Door Is Open for GTD Car to Steal GT Category Win with Right Strategy and Luck - Speedway Digest

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship rolls into Southern California this week for the 47th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The 100-minute “sprint” race for the IMSA sports cars on the famous Long Beach street course that headlines the Saturday card is a completely different kind of challenge than the pair of endurance races that opened the 2022 WeatherTech Championship campaign.

Daytona International Speedway (3.56 miles) and Sebring International Raceway (3.74 miles) are both longer and offer more room for error than Long Beach, which packs 11 corners into less than two miles, all lined by unforgiving concrete walls.

A smaller field somewhat mitigates those tighter confines. With the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) classes not racing at Long Beach, 27 cars are expected to take the green flag – roughly half the size of the fields for the Rolex 24 At Daytona (61 entries) and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts (53).

But it’s not as simple as saying, “Half the track length, half the cars. What’s the big deal?”

The absence of the LMP2 and LMP3 classes changes the dynamic of the racing, not only for the six Daytona Prototype international (DPi) cars battling for the overall win, but for the competitors in in the GTD PRO and GT Daytona (GTD) classes that make up the majority of the field.

It gives Long Beach more similarities to the WeatherTech Championship races at Lime Rock Park and VIRginia International Raceway, 2-hour, 40-minute contests where no prototype classes compete and the GT cars are the headliners.

In fact, the brevity of the Long Beach race offers GTD competitors their best opportunity to upstage the theoretically faster GTD PRO runners.

It makes calling strategy absolutely critical, because the race is likely to include only one pit stop for fuel and a mandatory driver change.

“We’ve seen in years past that if one of the Am guys (Silver- or Bronze-rated drivers in a GTD car) get out early by pitting at the beginning of their window before a yellow comes out, they can cycle to the front,” said Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor, a three-time series champion who shares the No. 3 Corvette C8.R GTD with Antonio Garcia in the GTD PRO class. “I think a GTD with an Am could win the race outright in the (GT) category. It’s so hard to pass now, especially with ABS (anti-lock braking system used in both GT classes). It’s going to feel like you’re flat out for pretty much all 100 minutes.”

The pit stops are more intense than usual because they often require less than a full fuel fill. GT cars can run approximately 60 minutes on a tank, creating a huge window for being able to complete the race on a single stop.

With a fuel fill sometimes taking as little as 20 seconds at Long Beach, the pressure is on drivers to execute a perfect driver change – in addition to performing error-free on the track.

“There’s a huge emphasis on the pit stop, and it’s something we’ve already been discussing a lot,” said Ben Barnicoat, co-driver of the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 in GTD PRO with Jack Hawksworth. “It can make or break your race if something goes wrong in that change. It’s a bit of an ‘own goal’ if you don’t practice stops because, if you make a mistake, it could be hugely important to the overall result.”

Barnicoat hasn’t driven at Long Beach before. The Brit is eager for his maiden race there but also gives the tight street circuit its due respect.

“I’ve run a fair few laps of Long Beach on the (Toyota Racing Development) simulator in Charlotte,” he said, “but these things are always different when you get there in real life. In the simulator, there’s no fear factor that you’re going to clip something and rip a corner off the car or do some damage, which we can’t afford to do on such a short, tight weekend like this. I’m really looking forward to the challenge.”

WeatherTech Championship practices are set for 12:15 and 4:15 p.m. ET Friday, with qualifying for all three classes streaming live on IMSA.com/TVLive at 8:10 p.m. Saturday’s race airs live at 5 p.m. on USA Network, Peacock and IMSA Radio. Tickets for race weekend are available at gplb.com.

Author
Recent Posts

Adam Sinclair

NHRA, IHRA, Motocross and other forms of motorsports Staff writer
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.