welcome race fans to krazyaboutracing.com we are now in our 23RD year of being the leader in motorsports coverage on the world wide web

(HOME) (LOCAL RACING)  (DRIVER BIO PAGE)  (TRACK BIO PAGE) (PREVIOUS NEWS)  (PREVIOUS RACING)   (SITE NEWS)  (MEET THE STAFF)   (HALL OF FAME)  (MONTHLY NEWSLETTER)  (THE OLD'N DAYS)  (SPECIAL EVENTS)  (MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS)  (ANNUAL AWARDS)  (CONTACT US)   (DRIVER & TEAM RELEASES) (LOCAL TRACK NEWS) (MULTIMEDIA)

 for more coverage on the series click on the series lOgo

International Motor Sports Association    Lamborghini Super Trofeo series

International Motor Sports Association 

 

www.imsa.com

 

About the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)

International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 and owns a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, as well as four one-make series: Ferrari Challenge North America, Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and Porsche Carrera Cup North America. IMSA – a company within the NASCAR family – is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

 

BMW Pole Mastery Continues at Long Beach

RLL Pair Leads Two Porsches, Two Acuras and Two Cadillacs To Green


 

April 11, 2025

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

Qualifying Results


 

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Three classic American circuits. Three Motul Pole Awards for Dries Vanthoor and BMW M Team RLL. It has been a clean sweep of Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class qualifying for the duo so far in 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. 


 

Vanthoor, a 26-year-old Belgian who is considered a rising star in international sports car racing, earned the GTP and overall pole position for Saturday’s edition of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the event’s 50th year. Vanthoor and the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 were also the fastest qualifier at the first two WeatherTech Championship races of the season - the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.


 

Daytona International Speedway’s banked oval/road course hybrid, the bumpy Sebring airfield circuit, and the 1.968-mile Long Beach temporary street course have little in common, demonstrating the diversity of the WeatherTech Championship. Yet Vanthoor and the BMW have been the fastest combination over one lap everywhere IMSA has visited this year for his first three career poles. 


 

The challenge for Vanthoor and his co-driver Philipp Eng - along with BMW M Team RLL drivers Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann, who qualified the No. 25 BMW on the outside front row - is to translate that single lap Friday speed into a Saturday race victory. Their best result this year is fourth place at the Rolex 24.


 

“Big thanks to the team and BMW for giving us a great car to start the weekend here,” said Vanthoor, whose posted a fast lap of 1:11.539 (99.034 mph) around the tight 11-corner Long Beach layout. “It’s the third time, but now I think it’s finally time to also finish it off.  We didn’t capitalize yet and bring a victory home. 


 

“It’s been fun, but I think a race win is going to be a little more rewarding.”


 

BMW ran first and second in both Friday practice sessions at Long Beach, with van der Linde in the No. 25 car fastest in the 60-minute opener before Vanthoor took over at the front in 90 minutes of warmer afternoon conditions.


 

In the 15-minute qualifying period, Vanthoor was 0.25 seconds faster than van der Linde, whose best time was clocked at 1:11.789. 


 

Nick Tandy, in the championship points-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 he shares with Felipe Nasr, was the only other driver to break 1:12 with a 1:11.989. Mathieu Jaminet, the 2023 Long Beach GTP race winner, locked up the second row for Porsche for Saturday’s 100-minute sprint by qualifying the No. 6 Porsche 963 – co-driven by Matt Campbell – fourth.


 

With two Acuras in fifth and sixth and two Cadillacs in seventh and eighth, it’s a two-by-two “Noah’s Ark” type of grid by manufacturers in the first eight of 11 spots. 


 

But the key story Friday was BMW’s continued dominance of qualifying in 2025. BMW M Team RLL ended the 2024 season strongly with a 1-2 finish at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the penultimate round of the WeatherTech Championship season. Improvements to the cars electronic braking, a function of the hybrid power components used in the GTP class, have fueled BMW’s impressive recent single-lap speed.


 

Vanthoor is a veteran in the FIA World Endurance Championship but this is his first full season in IMSA. He’s a longtime BMW factory driver in GT-class competition who made the step up to prototype competition for BMW in WEC in 2024. 


 

“I’ve always been reasonably okay adapting to new tracks and different circumstances, going back to my GT days,” Vanthoor remarked. “That’s something that helped me out here. Simulators help you get a feel for how the track is, the kind of flow you get with the braking and the gear shifts. But it’s not copy/paste, not a one-to-one comparison to real life.


 

“It’s all going in the right way, and it shows the car is fast, but now we want more,” he added. “We need to make sure we do a clean race – myself and as a team – and capitalize on those pole positions. You can be on pole position for every race, but if you don’t get the win, nobody is really going to be happy.”


 

Acura Shares Row 3 Ahead of Home Race Weekend 

Nick Yelloly, who qualified fifth in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06, brushed the wall late in qualifying but did not significantly damage the car or bring out a red flag. Still, that car ended one spot higher than the sister No. 60 car in sixth, which lost its best qualifying time as a result of causing a red flag in the previous practice session. 


 

Yelloly, along with fellow Acura Meyer Shank drivers Renger van der Zande, Colin Braun, and Tom Blomqvist, visited American Honda headquarters in nearby Torrance on Wednesday. They showed off the Acura ARX-06 prototype and signed autographs for several hours for Honda and Acura associates. 


 

American Honda began selling motorcycles in 1959 from a former photo processing lab studio at 4077 W. Pico Blvd. in Los Angeles with eight employees; more than 2,000 associates now occupy the 101-acre campus in Torrance that opened in 1990. Honda Racing Corporation U.S. was established in 1993 in Santa Clarita. Acura has served as the title sponsor for the Long Beach Grand Prix since 2019.


 

The 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race from Long Beach will be broadcast live on USA Network at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 12. Coverage is also available domestically on Peacock and internationally on the official IMSA YouTube channel.

 

Vasser Sullivan's Long Beach Success Continues

Team Wins Third Straight Long Beach IMSA GT Pole; Wickens To Start Eighth


 

April 11, 2025

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

Qualifying Results

 

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Vasser Sullivan Racing’s recent run of success at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach continued today when Parker Thompson planted the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 on the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) pole for the third round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

 

The Vasser Sullivan squad boasts a back-to-back winning streak at Long Beach, with Ben Barnicoat and Parker Thompson having scored a win here in GTD last year after Jack Hawksworth and Barnicoat took the GTD PRO victory in 2023. It’s also the team’s third straight Long Beach pole in either GTD PRO or GTD; no IMSA GT team has done so at Long Beach since Corvette Racing did so from 2007 to 2009 in the former American Le Mans Series’ GT1 class.

 

It was Thompson’s turn to shine again today as he out-fought Jonny Edgar (No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Tom Gamble (No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO) by the thinnest of margins to earn the inside of the front row for tomorrow’s 100-minute race.

 

Thin margins? Consider that Thompson toured the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit in 1 minute 17.877 seconds (90.974 mph), 0.06 of a second faster than Edgar and 0.062 quicker than Gamble. Manny Franco was fourth, just 0.291 of a second off, in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

 

“We put a lot of importance on qualifying today,” said Thompson, who will share the car with Hawksworth on Saturday. “Obviously the Grand Prix of Long Beach is very exciting with close walls. The racing tends to be exciting when it comes to the pit stops. It’s tough to pass around here and track position is almost everything. 

 

“The way these weekends are laid out, you never know what you’re going to get in qualifying,” he continued. “You’ve got IndyCars on the same weekend putting down rubber, you’ve got Stadium Super Trucks and other cars out there. I thought that the field would have collectively went faster, although it was very tight. But I’m happy to be up here.”   

 

Thompson attributes Vasser Sulllivan’s success here both to the team and to the Lexus RC F GT3’s affinity to the streets of Long Beach, and believes the team is the best in GTD beyond just Long Beach.

 

“Our preparation always seems to be rewarded here,” he says. “Particularly in California, Jimmy Vasser was a resident here and that always helps. He’s had a lot of success here and his team has a lot of success too.  

 

“Our Lexus RC F just seems to love Long Beach. I think I speak for most front-engined cars but it’s interesting to see Rexy (the No. 177 AO Porsche) up there - that’s obviously is about as rear-engined as it gets. But all the front-engined cars have had a lot of success around Long Beach. So kudos to IMSA for making it tight. I was definitely sweating. It looks like they’ve figured things out Balance of Performance-wise as they’ve got a rear-engined car behind a front-engined car which is no easy task.”


 

Speaking of thin margins, all told seven drivers posted times within a half second of Thompson’s pole winning lap, although the seventh fastest qualifier - Robert Wickens - forfeited his fastest lap (1:18.239) as the result of causing a red flag in the afternoon practice session. 

 

Wickens, making his first WeatherTech Championship start since 2017 and his GTD class debut in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with hand controls featuring the Bosch electronic braking system, had to rely on his second fastest lap of the session - a 1:18.411.

 

The penalty slots Wickens into eighth spot on the grid with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO between the DXDT ‘Vette and Franco’s fourth placed Ferrari.


 

Robert Wickens Rides Roller Coaster Friday in Long Beach

Robert Wickens experienced a bit of a roller coaster day in his GTD debut in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R. 


 

His day got off to a difficult start as mechanical gremlins kept Wickens’ Bosch electronic braking system-equipped ‘Vette stationary on pit lane for some 20 minutes of the hour-long morning practice session before the issues were resolved. Even then Wickens found himself sharing the track with drivers, cars and – most of all – tires that had fully warmed to the task. 

 

Later, Wickens yielded to co-driver Tommy Milner who posted one of the fastest laps of the session - one that gave Wickens a target to shoot for when he got back in the car with about 15 minutes left in the practice session. 

 

“I felt like I was just kind of flustered the whole session,” he said. “With our issues that we had at the start of the session, when I finally went out for my installation lap, I felt like everyone else had already had hot tires and I was just a nuisance on the track … I had a hard time kind of just settling down and finding a rhythm. But Tommy drove the car, put in a great lap. And then when I got in at the end of the session, I had a great reference lap on the dash to understand how to extract lap time from this Corvette Z06 GT3.R around Long Beach. 

 

“It’s kind of the exact reason why I was so happy to have a teammate like Tommy here this weekend. I know after this practice we can look at some data and calm down and come up with a strong approach to try and find time to improve.”

 

If only it was so easy as all that. Given the complications of getting Wickens to the IMSA paddock on the outside of the track between Turns 10 and 11 what followed was a rather unique debrief post-press conference, as the DXDT engineering group huddled with Wickens and Milner outside of the press room in the bowels of the Long Beach Convention Center to go over the data from the practice and prepare for the second practice and, later qualifying. 

 

The debrief must have worked as come the second practice session in the afternoon and who should top the timesheets, but Robert Wickens. The Canadian shaved the best part of three seconds off his morning’s best to turn a lap of 1:18.157, followed immediately by a lap at 1:17.897.

 

So much for the good news. The bad news is that during the session Wickens slid down the escape road in Turn 1 and was unable to get the DXDT Corvette turned around to rejoin the track, thus triggering a red flag. And according to IMSA rules, anyone causing a red flag in practice automatically forfeits their fastest lap in qualifying. 

 

Knowing he needed not one but two quick laps to qualify at or near the front of the GTD field, Wickens posted a flyer at 1:18.411 and quickly followed that with an even quicker lap at 1:18.239, the latter of which would have put him fifth on the GTD grid. As it was, the 1:18.411 was good enough for eighth spot in the 16-car GTD field.

 

Qualifying Results | WeatherTech Championship

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Long Beach Street Course - Friday, April 11, 2025

Qualifying Results

Practice 2 Results

Practice 1 Results


 

Additional results are available at results.imsa.com.

 

 

Triple Play: Examining IMSA’s Recent Three-Race Win Streaks

Porsche Penske’s Positioned Nicely to Mirror Past Champions


 

April 17, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The late, great Bob Uecker as announcer Harry Doyle in Major League once said of Cleveland’s perpetually scuffling baseball club after winning one game, they had a chance to “extend their winning streak to… two.” 


 

Sure, two’s the technical definition of a winning streak, but three in a row really feels like getting on a heater. 


 

Through the opening three rounds of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season, it’s worth noting the latest three-peat and seeing how this run of form compares to other entries that have done it the last five years.


 

The CliffsNotes? Three-in-a-row race-winning runs aren’t overly common and when they do happen, they almost always deliver an end-of-year championship. 


 

Will Porsche Penske Motorsport be the latest to follow this trend? Can AO Racing join the list, albeit in two different GT classes, if they win a third straight race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca? 


 

2025


 

Porsche Penske Motorsport has done something no other team in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) has since the class launched in 2023: win three races straight. And they’ve done so at a canter. 


 

Once the No. 7 Porsche 963 of Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, joined by Laurens Vanthoor at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, has ascended to the lead past the three-time polesitting No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, it’s stayed there. The No. 7 car led 307 of 781 laps at Daytona, 166 of 353 at Sebring and 55 of 75 in Long Beach for a total of 528 laps led of a possible 1209 thus far through three races – some 43.67 percent.


 

“I mean it's incredible. I haven't had a season in my career that I started with three wins straight like this, so it's really unique to put it all together,” Nasr reflected at Long Beach.


 

The No. 7 Porsche leads the sister No. 6 Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell by 123 points, while the third-placed No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 sits some 265 points in arrears. Nasr is a three-time IMSA champion (2018 Prototype, 2021 DPi, 2024 GTP) while Tandy, surprisingly, remains in search of his first. 


 

2023


 

The last prototype team in any WeatherTech Championship class to win three straight races did so in the previous Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class. Riley produced a four-race win streak in 2023 with a combination of Felipe Fraga, Gar Robinson and Josh Burdon across the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen and the sprint races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Road America. Robinson took the title solo as Fraga and Burdon alternated alongside depending on schedules. 


 

2021

In the final year of another class, GT Le Mans (GTLM), Corvette Racing’s pair of then-C8.R GTE-specification cars both enjoyed separate three-race win streaks. Eventual class champions Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia won their three straight at Watkins Glen in both the six-hour race and the WeatherTech 240 sprint race, as well as at Lime Rock Park. Teammates Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner then added three later victories with a California sweep of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the streets of Long Beach before their third straight at VIRginia International Raceway in a classic GTLM battle vs. the WeatherTech Racing Porsche. 


 

Riley produced its first LMP3 three-peat this year to become the first LMP3 class champions. Robinson and Fraga enjoyed wins at Mid-Ohio and the two Watkins Glen races, with Scott Andrews joining the full-season pair at the six-hour Watkins Glen race. 


 

2020


 

The unusual 2020 season, which saw a flurry of races in an adjusted schedule in a truncated period due to the COVID-19 pandemic, also saw the greatest number of three-race win streaks by any team in the last five years. Three different teams pulled off three-peats.


 

Team Penske is the last WeatherTech Championship top-class prototype team to win three straight races, with the former Acura ARX-05 in Daytona Prototype international (DPi). The No. 7 of Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves’ three-race run at Road America, the six-hour TireRack.com Grand Prix at Road Atlanta (moved from Watkins Glen) and Mid-Ohio vaulted the team out of a significant point deficit into eventual championship contention, before winning it all.


 

Corvette Racing’s GTLM team in its first year with the C8.R fired on all cylinders. Its No. 3 car won the WeatherTech 240 At Daytona, the first race back after the pandemic break, with the No. 4 car capturing the Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring and the No. 3 car back on top at Road America and VIR. The Garcia/Taylor pair won the GTLM title, ensuring both Taylor brothers won titles in two different classes in the same season. 


 

Porsche North America, in its final year running a factory GTLM program in coordination with CORE autosport, won the final three races at Motul Petit Le Mans (No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR), WeatherTech Raceway (No. 912) and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring (No. 911). 


 

PREVIOUS WIN STREAKS OF NOTE


 

Longer win streaks appeared more common before the turn of the decade. In 2019, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports won six straight LMP2 races while Porsche GT Team won five straight in GTLM split between its two cars. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won four straight GTLM races in 2018 with its two Ford GTs. And in 2017, the first year of the DPi formula, Wayne Taylor Racing opened the year with five straight victories while in the final year of the Prototype Challenge (PC) class, Performance Tech Motorsports won the first seven of eight races, before finally losing its first and only race of the year at Motul Petit Le Mans.


 

But like those winners from 2020 through 2024, the championship-winning story rang true for the above group here. Of the above five teams, four won driver championships, while Ford CGR lost the driver’s title but the blue oval still captured the 2018 GTLM manufacturer’s crown.

 

Three Takeaways: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Deja Vu, Ringers and Wickens’ GTD Debut


 

April 14, 2025

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

LONG BEACH, Calif. – After opening the season with the 36 Hours of Florida (aka the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring), the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship changed things up with the 100 minutes of Southern California (aka the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach).


 

Not only was the sprint race a fraction of the length of either of the first two events, the competition was pared down from four classes – Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) – to two classes: GTP and GTD.


 

What’s more, the tight, concrete-wall confines of the 1.968-mile street circuit posed very different challenges than the wide-open spaces of Daytona International Speedway’s hybrid road course/high-banked oval and Sebring International Raceway’s rough and tumble airport-based circuit.


 


 

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same


 

For all the many differences between Long Beach and the first two races of the season, the weekend’s GTP competition evoked a distinct sense of deja vu all over again. Once again, the BMW M Team RLL entries were fast in practice and qualifying as Dries Vanthoor in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 took the Bavarian marque’s third pole in as many tries. Vanthoor was followed by teammate Sheldon van der Linde in the No. 25 with the No. 7 and No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet in lockstep behind them. And when the green flag dropped, the BMWs sprinted into a one-two lead. In race trim, however, the Porsches matched the pace of the BMWs, with Tandy in particular giving van der Linde in the second-placed BMW all he could handle.


