Sebastién Bourdais’ Long Beach Grand Prix lasted only one approach into turn one last year before he crashed out of the race. But today, Bourdais, Renger van der Zande, and the #01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R got their redemption in the streets of Southern California.
Bourdais and Van der Zande won the Long Beach Grand Prix, holding off the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of pole sitters Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken for the victory.
The complexion of the race turned on pit strategy, just as it did last year. The Chip Ganassi Racing team made the call to take fuel only on their pit stop, which allowed the #01 to jump ahead of the #31 once all cars had pitted. Meanwhile, the #31, and the two Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s, took left-side tyres and fuel.
At 44 minutes into the race, Louis Deletraz clipped the inside kerb at turn one and smashed into the concrete barriers, taking Deletraz, Jordan Taylor, and the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 out of the race. The GTP points leaders, fresh off a win at the Sebring 12 Hours, were out of the race – and that incident brought out the second of three Full Course Yellows on the day.
It compromised the #25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 (Connor de Phillippi/Nick Yelloly) that was fighting for a podium place but hadn’t made its pit stop before the Safety Car came out. Things went from bad to worse for the #25 when it suffered front-end damage in a turn 11 stack-up which began when the #6 Penske Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet was spun out by the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Loris Spinelli.
De Phillippi then clipped the inside wall at turn six and bounced into the tyre barriers, bringing out the last Full Course Yellow with less than 17 minutes to go.
That set up an eight-minute sprint to the finish, where Van der Zande held off Aitken to exorcise the demons of last year’s humiliating exit – and reverse the #01 Ganassi Cadillac’s trend of misfortune that has plagued the team ever since.
“We’ve had so many hardships and things just not working out,” said Bourdais, who claimed his fifth Long Beach win across sports cars and American open-wheel competition. “Our last win was Laguna Seca last year, so it’s been almost a year. I’m super happy for Cadillac, for Chip Ganassi Racing and for the boys. They work so hard and it feels like we deserve more than that a lot of the time.
“Hopefully this is the start of a new cycle for us. We had an excellent car, so I was a little frustrated that we were not able to get a better lap in during qualifying, but the strategy was perfect during our pit stop. The team did a great job to get us out front and Renger did the rest by holding the 31 off and bringing the car home to victory lane.”
Van der Zande echoed his co-driver’s joy: “We are very happy right now with the biggest trophy we could get – the first-place trophy!
“Leading the race from the halfway point and making the right strategy call. We used only one set of tyres and that was key to win this race. Our car has been fast all year so I am thrilled that we were finally able to bring home the win. The team deserves that. Our tyres were pretty old at the end – Chip asked me how were those tires, and I told him not so good. I was just hanging on at the end.
“This team is a fantastic team. Thanks to Chip, the guys, (Team Manager) Mike O’Gara, my teammate Seb… this is how to win races, and I’m enjoying it.”
After Derani led the first 35 minutes of the race from pole, Aitken would finish second by less than six-tenths of a second, completing the Cadillac 1-2 finish.
Thinking big picture, Derani said: “If you look overall, this championship comes down to a little at the end. To be our second time on the podium, three pole positions so far… you try to accumulate as many points as you can and carry it to the end.
“Obviously, we would have liked to win, especially starting at the front here. It’s just one of those things here at Long Beach. If the guy behind does the complete opposite to you, he might come out ahead and that’s what happened today. We’re happy that it’s a Cadillac 1-2. We wish it was the other way around but we did the best we could. We’ll take the points and keep pushing forward.”
It’s Cadillac’s sixth premier class win at Le Mans in the last seven Long Beach races, dating back to 2017. For Bourdais and Van der Zande, it’s their second Long Beach win in the last three years with Ganassi.
The #7 Penske Porsche (Dane Cameron/Felipe Nasr) finished third in the end and will leave Long Beach with the lead in the GTP standings by 58 points after securing their third straight podium to open the season.
Behind them, the #6 Penske Porsche (Mathieu Jaminet/Nick Tandy) only dropped one position despite the turn 11 incident and finished fourth. The #5 Proton Competition Porsche (Gianmaria Bruni/Mike Rockenfeller) took a quiet, yet productive, fifth-place finish.
The #24 RLL BMW (Philipp Eng/Jesse Krohn) salvaged sixth, just ahead of the #85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche (Tijmen van der Helm/Richard Westbrook), and the #10 WTRAndretti Acura (Ricky Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque), down in eighth after a drive-through penalty given to Taylor for spinning out the #85.
In GTD, Vasser Sullivan Racing’s Parker Thompson and Ben Barnicoat took the class win aboard the #89 Lexus RC F GT3 – the renumbered #14 GTD Pro entry which made a one-off appearance as a GTD car.
Thompson controlled the opening stint from the drop of the green flag, while his team-mate Frankie Montecalvo got an early drive-through penalty for moving out of line before the start. Montecalvo and Jack Hawksworth later retired from the race after an issue with the left-rear wheel forced the #12 Lexus into the pits.
There was early trouble in GTD as Brendon Iribe crashed his #70 Inception Racing McLaren GT3 EVO at turn five. He hit the wall and bounced right into the path of the #120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R of Adam Adelson, who had nowhere to go but into the McLaren. Both cars retired from damage in this incident which caused the first FCY.
Thompson continued to run up front and passed the baton to Barnicoat who put the finishing touches on a dominant performance for the #89 team – which led all but two laps in this 100-minute race. It’s Barnicoat’s second straight win at Long Beach following his GTD Pro win in 2023; and for Thompson, it’s his second IMSA victory, one which moves him to third in the GTD Drivers’ Championship.
Barnicoat heaped praise on his co-driver Thompson: “He crushed it! Track record, and he was faster than me in the race too, so I might have to look out for my seat in the #14! He’s definitely one of the up-and-comers.
“He’s got a bright future and I’m very lucky to drive with him now. He’s going to achieve great things, no doubt.”
The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley) turned in a second-place finish after gaining ground during the pit sequence.
And in third, the #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 (Mike Skeen/Mikaël Grenier) recovered from a Practice 1 crash to finish on the podium. The #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 (Sheena Monk/Stevan McAleer) finished fourth after starting from last following an engine issue before Qualifying.
Completing the top five was the #55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 (Giammarco Levorato/Corey Lewis) which had a refreshingly trouble-free day, as did the #13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Orey Fidani/Matthew Bell) which finished a solid sixth.
GTD championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis finished seventh in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes, following a drive-through penalty for having too many mechanics over the pit wall.
The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship returns on 12 May for the Course de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Images © Jack Tons / IMSA
