No Tire Change Wins the Day Again at Long Beach

For all of the pre-race talk about whether the new Michelin Pilot Sport Endurance tire could lead GTP teams to change tires during the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the winning strategy ended up looking familiar.

Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 93 Acura ARX-06 went the full 100 minutes without a tire change, making it the fourth consecutive Long Beach race in which the overall winner has done so on a single set of tires.

There were signs earlier in the weekend that the new tire could create more options.

After taking pole, Nick Yelloly said: “the switch on of the tire seems to be quite a bit faster,” and added that “it does open up a few more strategies.”

But he also pointed to the risk of giving up track position on a circuit where pit lane time is critical.

“Obviously what you don’t want to be doing is swapping tires and someone else not,” said Yelloly.

That proved to be the key calculation in the race as the top seven GTP finishers did not change tires.

Renger van der Zande, who brought the No. 93 home to victory, said: “It’s amazing, these tires, they held on again, so we didn’t change tires.”

This trend extended to GTD as well, where Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen won for Vasser Sullivan Racing in the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3.

The podium finishers in class also completed the race without changing their Michelin Pilot Sport Pro tires.

In the end, even with more discussion than usual about possible tire changes, Long Beach once again rewarded the ability to make one set last.