IMSA Long Beach: Bourdais, van der Zande lead Ganassi Cadillac 1-2

Van der Zande headed the sister DPi-V.R car driven by team-mate Earl Bamber at the flag by 3.7 seconds to score only Ganassi's second win in the Daytona Prototype international class since its partnership with Cadillac began in 2021.

The JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac of Tristan Vautier and Richard Westbrook completed the podium in third, ensuring a Cadillac podium clean sweep at a track where the DPi-V.R has never been beaten since the start of the DPi era in 2017.

Bourdais held off Ganassi team-mate Alex Lynn (sharing with Bamber) on the run down to Turn 1 at the start, while Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05) held off 2021 Long Beach winner Pipo Derani (Action Express Racing Cadillac) for third.

Behind them, Vautier deposed Filipe Albuquerque’s Wayne Taylor Racing Acura to take fifth, but they both gained a place at Bourdais' expense on lap 7.

The Frenchman, a three-time Long Beach winner from his Champ Car days, dived down the inside of a GT car at the hairpin but ran out of steering lock on corner exit and came up against the outside wall. He resumed a chastened sixth, 14s behind new leader Lynn.

But Bourdais was charging hard and by lap 19 had motored past Albuquerque (who made a very early first stop for new rear tyres) and Vautier to fill the mirrors of Derani in third, having set a fastest lap one second quicker than anyone else.

Bourdais claimed his next victim on lap 23 when Blomqvist ran wide, losing two spots to Derani and the recovering Ganassi driver, who then pounced to reclaim second from Derani when he was held up in traffic on lap 24.

Lynn's advantage at this stage was 2.3s, but it wasn't to last as Bourdais returned to the lead with a clinical pass at Turn 8 on lap 29.

Lynn led after Bourdais' error, but couldn't hold off the charging Frenchman

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

By this point, Derani had pitted to hand over to Tristan Nunez - only for Nunez to suffer an electrical issue that caused the car to temporarily shut down at the cost of a lap.

Bourdais had pulled out a 4s lead when he pitted at the end of lap 40, and was followed in by Lynn, Blomqvist and Vautier. The leaders emerged in the same order, with van der Zande ahead of Bamber, Oliver Jarvis (in for Blomqvist) and Westbrook in fourth.

Albuquerque made the WTR car’s second stop just before the first full-course caution, handing over to Ricky Taylor, while AXR returned Derani to the #31 Cadillac under caution as Nunez hopped out.

Derani quickly passed Taylor following the second caution and responded quickly to the third restart by passing Westbrook. After an attempt to pass Jarvis allowed Westbrook briefly back through, Derani made short work of retaking Westbrook before attempting another move on Jarvis for third with two minutes to go.

After running side-by-side through Turn 10, Jarvis locked up under braking while trying to protect the inside for Turn 11. As he understeered wide, forcing Derani on his outside to do the same, Westbrook snuck past both for the final podium position.

In GTD Pro, Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas claimed their first victory of the season in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3.

Polesitter Jordan Taylor retained his lead at the start in his Corvette C8.R, ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R with Gunn in third.

But Pfaff’s Porsche never re-emerged from the pitstops following Jaminet's hand-over to Matt Campbell, the car's radiator punctured from a loose Corvette wheelnut. 

Gunn and Riberas moved up the order after the Pfaff Porsche retired and Corvette was penalised

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Antonio Garcia (in for Taylor) then held the net lead over Riberas and Ben Barnicoat in the Vasser Sullivan Lexus, but the Spaniard was handed a drive-through by Race Control for his crew “losing control of equipment” during its #3 pitstop. 

Running an alternative strategy, Connor De Phillippi had stormed from the back of the grid to the lead in the #25 Team RLL BMW M4, but its victory hopes were dashed by a yellow for torn-up kerbs at Turn 5 that caused the pits to close. 

GTD Pro was now led by Riberas’ Aston, who fended off Barnicoat to win by 1.4 seconds.

In the GTD class, the Paul Miller Racing team scored a first IMSA win for the BMW M4 with Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers.

Snow held the lead from the start ahead of Jon Miller (Crucial Motorsport McLaren 720S) and Mike Skeen (Team Korthoff Mercedes AMG GT3), and Sellers comfortably held the advantage following the stops as Paul Holton took over the McLaren and Maxime Martin moved into third in his Heart of Racing Aston.

Aston factory driver Martin soon began to pressure Sellers' BMW, but retired after scraping the wall on the run to Turn 8.

That left Mario Farnbacher’s Gradient Racing Acura as Sellers' nearest challenger, but the German was unable to get close enough for a move and finished 1.8s in arrears.

IMSA Long Beach Race Results:

Cla	Class	Num	Driver		Chassis	Laps	Gap
1	DPi	01	Renger van der Zande Sébastien Bourdais		Cadillac DPi	73
2	DPi	02	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn		Cadillac DPi	73	3.761
3	DPi	5	Tristan Vautier Richard Westbrook		Cadillac DPi	73	9.048
4	DPi	60	Oliver Jarvis Tom Blomqvist		Acura DPi	73	10.014
5	DPi	31	Pipo Derani Tristan Nunez		Cadillac DPi	73	10.535
6	DPi	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque		Acura DPi	73	11.979
7	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas		Aston Martin Vantage GT3	69	4 Laps
8	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat		Lexus RC F GT3	69	4 Laps
9	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow		BMW M4 GT3	69	4 Laps
10	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor		Corvette C8.R GTD	69	4 Laps
11	GTD	66	Mario Farnbacher Marc Miller		Acura NSX GT3	69	4 Laps
12	GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz		Lexus RC F GT3	69	4 Laps
13	GTD PRO	25	Connor de Phillippi John Edwards		BMW M4 GT3	69	4 Laps
14	GTD	96	Robby Foley Bill Auberlen		BMW M4 GT3	69	4 Laps
15	GTD	16	Ryan Hardwick Jan Heylen		Porsche 911 GT3 R	69	4 Laps
16	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Stevan McAleer		Mercedes-AMG GT3	69	4 Laps
17	GTD	99	Rob Ferriol Katherine Legge		Porsche 911 GT3 R	69	4 Laps
18	GTD	51	Ryan Eversley Aidan Read		Acura NSX GT3	69	4 Laps
19	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff		McLaren 720S GT3	69	4 Laps
20	GTD PRO	79	Cooper MacNeil Raffaele Marciello		Mercedes-AMG GT3	69	4 Laps
21	GTD	34	Kyle Washington James Sofronas		Porsche 911 GT3 R	67	6 Laps
22	GTD	39	Robert Megennis Jeff Westphal		Lamborghini Huracan GT3	57	16 Laps
23	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Maxime Martin		Aston Martin Vantage GT3	48	25 Laps
24	GTD	59	Jon Miller Paul Holton		McLaren 720S GT3	47	26 Laps
25	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis		Mercedes-AMG GT3	33	40 Laps
26	GTD PRO	9	Matt Campbell Mathieu Jaminet		Porsche 911 GT3 R	29	44 Laps
View full results