4/11/2025
Team Wins Third Straight Long Beach IMSA GT Pole; Wickens To Start Eighth
By David Phillips
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Vasser Sullivan Racing’s recent run of success at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach continued today when Parker Thompson planted the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 on the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) pole for the third round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Vasser Sullivan squad boasts a back-to-back winning streak at Long Beach, with Ben Barnicoat and Parker Thompson having scored a win here in GTD last year after Jack Hawksworth and Barnicoat took the GTD PRO victory in 2023. It’s also the team’s third straight Long Beach pole in either GTD PRO or GTD; no IMSA GT team has done so at Long Beach since Corvette Racing did so from 2007 to 2009 in the former American Le Mans Series’ GT1 class.
It was Thompson’s turn to shine again today as he out-fought Jonny Edgar (No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Tom Gamble (No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO) by the thinnest of margins to earn the inside of the front row for tomorrow’s 100-minute race.
Thin margins? Consider that Thompson toured the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit in 1 minute 17.877 seconds (90.974 mph), 0.06 of a second faster than Edgar and 0.062 quicker than Gamble. Manny Franco was fourth, just 0.291 of a second off, in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.
“We put a lot of importance on qualifying today,” said Thompson, who will share the car with Hawksworth on Saturday. “Obviously the Grand Prix of Long Beach is very exciting with close walls. The racing tends to be exciting when it comes to the pit stops. It’s tough to pass around here and track position is almost everything.
“The way these weekends are laid out, you never know what you’re going to get in qualifying,” he continued. “You’ve got IndyCars on the same weekend putting down rubber, you’ve got Stadium Super Trucks and other cars out there. I thought that the field would have collectively went faster, although it was very tight. But I’m happy to be up here.”
Thompson attributes Vasser Sulllivan’s success here both to the team and to the Lexus RC F GT3’s affinity to the streets of Long Beach, and believes the team is the best in GTD beyond just Long Beach.
“Our preparation always seems to be rewarded here,” he says. “Particularly in California, Jimmy Vasser was a resident here and that always helps. He’s had a lot of success here and his team has a lot of success too.
“Our Lexus RC F just seems to love Long Beach. I think I speak for most front-engined cars but it’s interesting to see Rexy (the No. 177 AO Porsche) up there – that’s obviously is about as rear-engined as it gets. But all the front-engined cars have had a lot of success around Long Beach. So kudos to IMSA for making it tight. I was definitely sweating. It looks like they’ve figured things out Balance of Performance-wise as they’ve got a rear-engined car behind a front-engined car which is no easy task.”
Speaking of thin margins, all told seven drivers posted times within a half second of Thompson’s pole winning lap, although the seventh fastest qualifier – Robert Wickens – forfeited his fastest lap (1:18.239) as the result of causing a red flag in the afternoon practice session.
Wickens, making his first WeatherTech Championship start since 2017 and his GTD class debut in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with hand controls featuring the Bosch electronic braking system, had to rely on his second fastest lap of the session – a 1:18.411.
The penalty slots Wickens into eighth spot on the grid with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO between the DXDT ‘Vette and Franco’s fourth placed Ferrari.
