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Renger van der Zande and Meyer Shank Racing win Long Beach IMSA race
Renger van der Zande held steady through multiple late restarts to give Acura Meyer Shank Racing the home race victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The Dutchman, driving the #93 Acura ARX-06, was undeterred despite Frederick Vesti (#31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R) applying consistent pressure on the restarts, taking the checkered flag by 0.818s on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit. It marks the first win for Acura at Long Beach since 2009 under the American Le Mans Series banner. Additionally, it is van der Zande’s third IMSA win at the iconic street circuit, having won it previously in 2022 and 2024 with Cadillac.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor finished third, ahead of teammate Felipe Nasr in the #7 sistercar. BMW M Team WRT’s Sheldon van der Linde ended up fifth.
The GTD class was won by Vasser Sullivan’s #12 Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen, ahead of Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallegher in second, with Conquest Racing’s Albert Costa and Manny Franco in the final podium spot in third.
The Race
Nick Yelloly leads the field from pole in a split start for GTP and GTD, which was led by Robert Wickens (DXDT Racing).
A few moments later, however, the yellow flagged waved for debris following a spin by the #81 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Henrik Hedman (DragonSpeed) into the Turn 6 tire barriers.
The restart came with roughly 1h33m remaining, with Yelloly leading but the first bit of strategy coming into play as JDC-Miller MotorSports, already at the rear of GTP, elected to come in and do a driver change, swapping Tijmen van der Helm for Porsche factory specialist Lauren Heinrich in the #5 Porsche 963.
There was a change for second, though, as Jack Aitken (Cadillac Whelen) took over the spot from Marco Wittman (BMW M Team WRT. Additionally, there was a change for second in the GTD class as Russell Ward (Winward Racing) got by Danny Formal (Wayne Taylor Racing) on the front straightaway just 14m into the race. Formal dove to pit lane shortly after.
Aitken began applying the pressure on Yelloly, as the pair were up by 3s on third-place Wittman. As the pair began catching GTD traffic, Aitken got by Yelloly, who was held up by the 13 Autosport Corvette, for the race lead with 1h23m left. Aitken was able to stretch out to a 3.5s lead over the next three minutes.
Despite starting last after their pole time was disallowed for ground clearance in qualifying, the #89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with Jack Hawksworth at the helm, was already up to sixth in a GTD class of 17 entrants just 20m into the race.
With 1h8m left, Ward was black flagged by Race Control for failure to adhere to tire operational requirements, leading him to come into the pits for repairs but unable to make a driver change during the stop.
Kevin Estre brought Porsche Penske Motorsport’s #6 Porsche 963, which had slight left front damage, to pit lane for energy and a driver change to Laurens Vanthoor. The team did not elect to change tires. The stop, which came with 1h7m remaining, started a run of stops for GTD as Aiken and others came down pit lane, with Frederick Vesti now in the #31 Whelen Cadillac. Yelloly stayed out and assumed the race lead.
Wickens pitted from the lead with 1h3m left, with a driver change also taking place as Mason Filippi took over.
As Yelloly dove to pit lane with 1h1m left, with van der Zande taking over, Heinrich and Phillip Eng appeared to make slight contact and Eng’s #25 BMW into the Turn 8 tire barrier. Eng was able to get back to pit lane, but the incident left his challenger damaged and debris littered across the track and brought out the yellow.
The #40 Cadillac of Louis Deletraz took over the lead, but had not pitted yet and was caught out by the caution. Hawksworth also took over the top spot in GTD, with Filippi in second. When the pits opened up, the likes of Deletraz, Heinrich and Tom Blomqvist (Acura Meyer Shank Racing), among others, pitted, which elevated van der Zande to the overall lead, with Vesti in second and Vanthoor in third.
The race started with 47m remaining, with van der Zande jumping off to a good gap over Vesti. The push into Turn 1 saw contact as the #24 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde made a late dive under Roman De Angelis (Aston Martin THOR Team), which stuffed the latter into the tire barriers and returned the yellow flag.
A restart with 42m left saw a similar jump by van der Zande. Vesti continued to stalk the race leader, hanging 0.5s behind.
Hawksworth was up against his maximum drive time and forced to pit from the lead with under 39m remaining, with Frankie Montecalvo, who qualified the car, taking over. The stop put teammate Telitz, in the #12 sister car for Vasser Sullivan, to the race lead, with Filippi in second.
After a lengthy review, Race Control determined the #25 BMW of Eng was in the wrong for his part in the incident with Heinrich, handing him a stop plus 60 penalty.
The fight for second in GTD heated up, with Robby Foley getting his Turner Motorsport machine past Filippi with a tight pass that led to the latter’s left side getting into the wall before getting in the back of the former and ripping part of the bumper of the #96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Filippi eventually fell down the running order to sixth in class.
With 27m to go, Telitz built up a 7s lead over Foley.
The fight for second overall was on as Vanthoor was on the rear wing of Vesti, with both more than 3.7s behind van der Zande.
A full course caution came out with just under 25m left as the #10 Cadillac V-Series.R of Ricky Taylor (Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing) found the tire barrier in Turn 6 after clipping the inside curbing.
Another restart with just over 17m left saw van der Zande continue the theme of jumping out front, with the rest of the field remaining straightforward.
Vesti stayed right on the rear wing of van der Zande, remaining in his shadow with 10m left. The gap closed and widened like an accordion between the corners and straights between the two.
Despite the close racing, another full course yellow came out with just under nine minutes to go as the #66 of Corey Lewis (Gradient Racing) was hit with heavy damage coming out of the final corner hairpin, ripping off the nose of his Ford Mustang GT3 and dragging debris down the front straightaway.
Courtesy of a quick cleanup by the safety crew, the race restarted just three minutes later and saw van der Zande holding steady out front once more. In GTD, Telitz remained out front over Foley.
Vesti began to close on van der Zande, who was catching traffic, with over three minutes to go.
Despite the pressure, van der Zande remained out front over Vesti to take the win. Telitz carried off the GTD class victory for Vasser Sullivan.
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