IMSA: Acura front row at Long Beach

It's an all-Acura front row for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, as Filipe Albuquerque and Tom Blomqvist qualified 1-2 for Saturday's third round in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the Southern California street circuit.

Albuquerque took his #10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to the pole with a time of 1:09.909 around the 1.968-mile temporary circuit, edging fellow Acura driver Tom Blomqvist by just over three-tenths of a second in his #60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06; and a full second clear of the rest of the GTP starting field.

📷 © Acura. #10: Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Filipe Albuquerque

Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06) Pole qualifier: "It was a tough qualifying, the grip just wasn't there at the start of the session. That made it quite hard – harder than Daytona or Sebring, to be honest.  So, it was about being patient and waiting for conditions to be better.  We knew we had a good car, better than our competitors.  Both our car and the #60 were fast, so it's a great day for Acura and our partners at HPD."

📷 © Acura. #60: Meyer Shank Racing W/Curb-Agajanian, Acura ARX-06, GTP: Colin Braun, Tom Blomqvist

Tom Blomqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06): Qualified second: "We didn't judge quite right for the track conditions, maybe looking a bit too much at the data from last year, and that didn't really work on this car. The balance went away from us in the cool conditions and we struggled out there. P2 is a good result for Acura, especially at Acura's home event. We've struggled here in the past, so hats off to everyone at HPD and MSR - they've done a great job. Our race pace is strong, we just need to stay out of trouble and see what that brings us."

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

Bourdais, who last April set the track qualifying record of 1 minute, 9.472 seconds (101.980 mph) in earning the pole, covered the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in 1:10.981 in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R to grab the third starting spot.

Long Beach is the first outing for the hybrid Grand Touring Prototype cars, which are heavier and have less downforce than their DPi predecessors, on the street course.

In 2022, Bourdais and van der Zande took the checkered flag after 73 laps to lead a Cadillac sweep of the podium.

Bourdais: “It was a trying day for us. I think the cool temperatures hurt us quite badly. The Cadillac has been very good so far, though, taking care of conditions like this on a street course. I'm pretty happy with the qualifying results, all things considered, and I know we can go racing from there."

Source: Cadillac Racing

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

The No. 6 Porsche 963 tackles round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship from the grid position six. During the qualifying for the Long Beach Grand Prix in California, works driver Nick Tandy from the UK turned his fastest lap in 1:11.406 minutes.

In sunny conditions and cool temperatures of around 17 degrees Celsius, the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team struggled to get the tyres of both LMDh prototypes within the ideal operating window. This had already become evident in the morning’s practice session and again at noon. Despite a mammoth effort from the qualifying drivers Tandy and Nasr, the gap to the fastest vehicles in the GTP class was significant. Given the lack of overtaking opportunities on the narrow US street circuit, the grid positions play a major role.

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): “Over a flying lap, we’re too far off the competition. It’s always tricky when a team arrives at such a special track with a completely new car. Our Porsche 963 feels really good and it’s great fun racing through the streets of Long Beach. But the others are simply faster. Qualifying and racing are two different things. I’m sure the team will find some solutions by Saturday. I believe we’ll be closer over the distance.”
“We’re disappointed – no question about it,” says Thomas Laudenbach, clearly stating his impressions of the qualifying. The Vice President of Porsche Motorsport continues: “We started the race weekend with high hopes. However, we already noticed in the practice sessions that it was very difficult to get the Michelin tyres up to temperature, especially the front tyres. Hopefully, our engineers manage to significantly improve the setup for race day. The Sebring class winners Pfaff Motorsports tackle the GTD-Pro class from position three. That’s a great place to start to give the Porsche 911 GT3 R the best chances in the race.”
“Obviously, that’s not the result we’d hoped for,” concludes Jonathan Diuguid. The Managing Director of Porsche Penske Motorsport adds: “We’ve been off the pace since the first free practice. We’ll continue to work tirelessly and systematically on possible improvements. Let’s see what race day brings. One thing is clear: we’re too far from the top and we need to find out exactly why.”

Source: Porsche

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

Alexander Sims qualified seventh in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R with a best lap of 1:11.410. Felipe Albuquerque claimed the pole in the No. 10 Acura with a lap of 1:09.909.

Sims: “Seventh is not great, but I'm relatively comfortable with the time gaps around me. There was more lap time in me fine-tuning things. Fifth definitely was in the cards if maybe I just had a few more laps. We opted to do what we did with tires, which should help us tomorrow to put a few extra laps on them so they come in nice and quick for Pipo. I was happy with how the car felt. It was nice to do a low-fuel run. We have work to do tomorrow to make some opportunities happen probably in traffic. Hopefully give it to Pipo and he can make some magic happen out there. Keep it smart, stay in the race and see where it goes."

Source: Cadillac Racing

📷 © Porsche. Nasr and Campbell in Porsche 963 #7 at Long Beach.

Felipe Nasr with Porsche 963 #7 claimed P8 in the 20-minute qualifying session.
Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “The qualifying was difficult for us. We simply couldn’t build up sufficient speed. We managed to make some progress during the practice sessions but there’s still a long way to go to catch up to the frontrunners. We know where there’s still room to improve. I hope the engineers come up with a good solution for this. In tomorrow’s race, we are determined to fight our way forward as far as possible. I hope we can achieve a top 3 result.”