The story continues in 2025: Porsche Penske Motorsport, Nick Tandy, and Felipe Nasr remain undefeated in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Tandy and Nasr drove the #7 Porsche 963 to victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, leading a Penske 1-2 finish – three seconds ahead of the #6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell. It’s Porsche and Penske’s second straight 1-2 finish, and extends the #7 car’s lead to 123 points in the WeatherTech GTP standings.
The pole-winning #24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor and Philip Eng led until the race went under a Full Course Yellow after the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s 100-minute sprint. Quicker pit work from Porsche Penske Motorsport’s two crews helped get the two factory cars out ahead of the #24 BMW, where they remained until the checkered flag.
Once again, the GTP class winner did not change tyres on the way to the win – the same strategy that gave the Porsche 963 its first-ever win in 2023 at this same venue.
Cadillac Whelen led the V-Series.R contingent as the #31 (Jack Aitken/Earl Bamber) finished fourth, holding off the #25 RLL BMW (Sheldon van der Linde/Marco Wittmann) in fifth.
Behind the two Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs, the #23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Ross Gunn and Roman de Angelis completed a trouble-free race and finished eighth, while the two Meyer Shank Racing Acuras lost out on strategy – and, in the case of the #93, a mechanical black flag for damage from an earlier incident that dropped Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly to last in class.
The #60 MSR Acura ARX-06 (Tom Blomqvist/Colin Braun) could only muster a ninth-place finish – and to add further insult to a tough day, the car lost a wheel after the finish.
Laurens Vanthoor also remains undefeated in the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech series, as he and co-driver Jonny Edgar teamed up to give AO Racing the win in GTD.
AO Racing and ‘Rexy’ used the overcut to their advantage as the #177 Porsche 911 GT3 R, making a one-off cameo appearance in GTD, took the win. It was AO Racing’s second GT class win in a row, after taking the GTD PRO victory in last month’s Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Vasser Sullivan Racing narrowly missed out on a Long Beach three-peat. The #12 Lexus RC F GT3 of Parker Thompson and Jack Hawksworth led early but dropped to second, one place ahead of the #89 of Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz – which, like the winning car, was making a special entry out of GTD PRO.
GTD Championship leaders Russell Ward and Philip Ellis finished fourth in the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, with the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO (Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley) in fifth.
Robert Wickens and Tommy Milner ran a strong race in the #36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, but contact between Milner and Foley at the hairpin turn 11 inflicted damage on the Corvette and forced Milner to pit from fifth place. They finished a lap down in 15th.
IMSA returns to action further up the California coast, at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on 11 May.
Images © Brandon Badraoui, Michael L. Levitt, Perry Nelson / IMSA / LAT
