Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly led 53 of 70 laps Saturday (April 18) to win the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. It is the duo’s first win of 2026 and their first since Detroit, another street course, last year.
“Winning this one is special. We had to work for it,” van der Zande told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum in victory lane. “I mean holy. The Cadillac seemed very, very fast and I was just barely holding on. I mean, the rear tires were completely gone. [Then,] I was in the zone. I didn’t need any caution. I was in the zone and pulling away in traffic. We’re lucky, but bro, that was good.”
Van der Zande and Yelloly’s margin of victory was .818 seconds over Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were third, followed by teammates Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr. BMW M Team WRT’s Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde were fifth.
Yelloly won the pole on Friday and led the field to green. A good start allowed him to get ahead of the pack. Further back, Estre got into the back of Aitken under braking for turn 1. This contact damaged the nose of the Porsche and dropped debris on track.
Further back, DragonSpeed’s Henrik Hedman spun in turn 6 after contact from 13 Autosport’s Orey Fidani. The Anti Social Social Club Corvette was damaged and dropped debris, resulting in a full course caution.
After the restart, Aitken was able to get past Marco Wittmann and Louis Deletraz to move up to second. Before long, he was putting the pressure on Yelloly for the overall lead.
It was lapped traffic that determined the battle. Yelloly caught Fidani exiting turn 9 and proceeded to run into the back of his Corvette. That held up the Acura, allowing Aitken to slip past into the lead.
Aitken opened up a couple of seconds over Yelloly at the front until he made his pit stop to swap over to Vesti 33 minutes into the race. Yelloly chose to stay out and regained the lead.
A few minutes later, a street fight broke out between BMW M Team RLL’s Philipp Eng and JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Laurin Heinrich. Heinrich attempted to pass on Seaside Way and was nearly escorted to the wall. A lap later, contact between the drivers in turn 8 resulted in Eng spinning into the tires.
While Eng was able to drive away, parts of his BMW M Hybrid V8 were scattered on Seaside Way. The resulted in the second full course caution of the race.
Officials were originally not going to penalize either driver, but they went back on themselves and assessed Eng a stop-and-60-second hold penalty for avoidable contact. That, combined with the damage meant that Eng and Wittmann finished three laps down.
The caution created a split strategy as a number of teams had not stopped. However, Yelloly had stopped to swap over to van der Zande right as the yellow came out. When everyone who hadn’t stopped pitted during the yellow, van der Zande ended up in the lead.
On the restart, The Heart of Racing’s Roman De Angelis was running a strong fourth in his Aston Martin Valkyrie. However, van der Linde was very aggressive going into turn 1. He charged up from way behind and made contact with the Valkyrie, resulting in De Angelis nosing into the tires and bringing out another yellow.
Another yellow came out when Wayne Taylor Racing’s Ricky Taylor had some type of mechanical issue that resulted in him sliding into the barriers in turn 5. He would be able to continue, but finished 10th in class, three laps down.
With a little more than 10 minutes to go, there was heavy contact between Pfaff Motorsports’ Andrea Caldarelli and Gradient Racing’s Corey Lewis in the hairpin. The contact ripped the nose off of Lewis’ Ford Mustang GT3 Evo and littered the track with even more debris, bringing out one more yellow.
Lewis pulled into the runoff in turn 1 and retired his Mustang on the spot. Caldarelli was given a drive-through penalty for causing the hairpin contact.
There were only six minutes remaining when the green came back out. Van der Zande had fended off Vesti on the previous run. For the final six minutes, he was able to maintain a small gap and hold on for the win.
In GTD, DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens inherited the pole position after Vasser Sullivan’s Frankie Montecalvo‘s time was disallowed due to a ride height violation. In the early laps after the restart, he had to hold off Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal.
Unfortunately for Formal, his Lamborghini began to lose power. That evolved into the car refusing to shift gears. Less than 20 minutes into the race, it was all over as he went behind the wall.
Behind the leaders, the No. 89 Lexus was on the move. The time disallowment led to Vasser Sullivan choosing to start Jack Hawksworth instead of Montecalvo. In the first 25 minutes, Hawksworth was able to drive all the way up to sixth in class.
Formal’s issues left Wickens with a two-second lead over the pack, which he was able to maintain. That gap became more than five seconds when Winward Racing’s Russell Ward was penalized for a tire pressure violation.
Wickens led until he stopped for the team’s sole pit stop shortly after Aitken. A good stop got Mason Filippi out first, but he ended up behind Hawksworth, who wanted to run long. The cautions ultimately burned Hawksworth, forcing him to pit under green.
On the final restart, Aaron Telitz was able to get past Filippi for second in class. When Hawksworth pitted, that became the class lead.
A scrum for position afterwards involving a couple of cars on the tail end of the lead lap and one of the BMW GTPs resulted in FIlippi having contact with multiple drivers and brushing the wall. That dropped the No. 36 Corvette to fifth. Filippi and Wickens would eventually finish sixth.
Before the scrum, Telitz had Filippi right on his tail. Being able to get ahead of Wright Motorsports’ Callum Ilott allowed him to stretch out a six-second lead over Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley before the Taylor crash eliminated the advantage.
Telitz was easily able to hold on to take the class victory for himself and Benjamin Pedersen. For Pedersen, it is his first career IMSA victory.
Pedersen and Telitz’s margin of victory was 5.055 seconds over Foley and Patrick Gallagher. Conquest Racing’s Albert Costa and Manny Franco were third in their Ferrari, followed by Inception Racing’s Brendan Iribe and Frederik Schandorff. Hawksworth and Montecalvo clawed back up to fifth at the finish.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Unofficial Results
Next up for WeatherTech teams will be WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in two weeks for the StubHub Monterey Sportscar Championship. Coverage will air live on NBCSN at 4 p.m. ET on May 3 with coverage simulcast on Peacock.
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