Porsche’s Nasr, Tandy Claim Three in a Row at Long Beach

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy claimed their third consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory of the season, in another 1-2 finish for Porsche Penske Motorsport in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Nasr pedaled his No. 7 Porsche 963 to a 3.058-second win over the sister No. 7 Porsche of Matt Campbell in a 100-minute contest that went in the favor of Porsche after BMW M Team RLL locked out the front row in qualifying.

Dries Vanthoor led the 27-car GTP and GTD field away but lost time in the race’s one-and-only pit stop during a yellow for the No. 13 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Orey Fidani, who was nudged into the Turn 8 barriers with 1 hour and 20 minutes to go.

The No. 25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, who had been running second, stayed out for one additional lap along with the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, which dropped them down the order.

The pit sequence played into Porsche Penske’s benefit, even with the No. 6 entry of Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet taking rear tires in addition to a full energy load and driver change.

It marked the second straight Porsche 1-2 finish following the team’s sweep at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Philip Eng completed the podium in the pole-sitting No. 24 Team RLL BMW that was started by Vanthoor, while Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken came home fourth in the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.

The No. 25 BMW of Marco Wittmann and van der Linde rounded out the top-five.

The pair of Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs were sixth and seventh, led by the No. 10 car of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, while Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin Valkyrie scored a season-best eighth place result.

MSR’s Acuras were ninth and 11th, after the No. 93 entry of Renger van der Zande was forced into the pits on the green flag restart to replace the car’s rear deck that was damaged after possible contact with Jaminet early on.

It dropped the Acura one lap down.

The No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche finished 10th after Gianmaria Bruni and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Casper Stevenson came together in Turn 6, resulting in the race’s second yellow.

Bruni lost the rear wing as a result of the impact with the barriers, although it was replaced during a stop under yellow, prior to the final 36-minute shootout to the finish.

Porsche Doubles Up With GTD Win With Guest Entry

GTD class honors went to the guesting No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar.

Vanthoor jumped into the class lead following the single-round of pit stops from the class pole-sitting No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 of Parker Thompson, who along with Jack Hawksworth finished second.

The No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Aaron Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo completed the class podium.

Winward Racing and Turner Motorsport completed the top-five in their Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and BMW M4 GT3 EVOs, respectively.

The No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette of Tommy Milner, which featured the GTD debuting Robert Wickens, was forced to come into the pits with less than 20 minutes to go after getting a black-and-orange flag to repair a loose rear deck after getting hit by the No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG of Kenton Koch.

Milner muscled his way up to fourth in class at the time.

RESULTS: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach