DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — What to make of an Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach that saw Porsche Penske Motorsport score a first Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) win in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Paul Miller Racing take its third straight Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) win on the streets of Long Beach and Jimmy Vasser achieve a unique/special place in Long Beach history thanks to Vasser Sullivan’s GTD PRO win?
Safety in Numbers
GTP winners Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy can thank their lucky stars Porsche Penske Motorsport is fielding a two-car program in the WeatherTech Championship. For after the No. 6 and No. 7 Porsche 963s grabbed the lead and second spot on their only pit stops, Matt Campbell in the No. 7 Porsche did a workmanlike job keeping Ricky Taylor’s No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 bottled up in third, despite the Acura’s greater pace.
Thanks to Campbell’s clean but effective “interference,” it wasn’t until nine minutes remained in the 100-minute race that Taylor commandeered second spot and only closed within striking distance of Jaminet with a couple laps remaining.
Absent the luxury of time to stalk his prey, Taylor rolled the dice by trying to out-brake Jaminet into Turn 1, only to plant the Acura in the tire wall and bring the race to a close under a full-course yellow.
The No. 6 Porsche 963 at Long Beach. (Steve Himelstein Photo)
Similarly, Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and the Paul Miller Racing squad owe a tip of the hat to Turner Motorsport for a supporting role in their run to a Long Beach hat trick.
The No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 spent the first third of the race running second in GTD with Snow at the wheel. However, when the leading No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 pitted, the Miller crew opted to stay on track for another lap in the hopes Snow could gain such an advantage on hot tires that they could pit, change tires, swap Snow for Sellers and retain the lead. That’s exactly what happened.
What’s more, when the pit stop sequence was complete, who should Sellers find in his mirrors but Bill Auberlen in the No. 97 Turner BMW, running a lap down after an early penalty.
Technically speaking, of course, Sellers and Auberlen are not teammates but, as a practical matter, Auberlen was not about to make it easy for second-placed Roman De Angelis in the No. 27 Aston Martin to get past and be able to attack Sellers.
Thus, Sellers ran out to a relatively comfortable 4.468-second victory over De Angelis.
Quitters Never Win/Winners Never Quit
Having qualified more than a second slower than the No. 10 Konica Minolta and No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acuras, nobody could have blamed Porsche Penske Motorsport for taking the long view that, for whatever reason(s), the Porsche 963 is not particularly Long Beach “friendly,” and it’s a long season, so let’s focus on a clean, safe race, collect maximum points and live to fight another day.
Then again, anybody remotely familiar with Roger Penske’s team knows they don’t cry “uncle” until the checkered flag falls – if then. And with relatively little to lose by calling a “Hail Mary,” the team opted for the radical strategy of running the race on a single set of Michelin tires on each of the Porsche GTPs.
Radical? Yes. Also untried. For although the strategy would give the Porsches an advantage on the race’s one scheduled pit stop, it was anybody’s guess just how much performance would be left in the Michelin tires toward the end of a 100-minute race.
And should a late yellow bunch the field – always a distinct possibility at Long Beach – the Porsches would be sitting ducks for any and every GTP competitor on relatively low-mileage rubber.
Not for the first time in the long and successful history of Team Penske, a bold and unconventional strategy (coupled with a little racing luck) set the stage for a surprising and well-earned victory.
A Multiple Winner
Jimmy Vasser may have a way to go before matching Roger Penske’s unparalleled record as a team owner. But Saturday he achieved something neither Penske nor any other team owner can lay claim to — he became the first person to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach as a driver and as an IMSA team owner … not to mention winning the Pro class of the Pro-Celebrity race in 2010.
Long before his Pro-Celebrity success, of course, Vasser won at Long Beach in 1996 with Chip Ganassi Racing in IndyCar racing. He also won as an IndyCar team owner in the Champ Car World Series finale in 2008 with Will Power driving.
Saturday, Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat steered the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 in GTD PRO to Vasser’s first win at Long Beach as an IMSA team owner.
Keyword: Three Takeaways: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach