A race full of twists and turns

Porsche Penske Motorsport celebrates its first victory with the Porsche 963 hybrid prototype scoring a double podium at round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The #6 car driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet came out on top in the 100-minute sprint through the streets of Long Beach, and their team colleagues Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr took the flag in third place with the #7 car.

📷 © Porsche. #6 Porsche 963 driven by Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet.

The two Porsche 963 fielded by Porsche Penske Motorsport, starting the race from positions six and eight, benefitted from a collision among the leading pack in the first lap and inherited second and fifth place.
The first stint drivers, Nick Tandy from the UK and Brazilian Felipe Nasr, fended off fierce attacks from their rivals and brought the two Porsche 963 into the pits midway through the race for a scheduled service and driver change. There, the new Porsche Penske Motorsport works team opted for a daring strategy: unlike the rest of the competition, instead of changing the wheels on both vehicles, the squad put its trust in the excellent durability of the Michelin tyres. The time gained in the pits propelled the two “Made in Flacht” hybrid prototypes to the front of the field that had been dominated by Filipe Albuquerque in the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06

📷 © Wayne Taylor Racing. #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 with Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque.

Ricky Taylor, with the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, hustled around the tight corners of the Long Beach streets and worked his way up into second position during the last 15 minutes of the race. As the checkered flag was nearing, Taylor went for the lead on the front stretch into Turn 1, before unfortunately making contact with the wall - ending the team’s day with just under two minutes before the clock expired. The #10 Acura was classified 7th.

📷 © Porsche. #7 Porsche 963 driven by Filipe Nasr and Matt Campbell.

While Mathieu Jaminet confidently turned his laps, his brand colleague Matt Campbell had his hands full in the final phase. The #7 car came under repeated attacks, which the Australian cleverly and resolutely countered or fended off. A minor collision, however, caused slight damage to the rear. Moreover, the tyres deteriorated rapidly over the last ten laps. With nine minutes left on the clock, Campbell lost two positions initially but reclaimed third place after an accident involving the #10 Acura in a battle with the leading Jaminet. Ultimately, the race ended behind the safety car.

📷 © Porsche. Tandy and Jaminet in Porsche 963 #6 at Long Beach.

“This day will go down in the history of our team. The first victory with the Porsche 963 is incredibly important to us,” says Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. “We put in so much energy and work to be able to celebrate such a success. Our strategy was certainly risky, but it paid off. We owe this triumph to every single person in the team. What Matt Campbell did in the battle for second place at the end was awesome. He had the sister car’s back in the important final phase. I’m enormously proud of the entire team!”
Thanks to this victory in Long Beach, Tandy and Jaminet have taken the lead in the drivers’ championship. In the GTP-class manufacturer’s classification, Porsche ranks third.

Source: Porsche

Starting seventh on the sole street circuit on the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar, the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R group decided an alternate strategy was in order to challenge for its second consecutive victory.

Sims brought the hybrid prototype into the pits on Lap 6 and gave way to Derani, who systematically moved up and ran second on Lap 38. Derani returned the #31 Cadillac to the pits for service on Lap 52 of the 78-lap total, but the strategy didn’t play out to challenge for the lead as the top four cars made one stop in the race. Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims co-drove to a fifth-place finish in the third round of the Grand Touring Prototype season.

“We have to make a lot of decisions and one of them was we were toward the back of the pack anyway and passing is so difficult on the track. So, our best shot was to get the driver change done as quick as possible and then any time before the halfway point -- when everybody else started pitting – with a yellow flag all of sudden we’re going to have a quicker pit stop than them because they still have to do their driver change,” team manager Gary Nelson said.

“It was the right move early and with a yellow we’re in contention to win. Without a yellow, we have to try to pass people and passing is a higher risk of not finishing than the risk of pitting early.”

Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, who won the 2022 Long Beach race to lead a Cadillac sweep of the podium, were unable to mount a challenge as a first-lap incident forced retirement of the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R. It was classified eighth in the GTP class.

Bourdais, who qualified third with a lap of 1 minute, 10.981 seconds on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit, lost grip making a charge for the lead entering Turn 1 and spun, with the nose of the hybrid prototype making contact with the unforgiving concrete barrier.

Cadillac Racing had won the past five races at Long Beach dating to the start of the DPi era.

Source: Cadillac Racing

Drivers’ comments after the race

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): “What a terrific feeling! We’re all very relieved. When the Acura appeared in my rear-view mirror towards the end, I knew he was going to attack – after all, I was on the back foot with significantly older tyres. He tried to outbrake me in the first corner. I immediately realised he wasn’t going to make the corner and took evasive action while he landed in the tyre barriers. That was some real nail-biting stuff at the end of the race. Now, we’re celebrating the Porsche 963’s first victory!”

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): “It was clear to us before the start that we couldn't win the race based on our pace. We didn’t have the fastest car. So, we thought through all possible strategies before race day and agreed not to change the tyres. That’s the beauty of sprint races in the IMSA series: there are always many conceivable scenarios and sometimes a gamble pays off. We didn’t know whether the tyres would last the distance, but it worked out. We also owe our victory to our colleague Matt Campbell, who put in a terrific performance in the battle for second place. That was a super strong effort from him! The first victory for the Porsche 963 feels fantastic. It’s a well-deserved reward for everyone around the world who put an incredible amount of work into this project.”

Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 #7): “I’m delighted for my colleagues in the number 6 car. Victory at last for the Porsche 963. That’s just so cool. I gave absolutely everything in the battle for second place, but in the end, I couldn’t quite fend off the competition due to our deteriorating tyres. At least we got over the line in third place. It was a great day.”

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “A super victory for the team, the first success with the Porsche 963 – we couldn’t have dreamed of a better result. We had to start from quite far back and catapulted ourselves to the front of the grid with a perfect strategy. Of course, we also benefitted from the incidents involving the other cars. But still, we were flawless and squeezed the most out of today.”

Source: Porsche

📷 © Cadillac Racing. #31 Whelen Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with Sims and Derani.

Pipo Derani (#31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R): "It was one of those races where you start from the back and then you have to try something different, and we did. It was a nice fight up until a certain point of the race. I could fight, overtook a few cars while we were close to the leading cars. We knew we were on a different strategy, and we were counting on another yellow toward the end of the race, which didn’t happen. Nevertheless, we showed that we were on par in terms of pace during the race and I think we managed to improve throughout the weekend, which is very positive. It’s a long championship and I think considering how the race evolved, it’s a good points day. We wanted we wanted to be further ahead, we showed that our Cadillac V-Series.R has a lot of promise and we have a lot to look forward to.”

Alexander Sims (#31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R): "Starting seventh doesn’t do you any favors in a sprint race on a street circuit where it’s difficult to pass, so the strategy was to pit early and give Pipo tires that had a few laps on them so they would come in quick. We were looking for the yellow that never came. We showed good pace throughout the race and Pipo did a great job. It’s still learning for us and the other teams about this car, so we’ll take the improvements and data and move on to Laguna Seca.”

Ricky Taylor (#10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06): “I’m very sorry for Acura, HPD and the WTRAndretti team. We had a lot to learn from the past five years with the Acura ARX-05. This was always our track where we had the most performance deficit to the field and it just says so much about Acura, HPD, Oreca and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport to turn our weakest track into our strongest track. At the end of the day when you have the strongest car you want to repay those people and win the race. Unfortunately, we got behind with a little issue mid race and we had such a strong car while fighting back. It came down so close in the end, if we had more time maybe I would have been more patient, but we just wanted to win this for Acura. Everyone at Acura, HPD and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport deserved to win this today and it’s just disappointing, but I’m just so proud to drive an Acura and be part of this team.”

Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06): “What a crazy day today. There is so much to say. You could write a drama book about this race today. We started well today, although it was chaotic for the No. 60 and I could see a sideways car that was about to take me out in Turn 1. Okay— we avoid that, then the car is fine, and we pull a gap, but lost everything just before pitting in on traffic. We had some setbacks in the pit stop and, on the track, but Ricky recovered that as he was flying on the track and chasing everybody - overtaking everybody at the hardest track of the year. He made us believe that the win was still possible out of a crazy race. For him, it was all or nothing and things happen when we push hard for the win. He locked up and crashed, but I can believe him because when you’re pushing for the win that happens.”

Source: Wayne Taylor Racing

📷 © Cadillac Racing. #01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with Bourdais and van der Zande.

Sebastien Bourdais (#01 Cadillac V-Series.R): “Weird situation for sure there. We got squeezed against the wall at the start and put marbles on the tires. We're not exactly sure what happened and why the rears locked up. I feel bad for the team, but we'll learn what we can from this one and move on to what's next in the WEC, as well as Laguna."

Renger van der Zande (#01 Cadillac V-Series.R): « It’s unfortunate because we came into this race expecting to defend our win from last year. We have to see what actually happened. Obviously, it’s been very tough to get tire temps in the car and I think that for sure is causing a lot of issues in the warm-up laps. It’s bad for the points in the championship and I feel sorry for the whole team because this is not what we race for.”

Source: Cadillac Racing