Porsche Penske driver Mathieu Jaminet is hoping that the upcoming IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint race at Long Beach will return him and his #6 teammate Nick Tandy up to championship-fighting contention.
The pair are sixth in the drivers’ standings on 545 points, whilst their Daytona-winning #7 Porsche 963 teammates are tied with the #40 WTRAndretti Acura for the championship lead, with 706 points.
The Grand Prix of Long Beach will signify the first sprint on the 2024 calendar, as Jaminet detailed his excitement and optimism for the race.
“If I look back also to last year – Long Beach – this is really where our season really started,” said Jaminet to selected media in a pre-event call.
“… That’s a format that I really enjoy, being a bit more on the aggressive side.
“Super happy to start the sprint season, and see how this goes and put us back in the championship.
“It [the car] requires a setup which looks after the tyres because we saw last year [that] you can make it on one set but you still have a lot of degradation throughout the race.
“You’re looking for something very soft to try to bring traction because of the slow speed corners.
“And on the other hand, you try to maximise your braking to gain some performance.
“The track is really bumpy. One of the bumpiest I would say with like Sebring and we know this is one of the one of our weakness so far – the bumpy tracks.”
Sebring was somewhat hampered for the #6 Porsche, after Frederic Makowiecki made contact with Katherine Legge. This decreased the likelihood of a strong result, eventually coming home P9.
The upcoming Long Beach GP contrasts to the gruelling endurance classic at Sebring, and so Tandy and Jaminet are looking to replicate their claim to victory in last year’s running.
As a result of their win last year, the pair jumped to the lead of the standings, surpassing eventual GTP champions, Action Express Cadillac’s Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani.
With a strong qualifying and race points haulage, the #6 duo could jump up the standings and assert a claim to being championship contenders.
