April 9, 2025
IMSA Field Reflects On Why They Love the Streets of Long Beach
By Tony DiZinno
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Saturday sports car showcase at Long Beach often serves as a highlight of both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and the full Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend.
For a race that is the shortest on the WeatherTech Championship calendar at just 100 minutes, a shifted vibe and approach pushes the focus level to a hyper-targeted effort.
GTP Field Pushes the Limit from Lap One
Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy have won the first two Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) races of 2025 in their No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. Both are past Long Beach winners, with Nasr’s first and thus far only triumph coming in 2021 in the Action Express Racing-prepared Whelen Cadillac DPi-V.R. Tandy co-drove to the first Porsche 963 global victory at Long Beach in 2023, sharing with Mathieu Jaminet.
Nasr described from the driver’s seat what may not entirely translate about just how hard to push between the concrete walls of the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course.
“I just love this style of racing bringing the GTP cars to Long Beach and extracting the maximum of the car in a track like that. It’s a real challenge,” he explained.
“You have to be patient with yourself, and the track might not be ready to give you the grip yet, or the car. The track evolves so much that it’s hard for yourself to say what you did right or wrong. You have to be patient in what you change and how you evolve during the session.
“Of course, there’s a commitment level as the weekend goes beyond practice into racing, you start getting closer to the walls, braking later. That’s the fascinating part of street racing. For us drivers, you start getting closer to the walls, closer to the limit, it’s a great feeling behind the wheel.”
Two-time and defending GTP winner Renger van der Zande comes to Long Beach with the race’s title sponsor, Acura, for the first time. Now sharing the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly, the Dutchman added to Nasr’s thoughts about why he likes Long Beach so much.
“There’s a lot of pressure for sure and I like pressure,” van der Zande said before heading to a simulator session in Indianapolis ahead of this weekend’s race. “That’s good and obviously the discussion here at Honda is about how short of a window it is to really find the right decision moments.
“It’s really a cooperation; it’s not just ‘I’m Renger, I won it twice, so I know what to do.’ It’s every year is different again. There’s so much to think about and the homework they’ve been doing is incredible and I just tried to support it with the experience I have.”
Cadillac has enjoyed a wealth of Long Beach success, with six overall IMSA top-class prototype wins since 2017. Ricky Taylor won the first of those six with brother Jordan in 2017 and seeks a return to the top in the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R he’ll share this year with Filipe Albuquerque.
“It is always exciting to get into the sprint race part of the season where we can really get back into the rhythm of IMSA racing,” said the elder Taylor brother. “It’s always a bit of a shock to the system to transition to every lap really counting, but I think all of our drivers really enjoy that. We really have to be on our game and make every session count.”
GTD’s Solo Showcase Pushes Field to Its Best
With Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) absent, the GTD class gets the spotlight as the only IMSA GT class competing in Long Beach. For drivers and teams, the event serves as a highlight of the season.
Elliott Skeer, co-driver of the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with Adam Adelson, enjoys his first of two California-type home races Long Beach, although this one is closer than WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey.
Skeer lives in San Diego and Adelson in Los Angeles, so the camaraderie of the event and the memories established stand out. Both look to atone from a challenging 2024 Long Beach race where the car retired after just eight laps due to contact.
“(Long Beach) is even closer for Adam than me, so it’s surprising to find someone closer,” Skeer laughed.
“It’s the friends, family, environment, the one race we can get everyone to. Hopefully I get to race it this time. Last year’s race didn’t go to plan.
“It’s not a track you can do on a track day. You have to be in this event to race here. I’ve been going since 2006 as a fan I think, religiously. I remember watching Pat Long and the (Flying) Lizards religiously.
“Now to be driving around the fountain in a Porsche is an incredible thing. We have a good pit stall with the points we’re in. We can execute the one pit stop and try to start ‘the Adam era’ of Wright strongly.”
For former junior open-wheel-racer-turned-IMSA-winner Parker Thompson, the visibility change moving from a smaller open-wheel car to a heavier GT beast from Lexus marks a fascinating visual shift on a street course.
“You just don’t realize how much room there is on the passenger side when you sit offset,” said Thompson, who won at Long Beach last year with Ben Barnicoat and shares the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with Jack Hawksworth. “So, throughout my career growing up, when I race on a street course, you had easy visibility of both the left and right front wheels.
“The Lexus, because it is one of the larger, wider GT cars, you’re basically guessing where that right-front is at all times. Especially Turn 8 at Long Beach is one of those turns where in qualifying, you’re like, ‘Oh, am I gonna hit it? Is it close?’ So, it is just kind of a guessing game. That’s the biggest difference is the offset.”
The fun and festivities start with two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, April 11, followed by the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach 100-minute race on Saturday, April 12. The race airs live on NBC Sports’ USA Network and Peacock at 5:00 p.m. ET with international coverage via IMSA.TV and IMSA’s official YouTube channel.
