Despite BMW landing another pole to lead the IMSA field to green, it's the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport with Felipe Nasr and "Mr. 24" Nick Tandy that is again reaping the rewards of a win — for the third straight race in a row.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the first weekend on the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship schedule to change things up a little, presenting a 100-minute "sprint" race format, after the 36 hours of racing in Florida split between the season opener in Daytona and the 12 hours in Sebring. With a small allotment of tires — four sets to use through practice, qualifying and the weekend — tire and fuel strategy was key while also managing minimum drive times for the two drivers running for each car.
Maybe it's not a surprise that Porsche Penske Motorsport has now gone three for three in wins this season, having found the "perfect" formula for any on-track situation, a formula that will now keep the winning #7 and #6 cars at the front. (This could also be key to Roger Penske getting that long-desired Le Mans win in under two months’ time.)
According to Nasr, who brought the #7 across the line under the checkered flag, his race winning approach came down to finding the pace with the car, and keeping it. “I had a moment I think in Turn 8 where I just kind of lost the rear and saved it,” said in the post-race interview. “It was stretchy out there [and it] makes it difficult to keep the car in one line — and once I found my pace, I just kind of stayed there.”
The #7 and #6 Porsche GTP cars started the race behind the pole-sitting #24 BMW M Team RLL and its sister #25 car. The #6 encountered a brief incident with the #93 Acura Meyer Shank w/Curb Agajanian that was brief and didn't require any action from Race Control. But the #13 AWA Racing Corvette managed to hit the wall of Turn 8 after an awkward dance between it and the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini, which caused the first full course yellow to be waved.
It's here that strategy played well for the #7 and #6, as the majority of the field outside of the #25 BMW and the #60 Acura pitted. This brought both Porsche Penske cars to a healthy lead in the field which they kept for the remainder of the race without so much as a sneeze.
The rest of the GTP field remained mostly quiet, albeit the #93 Acura involved in the earlier mentioned incident with the #6 Porsche was sent to pit lane for repairs from the incident. The decision to not do those repairs during the full course caution pit sequence forced the car to the back of the field, where it remained, finishing a lap down. And on Lap 40, the #85 JDC Miller Motorsports Porsche car had a misunderstanding with the #27 Heart Of Racing Aston Martin as it tried to take the same racing line into Turn 6. The Aston Martin hit the #85's side, causing it to spin to the outside of the turn, losing its wing enroute. The incident initiated the somewhat game-changing ...
