IMSA Long Beach: Porsche 963 takes first win as Taylor crashes

The #6 Penske Porsche started sixth but ran the whole race on one set of tyres to save time in pitstops and avoid the slow tyre warm-up process, which proved a winning strategy in a wild 100-minute race around the 1.968-mile Californian street course.

The pole-winning Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 was expected to dominate and Filipe Albuquerque duly led the opening laps, but an issue at the pitstop cost 12s and prompted a charge back to the front from Taylor that was highlighted by an amazing duel with the #7 Porsche and #25 BMW. Having dispensed with them, Taylor caught race leader Jaminet only to crash out trying to pass him at Turn 1 with just two laps to go.

At the start, Sebastien Bourdais (Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R) snapped sideways on cold tyres approaching Turn 1 and hit the inside wall before spinning into the run-off. Behind him, the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly was unable to avoid tagging Tom Blomqvist's Meyer Shank Acura into a spin.

In the chaos, the opportunistic Tandy was “in the right place at the right time” and leapt up to second, ahead of BMWs of Yelloly and Augusto Farfus, Felipe Nasr’s #7 Porsche and Alexander Sims (Action Express Cadillac). Significantly, the #60 Meyer Shank car fell off the lead lap as Blomqvist struggled to restart the car after its spin. Bourdais couldn’t restart at all, as the impact had registered a safety protocol in the complex electronics and refused to fire up the engine.

After this false start, the race properly got going with 90 minutes left on the clock, with Albuquerque leading Tandy, Yelloly and Farfus. Sims pitted the Action Express car to switch over to Pipo Derani in a bold, but ultimately doomed, strategy play.

With the tyres taking over 10 laps for the GTP cars to get up to a good operating temperature, Albuquerque took time before he put the hammer down and pulled away out front. At one-third distance, he led by 4s but soon saw his lead evaporate as the obstinate Derani was determined to stay on the lead lap.

Bourdais crashed into Turn 1 at the start

Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

Tandy inherited the lead when Albuquerque came in to hand over to Taylor, who took an age to rejoin as his car became stuck in neutral. When he did, he was then hit by the Pfaff Porsche as he struggled to warm-up his tires.

Tandy pitted in response but Porsche opted not to change tyres, and Jaminet rejoined 13s in front after the WTR Acura’s delay.  The BMWs were last to pit, and after the pitstop cycle played out, there was a Porsche 1-2 with Jaminet’s #6 car leading Matt Campbell in the #7.

Derani spoiled the Porsche party by grabbing second from Campbell at Turn 5 and chased down Jaminet for the lead, but Jaminet held firm and Derani dropped back to sixth when he stopped again with 30 minutes to go.

Conor De Phillippi, who relayed Yelloly, attacked Campbell for second at Turn 5 with 22 minutes to go, but overshot and was forced to spin-turn the car. That handed third to Taylor, who wasted no time in pressuring Campbell at Turn 5.

Nose-to-tail contact sent a chunk of the Porsche’s bodywork flying and allowed De Phillippi to close, before Taylor passed Campbell by cutting the apex curb at Turn 9, and De Phillippi followed through.

Jaminet had 8s in hand with eight minutes remaining, but his older tyres meant he was no match for Taylor who caught up with three minutes on the clock.

Two laps from the finish, Taylor lunged to Jaminet's inside at Turn 1 only to sail into the tyres. That gifted Jaminet the win under yellows, ahead of De Phillippi and Campbell.

#14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3: Jack Hawksworth, Ben Barnicoat

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Motorsport Images

Lexus wins GTD class

With no LMP2 or LMP3 cars in action, GTD was the sole secondary class at Long Beach.

Jack Hawksworth grabbed the lead at the start in his Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F, taking an early advantage over impressive pole-winner Marco Sorensen in the non-Pro #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Patrick Pilet ran third in the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, ahead of Ross Gunn's Pro Heart of Racing Aston and Antonio Garcia’s factory-run Corvette C8.R.

Sorensen was the first to pit after 35 minutes, to hand over to Roman De Angelis, but he got stuck in traffic and dropped behind the #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Madison Snow/Bryan Sellers.

Hawksworth relayed to Ben Barnicoat, and he rejoined with a 7s lead over Klaus Bachler in the Pfaff Porsche, and Jordan Taylor's Corvette. Taylor barged past Bachler for second at Turn 5 with 40 minutes remaining.

Sellers led the non-pro GTD class, but De Angelis was a constant shadow as they finished in the same order.

IMSA Long Beach race results (78 laps)

Cla	Class	Num	Driver	Chassis	Time
1	GTP	6	Nick Tandy Mathieu Jaminet	Porsche 963
2	GTP	25	Connor de Phillippi Nick Yelloly	BMW M Hybrid V8	0.903
3	GTP	7	Matt Campbell Felipe Nasr	Porsche 963	2.904
4	GTP	24	Philipp Eng Augusto Farfus	BMW M Hybrid V8	3.692
5	GTP	31	Pipo Derani Alexander Sims	Cadillac V-Series.R	56.151
6	GTP	60	Tom Blomqvist Colin Braun	Acura ARX-06	1 lap
7	GTP	10	Ricky Taylor Filipe Albuquerque	Acura ARX-06	2 laps
8	GTD PRO	14	Jack Hawksworth Ben Barnicoat	Lexus RC F GT3	5 laps
9	GTD PRO	3	Antonio Garcia Jordan Taylor	Corvette C8.R GTD	5 laps
10	GTD PRO	9	Klaus Bachler Patrick Pilet	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	5 laps
11	GTD	1	Bryan Sellers Madison Snow	BMW M4 GT3	5 laps
12	GTD	27	Roman De Angelis Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	5 laps
13	GTD PRO	23	Ross Gunn Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage GT3	5 laps
14	GTD	12	Frankie Montecalvo Aaron Telitz	Lexus RC F GT3	5 laps
15	GTD	32	Mike Skeen Mikael Grenier	Mercedes AMG GT3	6 laps
16	GTD	57	Russell Ward Philip Ellis	Mercedes AMG GT3	6 laps
17	GTD	70	Brendan Iribe Frederik Schandorff	McLaren 720S GT3 EVO	6 laps
18	GTD	78	Mikhail Goikhberg Loris Spinelli	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2	6 laps
19	GTD	96	Patrick Gallagher Robby Foley	BMW M4 GT3	6 laps
20	GTD	66	Sheena Monk Katherine Legge	Acura NSX GT3	6 laps
21	GTD	77	Alan Brynjolfsson Trent Hindman	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	6 laps
22	GTD PRO	79	Daniel Juncadella Jules Gounon	Mercedes AMG GT3	6 laps
23	GTD	97	Bill Auberlen Chandler Hull	BMW M4 GT3	6 laps
24	GTD	91	Alan Metni Kay van Berlo	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	7 laps
25	GTD	92	Alec Udell Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)	7 laps
26	GTP	01	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande	Cadillac V-Series.R
27	GTD	80	PJ Hyett Seb Priaulx	Porsche 911 GT3 R (992)
28	GTD	93	Ashton Harrison Mario Farnbacher	Acura NSX GT3
View full results