Roger Penske earned his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series victory since partnering with Porsche, capturing the overall win in the results of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Mathieu Jaminet took the checkered flag in the No. 6 Porsche 963 under caution for Porsche Penske Motorsport when Ricky Taylor of Wayne Taylor Racing crashed trying to make a pass for the lead.
The win for Jaminet and Nick Tandy was the first since Penske launched the LMDh hybrid prototype program in IMSA’s rebranded premier Grand Touring Prototype class.
Taylor’s crash pushed Connor De Philippi and Nick Yelloly of BMW into second for the second consecutive race with Penske’s No. 7 in third with Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr.
Jaminet and Tandy delivered the first victory for the Porsche 963 by completing the entire 100-minute race on a single set of Michelin tires.
In a statement, team owner Roger Penske (who was attending Sunday’s World Endurance Championship race in Portugal with the Porsche Penske Motorsport WEC team) said:
“Congratulations to everyone at Penske Porsche Motorsport and what a great performance by both the Nos. 6 and No. 7 teams at Long Beach. Everyone has been working so hard to build this program across both our IMSA and WEC teams and earning our first win together is a credit to the hard work and dedication of everyone at Porsche and Team Penske.
“Here in Portugal, we were cheering for Nick, Mathieu, Matt, Felipe and everyone on the team and to produce not only the win, but two podium finishes on a tough street circuit like Long Beach is fantastic. We hope to build on today’s performance with a strong result Sunday at Portimao.”
A spin by Sebastien Bourdais at the start knocked the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac out of the race. He collected the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Tom Blomqvist, who dropped a lap off the pace. Bourdais’ car, which sustained nose damage, was stranded in the Turn 1 runoff and brought out the race’s first yellow.
In the GTD Pro class, Vasser Sullivan scored a commanding win with Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat.
Barnicoat drove the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 to the win over the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD of Jordan Taylor.
Hawksworth started from class pole and never gave up the lead. Barnicoat only extended the lead following the driver change. It was the duo’s first GTD Pro class win since last year’s season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans.
In GTD, Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow won for Paul Miller Racing in a BMW M4 GT3. It was the duo’s third consecutive win on the downtown streets of Long Beach.
