IMSA has released the provisional entry list for the 2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend, which will take place next Friday and Saturday as the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship goes to its first sprint race and street race of the year.
All ten GTP cars are present for this third round of the championship with their full-season driver duos. However, Proton Competition has yet to nominate a second driver that will join Gianmaria Bruni in the #5 Porsche 963.
Heading into Long Beach, Porsche Penske Motorsports’ Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr are tied at the top of the GTP Drivers’ standings on 706 points with WTRAndretti’s Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz. The Porsche 963 scored its first victory at Long Beach last year courtesy of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
They’ll be joined by 17 entries from the GTD class, representing 11 manufacturers.
These include the two Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3s, the #12 of Frankie Montecalvo and Jack Hawksworth and the #89 of Parker Thompson and Ben Barnicoat. Vasser Sullivan won GTD Pro at Long Beach last year.
And it includes Flying Lizard Motorsports’ new #28 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, making a one-off appearance with Elias Sabo and Andy Lee. It’s one of two special entries making the trip down from Sonoma and the GT World Challenge America season-opener – the other is the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, who won both Sonoma races.
This will also be the first race for Gradient Racing’s new combination of Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer in the #66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. Heart of Racing Team has also made a change, nominating Spencer Pumpelly to share the #27 Aston Martin with Roman de Angelis at Long Beach. Pumpelly takes the place of Zacharie Robichon who is competing in the WEC 6 Hours of Imola the same weekend.
And it’ll be the first race for AWA as a single-car team following the abrupt withdrawal of its #17 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
Russell Ward and Philip Ellis of Winward Racing lead the GTD standings after their back-to-back victories at Daytona and Sebring.
Feature image © Gavin Baker / IMSA
