Long Beach Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

***Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly became the first winners of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in Acura prototype machinery since Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud took overall honors in de Ferran Motorsports’ Acura ARX-02a in the 2009 American Le Mans Series race.

***While it marked van der Zande’s third Long Beach win in his last five starts, it was both Yelloly and the Ohio-based Meyer Shank Racing team’s first triumph on the Southern California streets. MSR and Acura’s last WeatherTech Championship victory came in the 2025 Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with its No. 60 entry of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun.

***Van der Zande and Yelloly’s last WeatherTech Championship win, meanwhile, came on the streets of Detroit last year. The Dutchman has now won six of the last ten WeatherTech Championship street races. “It’s a really cool stat,” said van der Zande in the post-race press conference.

***Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti were forced to settle for a runner-up finish, with a well-timed full-course caution, while the No. 93 Acura was in the pits, helped jump the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac V-Series.R on track, which led for 14 laps in the opening hour.

***Aitken said: “There are a few key things you need to do a street track like this, you need to have a good start, have a good stop and don’t make mistakes and I think everyone on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac pretty much checked those boxes, so it hurts a little bit not to get the win, but the yellow was timed perfectly for the 93 but that’s how it goes.”

***The No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac was on the opposite end of the spectrum, with the same yellow, for an accident by the No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng, costing Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor valuable track position. They had been the only car yet to pit at that point. “The yellow came out and we cycled [to] last pretty much,” said Deletraz. “We tried, we were up there.”

***Ricky Taylor’s race took a turn for the worse in the final 30 minutes when he lost control of the No. 10 WTR Cadillac over a curb and hit the Turn 4 wall, bringing out the race’s fourth caution. Taylor then came to pit lane for emergency service to change the broken bodywork.

***Laurin Heinrich, in his first race with JDC-Miller Motorsports, continued to impress at the wheel of a Porsche 963, with the German having set the race’s fastest lap. It came after the Minnesota-based team went on an alternative strategy early into the race that saw Tijmen van der Helm pit on Lap 4, upon the restart of the first yellow with eight minutes completed. The minimum drive time in the GTP class was just five minutes.

****Heinrich, however, got mixed up with both of the Team WRT BMWs, including an aggressive blocking move by Eng, who was handed a stop-and-hold plus 60-second penalty following his accident with one hour to go. “What a race,” said Heinrich. “We started from the back and took a strategic gamble during the first caution. It paid off – finishing sixth feels like a strong result and a great start to my new chapter with JDC-Miller Motorsports.”

***The two factory Penske Porsche 963s ended up third and fourth, despite carrying 45 kg of additional weight compared to last month’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. “If someone had offered me third place before the weekend, I would have gladly taken it,” said third place finisher Laurens Vanthoor. “I’m very satisfied with this result. We scored a lot of points. The race was anything but easy, but once you’re celebrating on the podium, that no longer matters.”

***The No. 60 MSR Acura, which was forced to start from the rear of the 11-car GTP field after missing qualifying due to undertaking a chassis change following Colin Braun’s accident in Friday’s second practice session, finished seventh, in a rather quiet race for the duo. The team stayed at the track until 2 a.m. rebuilding the ORECA-chassied LMDh car.

***Blomqvist said: “A huge thanks to our guys who had a very late night rebuilding our car and it’s because of them we were able to get out there today. It’s a short race, so there’s not much you can do from the back. But making up a few positions is always a good feeling.”

***The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 broke a 21-race winless streak, the team’s longest-ever, with Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen coming out on top. It was the team’s third Long Beach class win after taking GTD Pro honors in 2023 with Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth and GTD in 2024, with Barnicoat and Parker Thompson.

***FIA Silver-rated driver Pedersen, a former Indy Lights and NTT IndyCar Series driver, notched up his first WeatherTech Championship class win in only his tenth series start and third race with the Jimmy Vasser and James ‘Sulli’ Sullivan-owned team.

***Pedersen said: “It’s absolutely incredible. It’s only my third time with the team, so it’s quite the introduction. Aaron did a great job. Our car was on rails all day. It was my second time here since being here in IndyCar in 2023 and my first time in a GT, so that was a fun day.”

***The win came on the 30th anniversary of Jimmy Vasser’s win in Long Beach at the wheel of a Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard-Honda Indycar.

***Robert Wickens had his strongest race yet in WeatherTech Championship competition, leading from class pole in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that eventually finished sixth in class after the car faded in the second half in the hands of co-driver Mason Filippi.

***Wickens said: “To be honest, that was a fair fairy tale stint. The Corvette Z06 GT3.R was just so nice to drive around this track. Every lap is a dream. It was a good stint and a little fortunate with Danny Formal having a mechanical problem, and then I don’t know what happened to the 57, but suddenly we had quite a decent amount of space behind.”

***The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Eduardo Barrichello continues to lead the GTD points standings, despite scoring a season-low tenth place class finish after receiving a drive-through penalty for for a pit speed infraction.

***The Brazilian’s advantage is now just 54 points over the Turner Motorsport duo of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, who scored their first podium finish since the 2024 Motul Petit Le Mans. “It was a fantastic day for us at Long Beach,” said Foley. “Patrick had an excellent first stint and stayed out of trouble. After that, we were able to take advantage of a few opportunities during the restarts to pass competitors and then defend second place.”

***The second place finish for Turner came after misfortune for several other contenders, including the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Russell Ward, who was forced to the pits just three minutes before the 35-minute minimum drive time requirement after receiving a mechanical black flag due to failure to adhere to the tire operational requirements. Ward and co-driver Russell Ward finished ninth in class.

***Ellis said: “In the end, we got some points to at least close the gap a little, but I think we should have won this. So, it’s just frustrating and we are disappointed.”

***Pfaff Motorsports’ Lamborghini Temerario GT3, in its street course debut, faced the same infraction as the Winward Mercedes-AMG, although rebounded to be in podium contention until Andrea Caldarelli was handed a late-race drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Corey Lewis, which brought out the race’s fifth and final yellow.

***The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 was the race’s only retirement, after Danny Formal pitted early from second in class with electrical issues. “We started the race and we just went to an energy safe mode,” explained Formal. “To be honest, I think we had a good chance at winners circle. But it’s racing.”

***Despite Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe scoring maximum points as the highest-finishing FIA Bronze-rated driver in GTD, 13 Autosport’s Orey Fidani continues to lead the Bob Akin Award standings after three races, although his lead has been reduced to just 60 points over Iribe, with Sheena Monk third, a further 40 points back.

***While an official figure has yet to be published, preliminary projections from Grand Prix of Long Beach officials say the event’s attendance was “trending upward” over last year’s record-breaking 50th anniversary event.  “Judging by the full grandstands, packed walkways, and the number of people that walked through our AAA Travel Lifestyle Expo, the Grand Prix Association projects another record-setting weekend with a marginal increase on last year’s historic crowd,” said event President and CEO Jim Liaw.

***Next up for the WeatherTech Championship is the first two-hour and 40-minute race of the season, on May 1-3 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where the GTD Pro class will rejoin GTP and GTD cars for a planned ‘throwback’ weekend featuring retro-inspired liveries and team gear.

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