Practice report

IMSA Long Beach

IMSA Long Beach: Acuras blitz their GTP rivals in FP2

Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist lapped the 1.968-mile Grand Prix of Long Beach course over three-tenths clear of fellow Acura driver Filipe Albuquerque, and 1.3 seconds clear of the nearest non-Acura.

David Malsher-Lopez

Edited: Apr 15, 2023, 1:16 AM

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#60 Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun

GTP

The #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Augusto Farfus visited the Turn 1 run-off 12m into the session, while 20mins later its sister car did the same. Meanwhile Turn 6 proved a trouble spot for the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06. But it was Renger van der Zande in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R who brought out the first red flag after skidding into the Turn 9 runoff.

Minutes after the session resumed, it was Alexander Sims who slid long at Turn 9, but he was able to get the Action Express Racing Caddy back on track without outside aid. With half an hour left to run, the Acuras of MSR and Wayne Taylor Racing were well clear of the field, this time with MSR ahead with a time of 1min11.036sec and separated from each other by 0.239s.

Then Nick Yelloly jumped the #25 into third, ahead of BMW teammate Philipp Eng, and 0.657s off the top, while Bourdais ventured into a runoff but got the Ganassi Caddy turned around to resume without causing a red.

With just under 20m remaining, Filipe Albuquerque broke into the 1m10s, with a 1:10.859s, and very nearly replicated it on his next lap, to move the WTR to the top by 0.177s.

In the final 10 minutes, Sims slotted the AXR Cadillac between the two BMWs to claim fourth, while Felipe Nasr’s #7 Porsche moved into sixth – soon to be displaced by teammate Mathieu Jaminet.

But the big news was at the top of the class, as Tom Blomqvist delivered a 1m10.391s to claim top spot by 0.323s, despite Albuquerque improving his time. That left him an astonishing 1.3s ahead of the fastest non-Acura, the #25 BMW which Connor De Phillippi slid into the Turn 9 runoff in the final five minutes.

GTD Pro / GTD

The Acura NSX of Racers Edge Motorsports led GTD and indeed the entire 20-car GT field until with 12m remaining, Jack Hawksworth vaulted his GTD Pro Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F to the top with a 1m18.341s. He then sliced almost half a second off that time to lead his nearest rival, Patrick Pilet in the Pfaff Porsche 911 GT3 R by 0.441sec a gap which Pilet shaved down to 0.424s.

A late flyer from Antonio Garcia ensured the Corvette Racing C8.R ended the session in third place, 0.553s off the top and less than a tenth ahead of, with Ross Gunn in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

Racers Edge remained top of GTD, followed by Seb Priaulx in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, Marco Sorensen in the pro-am HoR Aston and the #12 Vasser Sullivan Leuxs. Frederik Schandorff was fifth in class in the Inception Racing McLaren 720S, ahead of fifth fastest in GTD Pro, Daniel Juncadella’s WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3.

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Laps Time Gap 1 60 United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Colin Braun GTP Acura ARX-06 52 1'10.391 2 10 Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque GTP Acura ARX-06 47 1'10.714 0.323 3 25 Connor de Phillippi
Nick Yelloly GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 46 1'11.693 1.302 4 31 Brazil Pipo Derani
Alexander Sims GTP Cadillac V-Series.R 51 1'11.816 1.425 5 24 Austria Philipp Eng
Brazil Augusto Farfus GTP BMW M Hybrid V8 45 1'12.009 1.618 6 6 United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Mathieu Jaminet GTP Porsche 963 45 1'12.167 1.776 7 7 Australia Matt Campbell
Brazil Felipe Nasr GTP Porsche 963 44 1'12.185 1.794 8 1 France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande GTP Cadillac V-Series.R 35 1'12.271 1.880 9 14 Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat GTD PRO Lexus RC F GT3 47 1'17.876 7.485 10 9 Austria Klaus Bachler
France Patrick Pilet GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 41 1'18.300 7.909 11 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor GTD PRO Corvette C8.R GTD 51 1'18.429 8.038 12 23 Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas GTD PRO Aston Martin Vantage GT3 46 1'18.511 8.120 13 93 Ashton Harrison
Germany Mario Farnbacher GTD Acura NSX GT3 50 1'18.516 8.125 14 80 PJ Hyett
Seb Priaulx GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 51 1'18.572 8.181 15 27 Canada Roman De Angelis
Denmark Marco Sorensen GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 55 1'18.580 8.189 16 12 United States Frankie Montecalvo
Aaron Telitz GTD Lexus RC F GT3 50 1'18.641 8.250 17 70 Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff GTD McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 54 1'18.689 8.298 18 79 Spain Daniel Juncadella
France Jules Gounon GTD PRO Mercedes AMG GT3 61 1'18.689 8.298 19 96 Patrick Gallagher
United States Robby Foley GTD BMW M4 GT3 52 1'18.755 8.364 20 78 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
Italy Loris Spinelli GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 55 1'18.822 8.431 21 1 Bryan Sellers
Madison Snow GTD BMW M4 GT3 52 1'18.858 8.467 22 97 Bill Auberlen
Chandler Hull GTD BMW M4 GT3 51 1'18.865 8.474 23 32 United States Mike Skeen
Canada Mikael Grenier GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 51 1'19.039 8.648 24 91 Alan Metni
Netherlands Kay van Berlo GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 48 1'19.067 8.676 25 57 Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis GTD Mercedes AMG GT3 47 1'19.128 8.737 26 66 Sheena Monk
United Kingdom Katherine Legge GTD Acura NSX GT3 53 1'19.169 8.778 27 77 United States Alan Brynjolfsson
Trent Hindman GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 51 1'19.277 8.886 28 92 Alec Udell
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 42 1'19.526 9.135 View full results

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