 

Come the one and only round of pit stops – and using what is becoming a classic winning strategy at Long Beach – the No. 7 did not change Michelin rubber and so emerged in the lead ahead of its stablemate while the BMWs slipped to third and fifth, sandwiching the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.  


 

With Felipe Nasr now at the helm, the No. 7 Porsche loped to its third straight win of the season with Matt Campbell bringing the No. 6 Porsche to its second runner-up finish of the year.


 

No, it wasn’t as easy as it looked as Nasr and Tandy both noted they had to be very careful with their energy management so as not to need a second pit stop. And yes, many challenges await – beginning with WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in three weeks’ time. But it’s starting to look like it’s going to take something special – or unexpected – to derail the Porsche Penske Express.


 

“It goes to show just what a high level the team is operating at the moment,” said Tandy. “We’re lucky enough to be in the front three times, but if the No. 7 isn’t at the front, the No. 6 is and vice-versa. … Both sides of the garage are operating just flawlessly.”


 


 

Ringers ‘r Us


 

A WeatherTech Championship calendar that includes select events which feature just one of the two GTD classes – GTD or GTD PRO – creates an interesting dynamic, one which sees “ringers” from the category that otherwise has the weekend “off” competing. Last year, for example, Vasser Sullivan Racing doubled up for the Long Beach and Detroit events, fielding the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3 that normally contests GTD PRO races as the No. 14, in addition to the No. 12 Lexus that ran the full standard GTD schedule. Two months later, the team flipped the script and entered both cars in the GTP/GTD PRO-only race at Detroit, with the No. 12 GTD entry rebranded as the No. 15 in GTD PRO.


 

In each case, the “ringer” gave the team and Lexus twice the chance to score a win, not to mention add to their points haul in the respective championships. A similar move paid dividends for Porsche last weekend at Long Beach, as defending GTD PRO champions AO Racing claimed top GTD honors in Saturday’s race in the No. 177 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), aka “Rexy.”


 

In some respects this encourages a two-dimensional competition, as the class “regulars” are focused on the proverbial big picture, i.e., the season-long competition for manufacturer, team and driver titles. In contrast, the ringers are laser-focused on individual race results and can afford to roll the dice on fuel, tire and pit stop strategies.


 

Such was the case at Long Beach where the AO Racing squad gambled on running an extra lap while the class leaders pitted. Thus did the No. 177 Porsche leapfrog the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO to take the GTD lead. The strategy provided AO’s Laurens Vanthoor with track position so crucial at Long Beach and he was never headed. 


 

“The team made a very good decision for us not to change tires and be aggressive on the fuel side,” said Vanthoor. “So that was our only chance because Lexus, as we saw in the first stint, had a lot of speed. It’s not easy to overtake here so we had to try to take track position and we managed that.” 


 


 

More than Meets the Eye


 

If you were to just look at the results, Robert Wickens’ GTD debut was somewhat underwhelming, given that the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R finished a lap down, 15th in the 16-car field. However, in reality, Wickens and co-driver Tommy Milner were on their way to a top-five or sixth-place finish before a coming-together with the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO at the Hairpin. The resulting damage to the Vette’s bodywork eventually necessitated an unscheduled pit stop to effect repairs and led to what was an unrepresentative finish.


 

In fact, the DXDT Corvette was at the proverbial sharp end of the field throughout Friday and Saturday before the incident with the Turner BMW, with Wickens more than holding his own. After mechanical gremlins cost them the first third of Friday morning’s hour-long practice, Milner posted a “target” lap which Wickens got within a couple seconds of later in the session in his first “real world” laps in competition in the Corvette equipped with the Bosch hand-controlled braking system.


 

After debriefing with the DXDT engineers and Milner, Wickens shaved three full seconds off his practice time to post the fastest lap of the second practice session, only to cause a stoppage in the session when he was unable to rejoin the track after skating down the Turn One escape road. IMSA rules dictate that a driver causing a red flag in practice will lose their fastest lap in qualifying, so Wickens went into the qualifying session knowing he had to post not one but two quick laps in order to start at or near the front of the GTD grid.


 

Unfortunately, any opportunity he had to repeat his practice form and challenge for the pole was dashed when he had a coming together with another competitor in Turn 9 that tweaked the DXDT Corvette’s suspension. Nevertheless, he posted a couple of very respectable laps of 1:18.239 and 1:18.411, with the latter resulting in an eighth-place start given that the quicker lap was disallowed.


 

Wickens gained one spot on the opening lap when the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 had a moment, then settled into a consistent run in seventh spot before handing the car over to Milner during the race’s one and only pit stop.


 

“It was pretty uneventful (but) it was good,” said Wickens of his race. “We stayed clean which is the most important thing. I feel like we had more pace than we showed in qualifying but, unfortunately, we paid the price in track position. But we just wanted to keep the car in one piece so Tommy could have a go!


 

“I think we all knew this was almost going to be the worst-case scenario of learning the hand control system in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Honestly, I even surprised myself with the pace in Free Practice 2 and the potential pace we could have had in (qualifying). In the race I felt super comfortable, and felt like I was attacking more than defending; although I didn’t do a lot of attacking, but that’s the nature of the this track.” 

 

Sebring Featured on HGTV’s “Home Town Takeover”

Show Airs Twice This Week on HGTV Highlighting Downtown Sebring Revitalization

DAYTONA BEACH Fla. (April 13, 2025) – Sebring, Florida is known for the iconic Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, a staple on the IMSA calendar since the early 1950s and which recently celebrated its 73rd running.


 

But it was only recently that downtown Sebring, itself, underwent a significant revitalization project to bring the city forward and foster a greater sense of community.  


 

The transformative project took place during the third season of “Home Town Takeover” on HGTV, where hosts Ben and Erin Napier spent four months focusing on “The City on the Circle” to enhance the center of downtown, working alongside a team of HGTV crew and designers.


 

You can watch the episode Sunday, April 13, at 7 p.m. ET and Friday, April 18, at 3 p.m. on HGTV. 


 

Sebring Soda, a small business that’s been part of downtown for generations, was featured prominently throughout the episode and was one of the key businesses highlighted as part of the transformation project. 


 

Changes or enhancements made to Sebring Soda included the discovery of transom windows, paint refresh, a new menu board and repurposed vintage cabinets to display flashes of color that pop to a level the business hadn’t seen in ages. New indoor and outdoor seating options have helped enliven the space to become more of a cornerstone business. 


 

Local artist Frankie Flowers was integral in mural creation as well, both by adding a splash of color that highlights central Florida’s surrounding orange groves with a striking three-dimensional mural on a building and a separate mural at the Sebring Soap Company. Additional new murals have been painted in the crosswalks of The Circle. 


 

Lastly, further highlights come from Sophie’s Café to open a second location, and the city’s iconic Circle Theatre being modernized.


 

The circle of Sebring hosts the Sebring Fan Fest as IMSA transporters and cars are on display the Tuesday of race week. IMSA fans will have the opportunity to check out the revitalized downtown ahead of the 74th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, March 18-21, 2026.

 

 

 

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach: Friday Setup

A Quick Look Ahead to What’s On Tap Friday in Long Beach 


 

April 11, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

LONG BEACH, Calif. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship begins its sprint portion of the 2025 season today on the streets of Long Beach. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach serves as Round 3 for both the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes. 


 

Here’s the Friday setup ahead of on-track activity and additional items to follow going into the weekend: 


 

On-Track Schedule


 

A condensed two-day weekend sees most on-track time today around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit.


 

  • Practice 1: 9-10 a.m. PT (local time)
  • Practice 2: 1-2:30 p.m. PT
  • GTD Qualifying: 5:10-5:25 p.m. PT
  • GTP Qualifying: 5:35-5:50 p.m. PT


 

The Saturday race is at 2:05 p.m. PT (5:05 p.m. ET) on USA Network and Peacock and streaming internationally via the IMSA official YouTube channel.


 

Long Beach First-Timers


 

Drivers getting their first taste of the Long Beach street circuit this morning include:


 

  • GTP: Three of the four BMW M Team RLL drivers: Dries Vanthoor, Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde 
  • GTD: Tom Gamble, Casper Stevenson at Heart of Racing Team, Korthoff Competition Motors’ Seth Lucas and Kenton Koch, Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman, AO Racing’s Jonny Edgar


 

DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens is also making his first IMSA start at Long Beach, but has past experience at the track in both IndyCar and Formula Atlantic competition. As an 18-year-old in 2007, Wickens qualified seventh and finished third in Atlantic in a field that also included future WeatherTech Championship race winners Jonathan Bomarito, John Edwards, Franck Perera and Richard Heistand.


 

Koch, who shares the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Lucas, also couldn’t hide his excitement of making his track debut here. After numerous exclamation points, Glendora, Calif. native Koch wrote on his Instagram story, “Finally get the opportunity to race in my home race after years of watching from the sidelines since I was a toddler. What a treat this will be.” 


 

Both Heart of Racing drivers are keen to debut at-track as well. 


 

“It looks like an awesome challenge. It has been a track on my bucket list for years,” Stevenson said.


 

Gamble added, “I’m looking forward to heading to Long Beach, it’s my first time at the circuit and it’s one I’ve always wanted to drive.” 


 

Full-Circle Ford Moment for Jenson Altzman

Gradient Racing debuts its new sprint lineup of Jenson Altzman and Robert Megennis in the No. 66 Ford Mustang GT3. Altzman has a unique “full-circle” moment this weekend. 


 

He is both the first driver to ascend into Mustang GT3 by the ladder system (as a Ford Performance Junior Team driver), and his parents used to pace the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and IndyCar fields at Long Beach. At four years old, he used to ride-along – now he is returning to the race, driving the Gradient Racing Mustang GT3. 


 

Altzman will continue in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) races as well with McCumbee McAleer Racing with Aerosport, so will pull double duty on weekends where both IMSA series compete. 


 

Also of note, Gradient’s 2024 lineup of Stevan McAleer and Sheena Monk celebrate the one-year anniversary of their first race together at Long Beach. McAleer shared the team’s then-No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 last year and with Monk, drove to a fourth-place finish. 


 

The pair now share the JG Wentworth-adorned No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, as Triarsi heads into its first Long Beach start.


 

Altzman Photo Courtesy of Ford Performance

 

What to Watch For: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Strategy is the Name of the Game; Wickens’ DXDT Premiere; Memories, Magic and More 


 

April 10, 2025

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship has a long, memorable history of racing in the streets, ranging from Miami to Del Mar, San Antonio to Detroit, Nova Scotia to Australia. Bicentennial Park’s streets played host to a two-time Formula 1 World Champion coming out of retirement to race in 1983 in IMSA’s Grand Prix of Miami, setting the stage for a glorious second act to his legendary career. You may have heard of him: Emerson Fittipaldi. And it was Scotland’s Allan McNish (driving with a strained back he injured whilst stepping out of kilt during a pre-race photo shoot) who teamed with Rinaldo “Dindo” Capello and Brad Jones to win IMSA’s first and only race Down Under on the streets of Adelaide. 


 

This weekend the WeatherTech Championship returns to North America’s most iconic street race, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, to write a new chapter in a legacy dating to the early 1990s when IMSA GTO and GTU competitors first blasted down Shoreline Drive and along Seaside Way. In the intervening years, a veritable cornucopia of IMSA’s prototype and production sports car-based categories have competed at Long Beach, with this year’s entry list featuring the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes and 11 manufacturers represented across 27 entries.


 

Strategy is the Name of the Game


 

Several factors conspire to make Long Beach one of the most strategic races on the WeatherTech Championship calendar. With these cars unleashed on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile circuit where “track limits” are generally concrete walls and the exotic GTP machines struggle to average 100 mph lap times, on-track overtaking is a premium. Then there’s the one pit stop, which makes fuel filling and tire choice a gamble, all while getting the driver change done, to create the high-speed chess match. 


 

“It’s a different dynamic of racing,” says Felipe Nasr, who with Nick Tandy seeks their third straight win to start 2025 in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. “It’s a one way forward to take in the race in terms of strategy. You only have the one pit stop to face.” 


 

While going the distance on one set of tires has lately been the key to victory, there are no guarantees that will be the case this year. 


 

“We have ideas,” Nasr continues, “but it always depends on track level, grip level and the degradation. And the out laps. If it’s best to keep the warm set, versus changing. Or where you’re at in the race. That makes a huge percentage on the decision.”


 

Renger van der Zande, who shares the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly, said the cat is basically out of the bag now on no-tire changes since it’s been the winning move the last two years.


 

“The shine is off that move, let's put it that way. I think it’s the move,” says the two-time and defending Long Beach overall winner. 


 

“It still needs to fit in the whole picture because we don't know how the tire wear is gonna be this year. It's gonna be reasonably warm, but not super warm. You can't say from what's gonna be the strategy, but the strategy is gonna be making the right call on the right moment.”

Getting the driver change done as quickly as possible means more here too, as last year’s GTD class winner Parker Thompson explained.


 

“Obviously the start of the IMSA season you've got Daytona and you've got Sebring, which are theoretically two of the longest pit stops that we do throughout the year just because you're doing full fills basically, and if you're not doing full fills, you're trying to top up the energy anyway, so really, you're sitting there for 40 to 50 seconds,” said the Canadian, who shares his No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with Jack Hawksworth. 


 

“The first sprint race of the season is our shortest pit stop of the year. You have to comfortably be able to do pit stops, and I would say at the lowest 12 seconds, so that's 12 seconds of getting a guy that's 5’8” out and then a guy that's over 6’ in comfortably buckled in and ready to go.”


 

All Eyes on “Wicky Bobby”


 

The inestimable Robert Wickens (sometimes called “Wicky Bobby” in deference to Will Ferrell’s “Ricky Bobby” in 2006’s Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby) is set for a feature film of his own: making his first GTD start aboard the specially equipped No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R. 


 

With Pratt Miller-developed hand controls and Bosch’s EBS (electronic braking system), Wickens prepares to author his latest chapter to his comeback story since his 2018 accident in an IndyCar race. After testing at Sebring, the 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) champion was impressed with the Bosch EBS system’s integration into the Corvette.


 

“The biggest takeaway (from the test) is that it feels like the Bosch EBS and the hand-control system developed by Pratt Miller belongs in the car. There hasn’t been a single hiccup,” Wickens explains. “The first run with the system, if that was all I had and there was no tunability I wouldn’t have been upset about it. We started off in such a great window where I just got to figure out the race car.”

  

Among the challenges of “figuring out” the Corvette were coming to grips with a state-of-the-art traction control system for the first time.  


 

“The biggest thing for me is understanding the traction control system that’s in this Corvette Z06 GT3.R because I haven’t really felt traction control for all of my career,” he says. “I’ve done some testing in GT3 from my times at Mercedes and some other stuff in a couple of other race cars here and there. But in terms of extracting lap times from a proper traction control system and all the aids and assists that we have inside the car (I’m) still trying to understand kind of what makes it click, because when I’m applying the throttle, my resolution is not spot on yet.” 


 

Wickens heads in with both a flexible frame of mind and a four-time Long Beach-winning co-driver. Tommy Milner joins the DXDT IMSA lineup with the GTD PRO category off this race. Additionally, as IMSA shares the weekend with IndyCar, expect a parade of his friends and former competitors to the DXDT paddock and/or pits on Friday and Saturday.    


 

Thanks for the Memories

When a racing series has been a part of an iconic event for as long as IMSA has been on the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach schedule, the result is a flood of great memories. 


 

It’s featured “trading paint” (and body parts) from IMSA’s Long Beach debut in 1990. It witnessed a giant-killing top-six overall sweep by Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars in 2007, led by a Penske Porsche RS Spyder. It’s seen last-lap passes, such as Simon Pagenaud on Adrian Fernandez in 2010. And it’s seen several recent three-peats: Corvette Racing in GT1 from 2007 to 2009, the Brothers Taylor overall in both DP and DPi from 2015 to 2017 and Paul Miller Racing’s Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers in GTD from 2021 to 2023. 


 

Sebastien Bourdais’ Long Beach stardom shifted from Champ Cars to sports cars when in 2022, the Frenchman put a new twist on the adage “if you can’t win be spectacular” by winning in spectacular fashion. He stormed back from a mid-race miscue to erase a 21-second deficit and grab the overall victory co-driving with van der Zande. 


 

The last two years, age-old rivals and cagey riverboat gamblers Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi – and their strategists – drew “inside straights” and went the distance on a single set of Michelin tires. Meanwhile Vasser Sullivan Racing started a winning streak of its own with successive GTD PRO and GTD wins in their Lexus RC F GT3s.


 

Will Vasser Sullivan collect a three-fer of its own this year? Will one or two sets of tires be the ticket to the overall win for a third consecutive year? The only sure thing is that Saturday’s “100 minutes of Southern California” is destined to add a few more great memories to IMSA’s rich legacy on the streets of Long Beach. 


 

Catch all the action of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Saturday at 5:00 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock, IMSA Radio or streaming live on IMSA.tv and IMSA’s official YouTube channel (internationally).

 

Long Beach’s Longest Memories

IMSA Field Reflects On Why They Love the Streets of Long Beach


 

April 9, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Saturday sports car showcase at Long Beach often serves as a highlight of both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season and the full Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend. 


 

For a race that is the shortest on the WeatherTech Championship calendar at just 100 minutes, a shifted vibe and approach pushes the focus level to a hyper-targeted effort.


