It doesn’t seem to matter where you put Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy these days. Endurance race or sprint race. Roval, permanent road course or street course. They’re going to be a tough out.
Saturday (April 12) was no different as Nasr was able to get the lead following a round of pit stops. From there, he was able to hold on to win the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with Tandy. It is the duo’s third straight win to start the 2025 season.
“[Domination] feels incredible,” Nasr said to NBC Sports’ Dave Burns in victory lane. “Another amazing weekend. It’s hard to put words [to it]. We’re there every weekend, working hard and it’s paying off. Another one-two finish for the team. It’s an incredible day for Porsche Penske Motorsport.”
Nasr and Tandy’s margin of victory was 3.058 seconds over teammates Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet. BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor were third, then Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber. The No. 25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann were fifth.
Dries Vanthoor started from pole in his BMW M Hybrid V8, his third straight pole to start the 2025 season. Once the green came out, Vanthoor was able to open up a small lead over van der Linde.
At Long Beach, the confines are tight and it doesn’t take long for the overall leaders to catch the GTD cars and begin lapping. That occurred 10 minutes into the race. The first time through the GT cars saw both Vanthoor and van der Linde have close calls with slower traffic.
Further back, contact between Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Nick Yelloly and Jaminet while racing for fourth resulted in the cheese wedge bodywork behind Yelloly’s left rear wheel coming loose. That ultimately resulted in a mechanical black flag that forced an unscheduled stop to fix the damage later on that took the team out of the hunt.
The first caution of the race came out 20 minutes in when contact was made between Forte Racing’s Misha Goikhberg and Andrew Wojteczko Autosport’s Orey Fidani in turn 8. That resulted in Fidani sliding into the tires. Fidani was able to pull out of the tires and continue with assistance, but lost a lap in the process. Goikhberg was given a drive-through penalty for the contact.
The caution caused a split in pit strategy. Dries Vanthoor pitted from the overall lead for service. Most of the rest of the GTP drivers came in as well. However, van der Linde chose to stay out and assume the overall lead briefly.
A couple of laps later, van der Linde and Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Tom Blomqvist pitted a couple of laps later for full service. That allowed the teams to do their work in a less crowded pit lane and have a small energy advantage.
After the stops, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr ended up in the overall lead with Campbell giving chase. The Penske duo ran nose-to-tail ahead of Eng in the No. 24 BMW.
A second caution came out just after halfway when JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Gianmaria Bruni spun in turn 7 and hit the tires after contact from The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson. The spin itself didn’t cause the yellow. Instead, the rear wing off of Bruni’s Porsche 963 came off as Bruni resumed, resulting in a debris caution.
Once the race restarted, Nasr was able to open a decent gap over Campbell. While Campbell was able to keep pace with his teammate, both of the Penske Porsche 963s were able to open a large gap on the rest of the GTP class.
In the final 20 minutes, Campbell began to drop off of Nasr. From that point, Nasr was able to cruise to victory.
In GTD, Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson started from pole in his Lexus. Much like Vanthoor, he was able to get a gap over the Aston Martin of Tom Gamble in the opening laps.
Unlike the GTP cars, GTD teams can run the race on one stop. As a result, only a couple of teams towards the back made stops during the first caution.
There was also a minimum drive-time of 35 minutes (down from the usual 45) in play. That time was reached a few laps after the restart from the caution.
As soon as the teams could reach the field, everyone marched into the pits for full service. For some teams, the service was easier than others. For DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens, a driver change requires him to be hoisted out of his Corvette and carried back to the pit wall. A minimal amount of time was lost doing this.
Teamwork makes the the dream work! Robert Wickens first pit stop during a race with the DXDT Racing Corvette
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In the round of stops, AO Racing’s Laurens Vanthoor was able to get out of the pits first, moving up from third when teammate Jonny Edgar stopped. However, Laurens had both of the Vasser Sullivan Lexuses giving chase.
Jack Hawksworth ended up a couple of seconds behind Laurens, but was quicker than “Rexy.” Meanwhile, Aaron Telitz in the No. 89 was up to third.
The Heart of Racing had a mediocre pit stop when Gamble got out of the car in favor of Stevenson. That dropped the No. 27 down to sixth. A lack of space put him down to ninth, out of the hunt for the win.
Once he got in the car in place of Wickens, Tommy Milner had an excellent run in the DXDT Corvette. He was able to drive up to fifth in class, but he was hit from behind. That contact loosened the rear bumper on the Corvette. A mechanical black flag forced Milner to pit for repairs with 20 minutes to go. As a result, Milner and Wickens were forced to settle for 15th in class.
After the final restart, Hawksworth was able to keep pace with Laurens for a while. However, as the GTP cars ran through the class again, he started to drop back. That was all Laurens needed to pull away and take the victory with Edgar in a one-off entry.
Edgar and Laurens Vanthoor’s margin of victory was 2.378 seconds over Hawksworth and Thompson. Telitz and Frankie Montecalvo were third, then Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russell Ward. Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher were fifth.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Unofficial Results
Next up for WeatherTech teams will be the Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. the first 160-minute sprint race of the year. Here, the GTP and GTD classes will be joined by the GTD Pro class. That race will air live May 11 on NBC and Peacock at 3 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.