di Resta will be forced to miss CTMP, with a replacement driver already secured and set to be announced in the coming weeks according to United Autosports CEO Richard Dean.

***Aston Martin factory driver Harry Tincknell will also be impacted during that weekend, with Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports also yet to announce his replacement, although test and reserve driver Jonathan Woolridge recently ran laps in the car. The team’s FIA Silver-rated driver for the Michelin Endurance Cup races, Parker Thompson, will not be an option due to his full season WEC commitments as well.

***Spencer Pumpelly has benefitted by this weekend’s clash, in making his third consecutive GTD start with as many teams, after starting off the season with Magnus Racing at Daytona, then getting a call up with RS1 at Sebring. Pumpelly is effectively second in the points standings, behind his co-driver this weekend, Eduardo Barrichello, as the Nos. 21 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 80 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo entries that sit second and third in the standings are Michelin Endurance Cup-only entries.

***Pumpelly is subbing for Gamble this weekend in his first start with the Ian James-led team since 2024. “Obviously I feel fortunate to be involved with Magnus, RS1 and Heart of Racing,” Pumpelly told Sportscar365. “They’re all great teams, all good people, all dedicated to the craft. It wasn’t the plan at the start of the season but I’m certainly not going to complain being here at this event.”

***While unlikely to be at the next round at Laguna Seca, it’s believed Pumpelly will be back with Magnus for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June, where he would make his 250th start in top-level IMSA competition. Magnus is also expected to contest the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.

***When asked if he could be back in the No. 27 Heart of Racing entry for CTMP, the second clashing weekend of the year, Pumpelly said: “I’m keeping the date open but haven’t made any flights yet.” The team used Roman De Angelis for the event last year, as the GTP class is in not in action that weekend.

***Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid, along with competition director Travis Law, will be undertaking their first weekend overseeing both the team’s WeatherTech Championship and NTT IndyCar Series programs. Both were promoted to their current positions last July, following both the Long Beach and Detroit events.

***Diuguid said he will be on the pit box for every WeatherTech Championship and IndyCar session this weekend, calling strategy for the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre on Saturday and on Sunday, for Josef Newgarden in IndyCar. Law, meanwhile, calls strategy for the No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer, plus the No. 12 IndyCar entry of David Malukas.

***Diuguid said: “A lot of the prep happens prior to the weekend. Then there’s some follow-up meetings and things like that that. I’ll definitely be spending a little more time than I normally would as far as the prep ahead of the race weekends to make sure I’m prepared. But in general, there’s no real concerns from my side in being able to be present and effective… There’s a large group of people that are making sure that everything’s pointing in the right direction.”

***The Society of Professional Motorsports Journalists announced on Friday that RACER founder Paul Pfanner has become the 2026 recipient of the Russo-Marvel Founders Award, which is presented annually to individuals who embody the passion, dedication, and commitment to auto racing that defined founders Bob Russo and Bill Marvel.

***The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America announced at Long Beach that Rob Dyson will be part of the 2027 induction class, which includes Gary Bettenhausen (open wheel), Ron Capps (drag racing), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (stock cars), Harry Hartz (historic), Steve Hinton (aviation), Angelle Sampey (motorcycles), Lyn St. James (at large), Robert Yates (stock cars) and longtime GM Racing executive director Herb Fishel, who was instrumental to the launch of the Corvette Racing program in the late 1990s.

***Former IMSA President Scott Atherton, who is on the board of directors at the MHFA, said: “I have known Rob for over 20 years. He is a rare combination of gentleman, racer and businessman. And has been very successful in all three disciplines. Racing was not Rob’s ‘day job’ but in his day he could pedal with the pros. When I notified him of this honor there was an awkward silence – followed by a loud exhale and words of disbelief and genuine appreciation. Followed by 30-plus minutes of great racing adventures from his career. We can all look forward to some great stores from Rob next March.”

***The Road Racing Drivers Club honored Hall of Famer Derek Bell MBE at its annual gala on Thursday at the Westin Hotel. Bell’s racing career is one of the most successful diverse and wide-ranging of any British racing driver, having notably claimed five victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and three wins in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John