After competing in the two longest races of the year in Florida at Daytona and Sebring, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) headed to the opposite side of the country for the shortest race of the year on the streets of Long Beach, California. BMW M Team RLL had a great start but came up short for the win, finishing third in the GTP class behind a pair of Porsches.
Dries Vanthoor has been the king of qualifying in the GTP class this year. He was on the pole at both Daytona and Sebring and put the #24 M Hybrid V8 on the pole at Long Beach, despite being completely new to this circuit. “Big thanks to the team and BMW for giving us a great car to start the weekend here,” he said after qualifying. “It’s the third time, but now I think it’s finally time to also finish it off. We didn’t capitalize yet and bring a victory home.” Sheldon van der Linde, who was also a rookie at Long Beach, qualified second in the #25 M Hybrid V8.
Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde battled back to a fifth place in GTP.
At the start of the race, Vanthoor built a gap between him and the rest of the GTP field, as van der Linde held onto second. The BMWs can now match anyone in the GTP field for pure speed, but BMW M Team RLL hasn’t been able to match the efficiency of the Porsche Penske Motorsport team in the pits. The duo of Porsche 963s that were running in third and fourth before the first pit stops ended up in first and second after pit stops, as the BMWs ended up in third (#24) and tenth (#25) after pitting.
BMW fans check out the M Hybrid V8.
Philipp Eng did his best to catch the Porsches in the #24 car but had to settle for a third-place podium finish for him and Vanthoor behind the #7 and #6 Porsches. Porsche has now won three races in a row in the GTP class. Marco Wittmann fought back in the #25 BMW to finish fifth. “Starting from the first and second positions, this is obviously not the result we had hoped for,” said Eng. “Unfortunately, we had a small issue during the pit stop, which caused us to fall behind the two Porsches. If we had stayed ahead, I think we could have kept them behind us. It’s still a podium, but it’s a pity because more was possible. Nevertheless, we are on the right track, and we will come back stronger in Laguna Seca.”
Dries Vanthoor (far right) and Philipp Eng (second from right) celebrate third place with a bunch of Porsche drivers.
The GTD class also raced at Long Beach, and that class was also won by Porsche, in this case the #177 AO Racing Porsche driven by Jonny Edgar and Laurens Vanthoor (Dries’ brother). That car usually competes in the GTD Pro class (that didn’t race at Long Beach), but the team brought it in for a one-off GTD race. The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher had a solid race to finish in fifth after Gallagher qualified the car in the same position. “Finishing P5 for another top five finish is great for the championship, but it wasn’t what we were aiming for after finishing on podium here last year,” said Foley. “Given how wild the race was with some contact, and just not quite having the pace to fight with the leaders, we’ll take it and move on to Laguna.”
Turner Motorsport finished a solid fifth in the GTD class.
The IWSC will come back to California for the next race on the weekend of May 9th-11th, this time in northern California at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The Michelin Pilot Challenge series will also be back with the IWSC for that weekend.
—David Haueter
[Photos by Kyle van Hoften]