 

GTP Field Pushes the Limit from Lap One 


 

Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy have won the first two Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) races of 2025 in their No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. Both are past Long Beach winners, with Nasr’s first and thus far only triumph coming in 2021 in the Action Express Racing-prepared Whelen Cadillac DPi-V.R. Tandy co-drove to the first Porsche 963 global victory at Long Beach in 2023, sharing with Mathieu Jaminet. 


 

Nasr described from the driver’s seat what may not entirely translate about just how hard to push between the concrete walls of the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course.


 

“I just love this style of racing bringing the GTP cars to Long Beach and extracting the maximum of the car in a track like that. It’s a real challenge,” he explained. 


 

“You have to be patient with yourself, and the track might not be ready to give you the grip yet, or the car. The track evolves so much that it’s hard for yourself to say what you did right or wrong. You have to be patient in what you change and how you evolve during the session. 


 

“Of course, there’s a commitment level as the weekend goes beyond practice into racing, you start getting closer to the walls, braking later. That’s the fascinating part of street racing. For us drivers, you start getting closer to the walls, closer to the limit, it’s a great feeling behind the wheel.”

Two-time and defending GTP winner Renger van der Zande comes to Long Beach with the race’s title sponsor, Acura, for the first time. Now sharing the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly, the Dutchman added to Nasr’s thoughts about why he likes Long Beach so much.


 

“There’s a lot of pressure for sure and I like pressure,” van der Zande said before heading to a simulator session in Indianapolis ahead of this weekend’s race. “That's good and obviously the discussion here at Honda is about how short of a window it is to really find the right decision moments. 


 

“It's really a cooperation; it’s not just ‘I’m Renger, I won it twice, so I know what to do.’ It's every year is different again. There's so much to think about and the homework they've been doing is incredible and I just tried to support it with the experience I have.”


 

Cadillac has enjoyed a wealth of Long Beach success, with six overall IMSA top-class prototype wins since 2017. Ricky Taylor won the first of those six with brother Jordan in 2017 and seeks a return to the top in the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R he’ll share this year with Filipe Albuquerque.


 

“It is always exciting to get into the sprint race part of the season where we can really get back into the rhythm of IMSA racing,” said the elder Taylor brother. “It’s always a bit of a shock to the system to transition to every lap really counting, but I think all of our drivers really enjoy that. We really have to be on our game and make every session count.”


 

GTD’s Solo Showcase Pushes Field to Its Best

With Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) absent, the GTD class gets the spotlight as the only IMSA GT class competing in Long Beach. For drivers and teams, the event serves as a highlight of the season. 


 

Elliott Skeer, co-driver of the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with Adam Adelson, enjoys his first of two California-type home races Long Beach, although this one is closer than WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey.


 

Skeer lives in San Diego and Adelson in Los Angeles, so the camaraderie of the event and the memories established stand out. Both look to atone from a challenging 2024 Long Beach race where the car retired after just eight laps due to contact.


 

“(Long Beach) is even closer for Adam than me, so it’s surprising to find someone closer,” Skeer laughed.


 

“It’s the friends, family, environment, the one race we can get everyone to. Hopefully I get to race it this time. Last year’s race didn’t go to plan.


 

“It’s not a track you can do on a track day. You have to be in this event to race here. I’ve been going since 2006 as a fan I think, religiously. I remember watching Pat Long and the (Flying) Lizards religiously. 


 

“Now to be driving around the fountain in a Porsche is an incredible thing. We have a good pit stall with the points we’re in. We can execute the one pit stop and try to start ‘the Adam era’ of Wright strongly.” 

For former junior open-wheel-racer-turned-IMSA-winner Parker Thompson, the visibility change moving from a smaller open-wheel car to a heavier GT beast from Lexus marks a fascinating visual shift on a street course.


 

“You just don’t realize how much room there is on the passenger side when you sit offset,” said Thompson, who won at Long Beach last year with Ben Barnicoat and shares the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with Jack Hawksworth. “So, throughout my career growing up, when I race on a street course, you had easy visibility of both the left and right front wheels. 


 

“The Lexus, because it is one of the larger, wider GT cars, you're basically guessing where that right-front is at all times. Especially Turn 8 at Long Beach is one of those turns where in qualifying, you're like, ‘Oh, am I gonna hit it? Is it close?’ So, it is just kind of a guessing game. That's the biggest difference is the offset.”


 

The fun and festivities start with two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, April 11, followed by the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach 100-minute race on Saturday, April 12. The race airs live on NBC Sports’ USA Network and Peacock at 5:00 p.m. ET with international coverage via IMSA.TV and IMSA’s official YouTube channel.

 

 

Wright’s New Chapter Set to Unfold 

Adelson Acquires One of Porsche’s Most Successful Customer Teams to Forge New Future


 

April 8, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – “The Wright stuff” is one of the oldest and most frequently uttered puns to describe Wright Motorsports’ presence racing Porsches in sports car racing. It wouldn’t stick if it wasn’t true.


 

The team’s preparation, commitment to engineering excellence and sustained success across multiple IMSA championships have served it well for its more than two decades of existence. 


 

But the ingredients that make up the “Wright stuff” recipe have changed. On April 2, the team officially announced Adam Adelson had acquired the team from founder John Wright, although plans had been in the works for a year with the sale finalized in December 2024. 


 

Wright will remain as an advisor to guide the team, with team manager Bob Viglione becoming Chief Operating Officer after 14 years with the group. The team will stay based in Batavia, Ohio even though there may be expansion plans, since Adelson is based on the West Coast.


 

What Adelson doesn’t plan to change is the dedication to winning, which Wright has done regularly throughout IMSA and what Adelson and co-driver Elliott Skeer have started to do in their year-plus in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.

“What I love about Wright is the familiar environment, but also their dedication to performing into different levels of motorsport, not just to compete but also to win races and championships,” Adelson said. 


 

“I got talking with John Wright, and it was pretty evident he wanted to take a step back to focus on his family and personal life. I’d just came off an attempt to start a team. Wright Motorsports was really starting to seem like the best path forward to both continue to compete as a racing driver and field championship-winning programs. 


 

“But because of their dedication to engineering excellence, it felt like – and Wright Motorsports has a lot on street car projects and custom race car projects too which folks will see in the not-too-distant future – it felt the perfect launch platform for me to chase my dreams.” 


 

Adelson and Skeer won their first IMSA race as co-drivers at last September’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks in Indianapolis, which marked their third podium finish of their first year in GTD. 


 

They’ve started 2025 strongly too; Skeer won the Motul Pole Award for the Rolex 24 At Daytona as the quartet of Skeer, Adelson, Tom Sargent and Ayhancan Guven finished second. Adelson also won the first two IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge races in Daytona in that series’ new Grand Touring Daytona X (GTDX) class for GT3-specification cars.


 

The success this pair has had has come in large part from formative years together. Adelson’s nascent sports car career began in 2020 when he drove his first cars, and he and Skeer shared cars together in various sports car series over the last several years, including winning a class championship in GT World Challenge America with Wright in 2024.


 

Adelson has hailed Skeer for learning “countless” things and Skeer praised Adelson for revitalizing his potentially stalled career, despite winning the 2015 IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup USA championship in a Wright-run Porsche.


 

“From his first day on a race tire, and at relatively the same age and not a 20-year gap, the dynamic was different with Adam and special in terms of his starting from the beginning,” Skeer reflected. 


 

“He was enthusiastic and ready to go. The little things in racing, you’re so excited about. How to qualify. How to start. How to do the first proper quali sim on stickers. How do you develop from the beginning? For me, it went back to rediscovering the rules I’d forgotten, and (his) first win is almost more special to me than any of the others.”

Adelson added, “He’s been my coach and mentor since the first time I went on a race tire. Starting off in the sport with literally zero racing experience, it’s not often that you get to participate in a sport you get to share with a true seasoned professional. That type of access to what a true professional does in their sport, I don’t know where you get that access, in what the top of the top do. And to compare data, methodologies, training methods, and do it alongside your coach and co-driver. 


 

“I’ve learned about the insane levels of dedication and preparation it takes to compete at these levels. No matter how many laps you do on the simulator, no matter how many hours in the gym, random track days, instances of seat time, someone out there is doing more. Elliott helped me get into and develop that mindset.”


 

Adelson has understood the shift in team dynamic, too, from customer to team owner and ensuring the successful transition for team employees to now be working for someone who joined as a customer.


 

“I’d had an all-hands meeting with our full-time employees and contractors, everyone who became part of the family,” he explained. “At track, I am a customer and a driver. With John Wright running the program amazingly as he did, there’s not much more that I need to be involved in relatively to what I want to be involved in.


 

“With the transition from friendships within the team to now having it transfer to an employer-employee, I cannot credit every team member enough with how well they’ve handled the transition. It’s turned into respect in a professional perspective. We all have the same goals. We’re all a family. And that’s how we make it work.” 

Through Indianapolis last year, Wright has eight IMSA wins in WeatherTech Championship competition, perhaps its most famous being the 2022 Rolex 24 At Daytona GTD class win. The team has flown the flag for Porsche in the GTD ranks as other teams have come-and-gone. It’s also enjoyed success in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, with longtime Wright driver Jan Heylen securing the 2021 Grand Sport (GS) class title in a Porsche GT4 specification car. 


