Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy have won the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship’s Grand Prix of Long Beach, Porsche’s first overall win in the modern IMSA championship and the first win for the Porsche 963 car.
Tandy, in the #6 Porsche 963 started sixth but advanced to second at the start, picking his way through as Sebastien Bourdais lost his Cadillac on the brakes into turn 1 and #60 Meyer Shank’s Acura’s Tom Blomqvist was tapped into a spin by Nick Yelloly in the #25 BMW.
Tandy fell back behind Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Wayne Taylor Acura, but at the pitstops, Tandy’s teammate Jaminet took the lead as the Wayne Taylor Acura suffered from a slow stop and fell to the back of the field.
However, Albuquerque’s teammate Taylor made his way back through the field, getting up to fourth behind Connor de Phillippi. De Phillippi attempted to pass Matt Campbell, Jaminet’s teammate in the sister #7 Porsche 963, but the American outbraked himself, gifting Taylor third.
Taylor now needed to pass Campbell. The Kiwi put up a great fight, holding Taylor off multiple times, but the Acura driver eventually got past when he pulled a dummy on Campbell, then passing on the inside after feigning to drivers’ right.
Taylor then set off after Jaminet. The Frenchman was suffering with worn tyres and Taylor soon caught him with just a few minutes to go. It was looking like it’d be a nervy finish for Jaminet, leading the race. Going onto the penultimate lap, Taylor attempted to pass the Porsche into turn 1, but braked far too late and put the Acura into the tyre barriers and out of the race, ending under full course yellow and the safety car.
This promoted De Philippi, in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, to second, the American redeeming himself after his earlier spin dropping him to fourth. In third was Jaminet’s teammate Matt Campbell, who’d lost second and third to Taylor and De Philippi earlier on.
The sister #24 BMW of Philipp Eng and Augusto Farfus finished fourth, while Pipo Derani brought home the lone surviving Cadillac, the #31 Action Express car, after Bourdais’ spin and subsequent wall contact put that car out on the spot on the first lap.
Colin Braun brought home the #60 Meyer Shank Acura in sixth, while the Taylor/Albuquerque Acura was seventh after the penultimate lap crash. Finally, the #01 Cadillac was eighth and last in class.
In GTD Pro, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat won from pole in the #14 Lexus RC F Gt3 after leading almost the whole race. Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor finished second in the #3 Corvette C8.R, while Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet were third in the #9 Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Finally, Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers won the GTD class, behind the wheel of the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, with polesitters Roman de Angelis and Marco Sorensen taking second, in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz in the #12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 finished third in class.
