GTD Additions See Long Beach Entry Boosted to 26 Cars
Next Saturday’s 100 minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will mark the first visit for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship to Long Beach in nearly two and a half years. The 2020 race was cancelled and this year’s event was postponed from its traditional April date due to the ongoing pandemic with the DPI, GTLM and GTD classes all represented.
The DPis and GTLMs raced back in 2019 but 2021’s encounter will see not only the last street race to feature contemporary GTLM/ GTE machinery in unfettered form, but also the return of the GTDs to the streets of Long Beach, and with a boosted grid·
GTD boasts a 17 car entry with three additions to the regular IMSA entries – plus the second race for the second, #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin after the squad’s debut at Laguna Seca, and a return to action from GRT’s #19 Lamborghini.
Scuderia Corsa’s Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo returns to IMSA action for the first time since the Rolex 24 in January, full season IMSA LMP3 driver Colin Braun will add a GTD start to his season alongside Italian GT Endurance Championship regular, and 2020 Championship runner up, Daniel Mancinelli
GMG Racing, stalwarts of the SRO GT package, return to IMSA’s top series for the first time since the 2014 season when they ran an Audi at Daytona and Sebring. The Long Beach effort sees team owner James Sofronas listed with a team-mate yet to be named in a Porsche 911 GT3R.
And there’s a currently one-off entry from O’Gara Motorsport/USRT with a Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo for Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America regulars Steven Aghakhani and Jacob Eidson, the latter making his second ever IMSA WeatherTech Championship race entry after a run in the PPM Lamborghini at Watkins Glen in 2019.
It will be the first Championship start for both Scuderia Corsa’s Mancelli and O’Gara’s Aghakhani
As the penultimate IMSA race of the season for the DPIs (The GT classes race at VIR next month before the season finale at Road Atlanta), the points on offer in California could be critical.
The #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 with drivers Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque have a 98-point lead on the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani.
In GTD the #96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6 GT3 with Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley are just 27 points ahead of No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R drivers Zacharie Robichon and Laurens Vanthoor with Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn of the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 squad 52 points from the lead, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow in the #1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 a further 34 points back, 86 points from the top spot with three GTD races to go. De Angelis and Gunn have more breathing room in the IMSA WeatherTech Sprint Cup contest of non-endurance races, with a 168-point edge on Auberlen and Foley.
The 2021 WeatherTech Championship points structure has changed this season, with each race finishing position earning 10 times the points it received a year ago. Where a class winner took home 35 points in 2020, the reward is now 350 points. Second place in a race now earns 320 points, third place nets 300 and downward from there. In addition, points are now distributed in qualifying, with 35 going to the pole winners in DPi and GTLM, as well as to the fastest car in the second GTD qualifying session (see below). Points descend from second downward through the qualifying results.
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