 

Adelson made no secret of his lofty goals for the team going forward, while remaining customer-service focused.


 

“The main goal is effectively to achieve a level of growth that enables us to field race- and championship-winning capable programs that a Porsche GT race car can race in, in the United States,” he said. 


 

“John Wright and I have had a lot of long discussions to have a mutual understanding of what the future of the team should be and how to grow it progressively and organically to not bite off more than we can chew. 


 

“The very last thing I’d want to happen – and I won’t allow this to happen – is to lose the level of quality and service we provide for our customers. I want every single customer Wright Motorsports has or will have to have the same exact, incredible, extremely professional experience I had with them. 


 

“It’s why I wanted to purchase the team. I want to make sure every customer has the same experience.” 

 

 

For Robert Wickens, There’s No Satisfaction – Yet

Competitive Spirit Burns Brightly for Wickens Ahead of Initial DXDT Corvette WeatherTech Championship Start


 

April 8, 2025

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Robert Wickens is tough to satisfy. Many people would have been satisfied merely surviving that terrible IndyCar crash at Pocono International Raceway in 2018. Not Robert Wickens. Thankful? Yes. Satisfied? No. Although partially paralyzed below his chest, Wickens vowed to stand and even dance at his wedding to Karli Woods. And after more than a year of treatment and rehabilitation, in September 2019 he did just that.


 

But Wickens also vowed to return to motorsports competition and, with the aid of a hand-controlled, mechanical braking and throttle system, he did just that at the wheel of a Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR in 2022.


 

But just driving a race car was not enough for Wickens. He wanted to be competitive … and to take the next step after that, namely winning races … and the next step after that, namely returning to championship-winning form. All of which he did, scoring four wins in the Touring Car (TCR) class over a three-year run and capturing the 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR title.


 

But Robert Wickens had still loftier goals. Namely, competing at the very pinnacle of the sport. He recently took the next step toward achieving that goal at Sebring International Raceway, testing the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with Bosch Motorsports’ new electronic braking and throttle control system (EBS) in preparation for his debut in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 11-12. Provided he takes the green flag, it will mark his first WeatherTech Championship start since the 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona in an open-top Prototype Challenge (PC) class entry. 

“My goal from the outset of this was to get back to the highest levels of motorsport again,” Wickens says. “I’ve always seen that the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the highest level of sports car racing here in North America. Aligning myself with someone like General Motors and DXDT Racing, it was just the perfect fit. It would be a dream if I could call it a 10-year career here in the IMSA WeatherTech series racing against the best drivers in the world in one of the best series in the world.” 


 

Long Beach is the first in a five-race schedule on tap for Wickens this season, one that sees him focusing on WeatherTech Championship sprint races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America and VIRginia International Raceway in addition to Long Beach.


 

While enormously excited at the prospects, as you might imagine, Wickens won’t be satisfied “just” to race at Long Beach. He wants to use success in sprint races to springboard to a full-time entry. 


 

“I think this is a big step,” he says. “For me to officially get that fulfillment, I want to be a full-time contender in the WeatherTech series. Honestly taking the green flag in Long Beach is going to be a tremendous step forward in my career and my journey back to the highest levels. Basically, you could say, ‘We did it. We’re racing against the best cars and the best drivers in the whole sports car industry.’


 

“My goal is always to get to the highest levels and I feel like I’m here. So the next step becomes a week-in, week-out staple of the series and make sure I can get myself to a full-time position for 2026 and then start fighting for championships. Hopefully we can challenge for race wins and podiums here this year.”


 

As Wickens’ competitors and Long Beach co-driver Tommy Milner can attest, podium finishes, let alone race wins, are hard to come by in GTD competition. Given that the two-day run at Sebring is Wickens’ only scheduled testing in the DXDT Corvette this year, there are no guarantees he will have the satisfaction of a top-three finish in 2025, let alone a victory. 


 

“I’ll bet you a win is going to be (Robert’s) goal (at Long Beach),” says Milner, the Corvette Racing factory ace and four-time Long Beach class winner who’s available because the GTD PRO class isn’t racing this event. “And I certainly think that’s possible. The Corvette has been fast at Long Beach (but) I also think the weekend goals-wise will be to help set himself up and the team up for a successful rest of the season as well. It’s not a checkers or wreckers kind of thing. It’s definitely going to be about getting the best result that we can, but I’m certainly not counting on a win.”


 

From the sounds of it, neither is Wickens.

“Getting acclimated into the car was kind of Job One,” Wickens says of the Sebring test. “Honestly, Bosch did so much preparation ahead of this that there wasn’t a lot. The first run with the system … if that was all I had and there was no ‘tunability’ I wouldn’t have been upset about it. We started off in such a great window where I just kind of got to figure out the car.


 

“I got my first taste of a long run on double-stinted tires to see what the car behaves like. This is my only test for the whole year and we want to make sure that I have as many tools in my belt as possible so there’s no surprises when we get to Long Beach or further down the road. The best thing about Sebring is a lot of these apex and exit kerbs are not super friendly. So you can treat them like walls. So in terms of getting used to Long Beach, that’s been good.”


 

Although Wickens won’t have the luxury of any additional on-track testing prior to Long Beach, he will doubtless log plenty of laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit on his home race simulation set-up.


 

“Racing on my home simulator is not only fun, but it made my dexterity and kind of my resolution of my hand for throttle application in particular just stronger and stronger,” he says. “After driving the Corvette Z06, I feel like the next step for me is actually to start doing more throttle application with my right hand just to build muscle memory … My brake that I use on my home simulator is very different to what we have in the race car, but for the throttle purposes, I think it’s very helpful.”

And while two days of on-track testing and virtually unlimited time on the sim can shave tenths of a second off lap times, perhaps even more critical will be the time gained – or lost – in the driver swap on what figures to be the Long Beach race’s one and only scheduled pit stop. 


 

While time can be gained or lost on any pit stop in any race, at 100 minutes in length, Long Beach (along with Detroit) is the shortest race on the IMSA calendar making pit stop execution more vital than ever, especially given that on-track passing opportunities generally are few and far between. Also of note, minimum drive time in the GTD class is 35 minutes, so Wickens would likely qualify and start before the driver change sequence is initiated to turn the car over to Milner. 


 

“We’ve always talked about the driver change being a pretty important part of the (Long Beach) race because that typically ends-up being kind of the limiting factor in the pit stop,” Milner says. “The tires and the fuel typically take a little bit less time (than a driver change). Robbie obviously comes from a place where he has the sports car racing experience, where he’s had to do those driver changes. From that side, there’s no limitations, so to speak. He knows what he needs to get out of the car.” 


 

It’s safe to say Robert Wickens won’t be satisfied unless and until he gets everything possible – himself included – out of the DXDT Corvette.

 

 

 

Jack’s New Pack: Hawksworth Adjusting to Vasser Sullivan’s No. 12 Lexus 

Hawksworth, Thompson Seeking GTD Success in Reshuffled Lineup


 

April 3, 2025

By Jeff Olson

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Everything is different, yet everything is the same.


 

Jack Hawksworth changed cars, class, co-drivers, engineers and mechanics for the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season – all while staying within the same organization.


 

After teaming with Parker Thompson and Frankie Montecalvo to finish second in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class last month in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Hawksworth’s latest assignment for Vasser Sullivan is rapidly reaching its potential.


 

For the previous three years, Hawksworth teamed with Ben Barnicoat on the team’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, winning the class championship in 2023. Before the start of the 2025 season, Hawksworth was moved to the team’s No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 in GTD.


 

Same team, different situation. But, as Hawksworth quickly noted, same fun.


 

“I had such a great time racing on the 14 side of the team for a long time and have a great relationship with those guys, but at the same time it’s been nice to kind of freshen things up a little bit and experience something a little bit different,” he said. “So far, I’ve really enjoyed it.”


 

Announced before the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, the Vasser Sullivan lineup change placed Barnicoat with Aaron Telitz in the team’s No. 14 Lexus in GTD PRO with Kyle Kirkwood joining for Michelin Endurance Cup races, while Hawksworth teamed with Thompson in the No. 12 Lexus in GTD with Montecalvo joining for endurance races.


 

Barnicoat, who’s recovering from injuries sustained in a mountain biking accident, was temporarily replaced by Jose Maria Lopez at Sebring. 


 

As in 2024, the team has added a second GTD-only car at Long Beach. Last year it was Barnicoat and Thompson winning the race in the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3. This year, it’ll be Telitz and Montecalvo. 


 

The primary difference between the two classes is driver designation: GTD PRO allows an open selection of drivers per car, usually those with an FIA rating of Platinum or Gold. GTD requires at least one driver per car with a rating of Bronze or Silver.


