On the undercard of the 50th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this week, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will have the primary position on Saturday. 27 teams will do battle on the 1.968-mile street course.
In the GTP class, there are 11 teams entered, down from 13 at Sebring. The teams that are not entered are Proton Competition and the Riley Motorsports-run Automobilii Lamborghini Squadra Corse, who are both only running the five Michelin Endurance Cup races.
Aside from the endurance drivers not being entered, there aren’t any driver changes in the top class. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy have the points lead after winning the first two races of the season.
The GTD class has 16 teams entered, down from 20 at Sebring. Teams that are not entered include Triarsi Competizione’s No. 023 Ferrari, van der Steur Racing No. 19 Aston Martin, AF Corse’s No. 21 Ferrari, Cetilar Racing’s No. 47 Ferrari, Lone Star Racing’s No. 80 Mercedes and the Iron Dames’ No. 83 Porsche. These are all Michelin Endurance Cup teams.
The event will mark the GTD debut of Robert Wickens with DXDT Racing alongside Corvette Racing regular Tommy Milner. It will be Wickens’ first race in a GT3 car and his first WeatherTech start since his 2018 crash at Pocono.
The race will mark the racing debut of a new hand control system that Wickens helped to develop with Bosch that was unveiled last September in Indianapolis. It is a much smaller system that does not require anchoring to the frame of the car. As a result, it is a far more modular system that could be used in any type of race car.
With this event only having the GTD class and not GTD Pro, there are a couple of one-off teams. AO Racing has entered “Rexy” using the No. 177 for Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar.
For Edgar, this will be his first GTD race, while Vanthoor is a veteran of GT3 racing despite spending most of his time racing prototypes these days.
Vasser Sullivan is also running two cars with a modified driver lineup. The No. 12 Lexus will have Jack Hawksworth and Parker Thompson like normal. The No. 89 (a rebadged No. 14) will have Frankie Montecalvo and Aaron Telitz. Montecalvo was originally scheduled to only run the Michelin Endurance Cup races this year.
This is unlike what the team did last year. Last year, they split up the full-season pairing of Montecalvo and Thompson for Long Beach by putting Thompson in the No. 89.
Gradient Racing will debut their new sprint race driving pairing of Jenson Altzman and Robert Megennis. Altzman will be making his WeatherTech debut.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Entry List
Coverage of the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will air live on USA Network starting at 5 p.m. ET Saturday. The race will go green at 5:05 p.m. ET.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.