 

The beginning of Vasser Sullivan’s new arrangement wasn’t what Hawksworth expected. He moved the car to third in class as night fell at Daytona before mechanical issues relegated the No. 12 team to an 14th-place finish. 


 

The possibilities shone through at Sebring, however, as Hawksworth, Thompson and Montecalvo secured the runner-up finish, moving them to sixth in points heading to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 12.

Moving from one side of Vasser Sullivan’s Concord, North Carolina, shop to the other wasn’t a major change, Hawksworth explained, but learning the intricacies of the No. 12 car’s operation – led by engineering team lead Chris Andrews and car chief Jesse Goldin – offered nuance to a newcomer. For most of his Lexus tenure, Hawksworth worked with engineer Geoff Fickling, who’d steered his championship success in both IMSA and Pro Mazda. 


 

”Probably the bigger transition for me has been changing from one side of the team to the other,” Hawksworth said. “I’m working with a different engineer and different mechanics and obviously different co-drivers. Everything is new, if that makes sense. How you get the best out of everybody changes, for sure.”


 

The best so far was the podium finish at Sebring, a hard-fought result that Thompson credited to Hawksworth – along with much more that his teammates find admirable.


 

“Jack embodies what it means to be a professional race-car driver,” Thompson said. “I would go as far to say that I don’t know if there is a more dedicated race car driver in sports car racing currently. The guy lives, breathes, eats and sleeps racing. He takes everything to the max.”


 

Success requires that level of commitment, Hawksworth says, but it also requires an ability to determine what’s important and what isn’t.


 

“It’s easy to chase the minors and miss the majors, right?” he said. “I feel like where we’ve been good is the basics and the fundamentals that make a strong race team. I feel like we’re trying to major in the majors and not worry too much about the minors. We have a good understanding of what’s important.”


 

That’s certainly evident at Long Beach, where Barnicoat and Hawksworth won during their GTD PRO championship run in 2023, and where Thompson and Barnicoat won last year in GTD in the No. 89 Lexus.


 

“The Lexus just works well there,” Hawksworth said. “We’ve been able to qualify well, and it all comes down to qualifying. You’ve got to start up front and get the jump at the start. After that point, it’s so difficult to pass. We’ve always been good at qualifying there.”


 

That’s not an accident. It’s a design. Success is a matter of analysis, team members say – going over and over the basics to find improvement.


 

“Rarely do you see a group of guys who have had this much success continue to self-reflect and want to evolve and get better,” Thompson said. “Usually once a team has won championships they can rest on their laurels. … The amount of reports that we generate on everything – pit stops, out laps, in laps – down to the finite details, that’s where we’re trying to get better. It’s impressive.”   


 

Live coverage of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, a 100-minute sprint for Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and GTD classes, can be seen April 12 at 5 p.m. ET on USA, Peacock, YouTube and imsa.tv.

 

Entry List Notebook – Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

First Sprint Race for GTP, GTD Highlights 50th Anniversary Race Weekend


 

April 2, 2025

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – IMSA’s annual April pivot in direction (cross-country from Florida to California), race length (24 and 12 hours down to 100 minutes), circuit type (infield road course/oval and former airfield to a downtown street circuit) and class structure (all four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes down to two) occurs once more in 2025 with the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend.


 

IMSA’s history on the famed 1.968-mile streets of Long Beach – a race weekend often called “America’s Fastest Beach Party” – spans to the early 1990s with GTO and GTU racing before being part of the weekend docket consistently since 2006. Since the WeatherTech Championship unified in 2014, Long Beach has been a part of the calendar all years except 2020 when the race didn’t happen due to the global pandemic. 


 

A field of 27 cars from 11 manufacturers are set to tackle the 100-minute race, where pit strategy is one of the biggest keys to win, split among 11 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) cars and 16 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) cars. The 14 full-season GTD entries expand to include additional one-off entries for Vasser Sullivan Racing and AO Racing.


 

Robert Wickens’ debut in a GTD entry also stands out; aided by Bosch’s new electronic hand control braking package installed in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R, Wickens advances into the WeatherTech Championship for the first time since a one-off appearance in the 2017 Rolex 24 At Daytona. He’ll share his car with Corvette Racing factory ace Tommy Milner, a four-time Long Beach winner available to drive alongside with Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) off this weekend.


 

Weekend fast facts and entry notes are below: 


 

Fast Facts

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Long Beach Street Course – Long Beach, California 

April 11-12, 2025


 

Race Day/Time: Saturday, April 12 – 5:00 p.m. ET

NBC Sports Coverage: USA Network and Peacock from 5:00-7:00 p.m. (IMSA.com/TVLive, YouTube.com/@IMSAOfficial outside the U.S.)

Live Qualifying Stream: Friday, April 11 – 8:05 p.m. ET (Peacock, IMSA.com/TVLive in the U.S., YouTube.com/@IMSAOfficial outside the U.S.)

IMSA Radio Coverage: Audio via XM 206, Web/App 996

Circuit Type: 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course

Race Length: 100 minutes

Classes Competing: Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Grand Touring Daytona (GTD)


 

Track Social Media: 

Event Hashtags: #IMSA, #AcuraGPLB


 

WeatherTech Championship Track Records

GTP: Filipe Albuquerque, Acura ARX-06, 1:09.909 / 101.343 mph, April 2023

GTD: Parker Thompson, Lexus RC F GT3, 1:17.357 / 91.585 mph, April 2024

 

2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Winners:

GTP: Renger van der Zande/Sebastien Bourdais, No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R

GTD: Parker Thompson/Ben Barnicoat, No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3


 

2024 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Motul Pole Award Winners:

GTP: Pipo Derani, No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R

GTD: Parker Thompson, No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3


 

Storylines

  • The Hard Pivot to the Streets: With the “36 Hours of Florida” in the books, IMSA heads west to Long Beach to the one of the two shortest races on the calendar: the 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. There are five Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and nine Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) manufacturers, with three manufacturers (Aston Martin, BMW, Porsche) competing in both classes. 
  • Wickens’ Corvette Debut: One of the most anticipated WeatherTech Championship GTD debuts comes as Robert Wickens makes his first start in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which carries a special Bosch electronic hand control braking package. Never satisfied and focused on his driving return since his 2018 accident that left him partially paralyzed, the 2023 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) class champion races at a track where he raced 18 years ago in Formula Atlantic in 2007, seven years ago in IndyCar in 2018, and where he’s coached IndyCar drivers since. 
  • To Change or Not To Change?: The last two GTP winners at Long Beach have opted for the same winning strategy: no tire change on the one scheduled pit stop in the 100-minute race. In both 2023 for Porsche Penske Motorsports and 2024 for Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing, that decision to double stint the starting set of Michelin tires to the finish has proved pivotal to victory. As in 2024, Michelin has brought its soft compound tires for GTP teams to use in the 2025 race. 
  • A Half Century of Awesomeness: The Long Beach event celebrates both its 50th running and 50th anniversary in 2025, and sports car racing has been a part of the weekend for more than 20 years. IMSA held races here in the 1990s, while GRAND-AM staged a single race in 2006, the American Le Mans Series competed from 2007 through 2013 and IMSA has raced here since 2014. Who will win this historic trip to “The Beach?” 
  • Shriek on the Streets: It’s been more than a decade since the last time an Aston Martin V12 engine’s note echoed off the buildings in Long Beach in ALMS. Simon Pagenaud’s HRC ARX-01c passed Adrian Fernandez’s Lola B09/60 Aston Martin on the last lap for the overall win in 2010. Aston Martin got its win a year later in the hands of Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, in a Lola B08/62 Aston Martin. Now, the new Aston Martin THOR Team Aston Martin Valkyrie will make its street course debut and its sound will be worth the price of admission. 


 

Who’s Hot?

  • No. 7 Porsche: It’s been a picture-perfect start for the Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr pairing in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, with back-to-back overall and GTP wins in Florida. The Porsche 963 won its first race globally at Long Beach in 2023 with Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet. 
  • Winward, Heart of Racing, Turner, Wright: Through two GTD races, four cars: the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO and No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) are the only cars in class with two top-six finishes in both races. 

 

Who’s Good Here?

  • Tommy Milner: With GTD PRO off this race, Corvette Racing customer program DXDT Racing enlists Milner’s services to share the No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Robert Wickens. Milner is the active leader in Long Beach wins with four, all in the former GT Le Mans class. 
  • Cadillac: Although Acura is the race weekend entitlement partner, Cadillac has made Long Beach victory lane feel like home. Cadillac has won six of the last seven top-class prototype races at Long Beach since 2017, losing only in 2023. 
  • Lexus: The Vasser Sullivan Racing team goes for its third straight Long Beach win, with its first two split between GTD PRO in 2023 and GTD in 2024. 


 

Previous Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Winners in 2025 Field (15)

  • Tommy Milner (4): GT – 2012, GTLM – 2017, 2018, 2021
  • Nick Tandy (3): GTLM – 2016, 2021; GTP – 2023
  • Jordan Taylor (3): P – 2015, 2016, 2017
  • Ricky Taylor (3): P – 2015, 2016, 2017
  • Filipe Albuquerque (2): P – 2018; DPi – 2019 
  • Renger van der Zande (2): DPi – 2022, GTP – 2024 
  • Colin Braun (1): PC – 2013 
  • Earl Bamber (1): GTLM – 2019 
  • Misha Goikhberg (1): PC – 2016 
  • Ross Gunn (1): GTD PRO – 2022 
  • Jack Hawksworth (1): GTD PRO – 2023 
  • Mathieu Jaminet (1): GTP – 2023 
  • Felipe Nasr (1): DPi – 2021 
  • Parker Thompson (1): GTD – 2024 
  • Laurens Vanthoor (1): GTLM – 2019 


 

Previous Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Pole Winners in 2025 Field (7)

  • Jordan Taylor (2): GTLM – 2021; GTD PRO – 2022 
  • Ricky Taylor (2): P – 2015, 2017 
  • Filipe Albuquerque (1): GTP – 2023 
  • Jack Hawksworth (1): GTD PRO – 2023 
  • Felipe Nasr (1): DPi – 2021 
  • Nick Tandy (1): GTLM – 2019 
  • Parker Thompson (1): GTD – 2024 


 

Previous Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Winning Teams in 2025 Field (7)

  • Action Express Racing (3): P – 2018; DPi – 2019, 2021 
  • BMW M Team RLL (3): GT – 2011, 2013; GTLM – 2015 
  • Wayne Taylor Racing (3): P – 2015, 2016, 2017 
  • Team Penske (2): P2 – 2007; GTP – 2023
  • Vasser Sullivan Racing (2): GTD PRO – 2023, GTD – 2024 
  • Heart of Racing Team (1): GTD PRO – 2022 
  • JDC-Miller MotorSports (1): PC – 2016 


 

Previous Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Winning Manufacturers in 2025 Field (11)

  • Chevrolet – 10 
  • Porsche – 10
  • Cadillac – 6
  • BMW – 5
  • Acura – 3
  • Lexus – 3
  • Aston Martin – 2
  • Ferrari – 2 
  • Ford – 1 
  • Lamborghini – 1 
  • Mercedes-AMG – 1

 

Putting the ‘Win’ in Winward 

GTD Team’s Growth On and Off Track Continues Trending Upward


 

March 31, 2025

By Mark Robinson

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Among the features of Winward Racing’s shiny new and expansive workshop is more space dedicated to displaying the team’s winning race cars. Good thing because Winward could be on its way to adding another piece of championship machinery to the showcase.


 

When Winward co-owner Russell Ward teamed with Philip Ellis and Indy Dontje to win the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) portion of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 15, it gave the trio the rare distinction of becoming back-to-back winners in the grueling race on the former airfield. It also pushed the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to the top of the GTD standings as Winward chases a second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season title.


 

Coupled with a fourth-place finish in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, the Sebring victory gave Winward a 41-point lead over the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin GT3 Evo after two of 10 GTD races this season. It also culminated a hectic few months that included the official grand opening of the 40,000-square-foot new headquarters in Houston and pointed to an even brighter future for the team whose IMSA debut came in the Michelin Pilot Challenge in 2018 before joining the WeatherTech Championship three years later and winning at the Rolex 24 in that maiden race.


 

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself,” admits Ward, who co-owns the team with his father, Bryce. Bryce co-drives the team’s Grand Sport (GS) class No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver Daniel Morad. “I'm an incredibly competitive person and come from an incredibly competitive family in everything that we've done together. 

“In the time we were doing (only) GT4, we had a lot of expectations going in and really found it difficult to execute properly at the racetrack and get the result that the team's been working for. For us, it's been a learning experience. … We've started to gather the core group of people – one guy here, one guy there – who stuck around for years, and I really feel that that's the success of the team. It comes from the blood, sweat and tears that is poured into that race car before every event here in the shop.


 

“We as drivers come in there and we're prepared as well,” the younger Ward continued. “Sim time, going to the gym to make sure we're physically fit for the event, but we also show up to what looks like a brand-new race car every time. And every time the drivers come up there, you think, ‘Damn! That thing’s well prepped and it's gonna be fast.’ ... It's been a long road, but now that we've got a good core group, we can maintain this level of performance for the years to come.”


 

The core group of drivers has done its share as well. Russell Ward – who was named the Overall Pro Driver and Pro Driver GT3 awards winner at the 2024 Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Championship ceremony – and full-season co-driver Ellis have nine wins together. Dontje is the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup add-on and has joined them for five victories, including four of the last seven longer events (Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen in 2024, plus Sebring in 2025). 


 

“We're racing already quite a long time together,” Dontje said following the Sebring triumph. “We know each other really well in and outside of the car. I think that helps a lot. We have a really good rhythm in driving, driver-change practice, knowing what we would like in the car. I think all these things come together in this race. Not only in this race, but also in other races.”


 

Lucas Auer, who like Ellis is a Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver, was the fourth driver in the No. 57 for the Rolex 24, when Winward stumbled early with a throttle assembly issue that dropped the car seven laps off the pace while repairs were made. Unfazed, the team fought back and was in position to win the 24-hour season opener for a second straight year (and third in five years) until a late full-course caution necessitated an emergency stop for fuel. The ensuing penalty dropped the No. 57 to 10th place on the restart but Auer tore through the field in the final hour to finish fourth and perhaps save Winward’s hopes of repeating as GTD champions.

At Sebring, a pit-lane infraction led to a drive-through penalty that dropped Winward from the front. Again, the team rallied, this time with Ellis at the wheel. His bump-and-run pass on Jack Hawksworth in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 with just over 12 minutes remaining was for the lead and win.


 

“He’s one of the most top-class guys I've ever driven with,” Ward said of Ellis. “His speed is incredible, and I think over the years of driving with us, he's also kind of understood what it takes to win a race here in in the United States. … He just was reserved until the opportunity presented itself and he capitalized and then was able to drive away. It was awesome watching that on the box.”


 

Ward is still a bit in awe of the team’s sparkling new facility as well. It includes carbon fiber repair and vinyl wrap areas that save Winward time and expense. What used to take several weeks to ship out damaged parts and have them fixed and rewrapped can now be done in-house in three days.


 

The shop also boasts entertainment space to host gatherings for team sponsors, along with opportunities to pitch new sponsors.


 

“We now have a beautiful venue where we can entertain, where we can really showcase the team and hopefully get some more money in here,” Ward said. And, he added, “more room to fit our championship-winning cars.”


 

Shop Photo Courtesy Winward Racing

 

International Motor Sports Association    Lamborghini Super Trofeo series  
2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe calendar

11-13 April – Paul Ricard
30 May -1 June – Monza
27-29 June – Spa-Francorchamps
29-31 August – Nürburgring 
10-12 October – Barcelona 
6-7 November – Misano

2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia calendar

4-6 April – Sydney (Australia)
16-18 May – Shanghai (China) 
27-29 June – Fuji (Japan) 
18-20 July – Inje (South Korea)
5-7 September – Sepang (Malaysia) 
6-7 November – Misano

2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America calendar

12-14 March – Sebring (Florida)
9-11 May – Laguna Seca (California)
19-21 June – Watkins Glen (New York)
1-3 August – Road America (Wisconsin)
18-20 September – Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indiana)
6-7 November – Misano

2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals

8-9 November - Misano

 

2025 international Motor Sports Association  schedule

Event Date  
 
The Roar Before The 24
Jan 17
11:00
 
Daytona 24 Hours
Jan 25
13:40
 
Sebring 12 Hours
* Mar 15
 
 
Long Beach
* Apr 12
 
 
Laguna Seca
* May 11
 
 
Detroit
* May 31
 
 
Watkins Glen
* Jun 22
 
 
Mosport
* Jul 13
 
 
Road America
* Aug 03
 
 
Virginia
* Aug 24
 
 
Indianapolis
* Sep 21
 
 
Petit Le Mans
* Oct 11
 

 
       

 

©2002-2025 MOTOR SPORTS GARAGE PRODUCTIONS,  All Rights Reserved

ALL LOGOS ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE RACING SERIES AND ARE USED FOR EDITORIAL PURPOSES ONLY

ALL PICTURES ARE PROPERTY OF THE RACING SERIES AND ARE USED FOR EDITORIAL PURPOSES ONLY

NO PART OF THE SITE CAN BE COPIED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF MOTORSPORTSGARAGE PRODUCTIONS

This site is dedicated to my dad " Hoot" who introduced me to the great sport of auto racing............. rest in peace  DAD

larry criss....................A true race fan LIKE AN UNCLE TO ME

   gary lee.................auto racing broadcast legend and personnel friend

charlie patterson ............my old friend that supported me when mo one else did

 Carroll Horton .......................................life long friend and indy car owner

Judy Morris.................... a true race fan

todd shafer..............."a rock n roller" with a love for racing!

FOLLOW US on