Pirelli World Challenge primer: Long Beach - MotorSportsTalk

After a one-month break, the Pirelli World Challenge is back in action on the streets of Long Beach, Calif. this weekend. It marks the second time it will share the schedule with the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Sunday’s race starts at 4:30 p.m. PT, after the IndyCar race. It will air on the NBC Sports Network Sunday, May 5, at 2 p.m. ET.

Some of the key storylines to follow are below:

LOCAL FLAVOR

Long Beach marks a home race for a handful of drivers, including GT class points leader and St. Petersburg race two winner James Sofronas. Sofronas’ Global Motorsports Group, or GMG squad (pictured), is based in nearby Santa Ana, Calif. Sofronas’ Audi R8 will be back in action along with sister Audis driven by other California natives Duncan Ende (Los Angeles) and Bret Curtis (Westlake Village), and Colorado native Alex Welch. Sofronas also has a Porsche entered for Brent Holden in GT, and a Pontiac Solstice for Bill Ziegler in GTS.

Other California natives in the field include Tomy Drissi (Los Angeles, LG Corvette, GT), Tim Bell (Los Altos, CRP Nissan GT-R, GT), Kyle Kelly (Huntington Beach, Viper, GT), Craig Stanton (Long Beach, Porsche, GT), Brandon Davis (Huntington Beach, TRG Aston Martin, GTS), Nick Esayian (San Diego, RealTime Acura, GTS) and Erik Davis (Burbank, Ford Mustang, GTS).

REPEATS ON TAP?

A year ago in Long Beach, experience won out in the form of Andy Pilgrim’s Cadillac in GT and Jack Baldwin’s Porsche Cayman in GTS.

Pilgrim will seek to bring Cadillac back to the top after a difficult opening weekend for he and teammate Johnny O’Connell in St. Pete. Pilgrim’s win a year ago included a great pass of Randy Pobst’s K-PAX Racing Volvo S60.

Meanwhile Baldwin swept the St. Pete opener, also in a Cayman, and looks for three-in-a-row to start the season if he secures another triumph in Southern California.

NO DALZIEL, BUT STILL PLENTY OF STAR POWER

One of the stars of the St. Pete weekend, Ryan Dalziel, won’t be making the trip to Long Beach. Dalziel’s sponsors at the TruSpeed Porsche squad pulled out after a technical infraction in St. Pete, and the Scotsman is racing in another sports car event in Atlanta this Saturday. There’s still two Porsches in the GT class, competing against the might from Cadillac, Volvo, Nissan, Viper, Audi and Mercedes.

More information on the series can be found at www.world-challenge.com.

INDIANAPOLIS — The first Indy 500 victory for Josef Newgarden also was the richest in race history from a record 2023 purse of just more than $17 million.

The two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion, who continued his celebration Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earned $3.666 million for winning the 107th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The purse and winner’s share both are the largest in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

It’s the second consecutive year that the Indy 500 purse set a record after the 2022 Indy 500 became the first to crack the $16 million mark (nearly doubling the 2021 purse that offered a purse of $8,854,565 after a crowd limited to 135,000 because of the COVID-19 pandemic).

The average payout for IndyCar drivers was $500,600 (exceeding last year’s average of $485,000).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Roger Penske, whose team also fields Newgarden’s No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet, had made raising purses a priority since buying the track in 2020. But Penske but was unable to post big money purses until the race returned to full capacity grandstands last year.

The largest Indy 500 purse before this year was $14.4 million for the 2008 Indy 500 won by Scott Dixon (whose share was $2,988,065). Ericsson’s haul made him the second Indy 500 winner to top $3 million (2009 winner Helio Castroneves won $3,048,005.

Runner-up Marcus Ericsson won $1.043 million after falling short by 0.0974 seconds in the fourth-closest finish in Indy 500 history.

The 107th Indy 500 drew a crowd of at least 330,000 that was the largest since the sellout for the 100th running in 2016, and the second-largest in more than two decades, according to track officials.

“This is the greatest race in the world, and it was an especially monumental Month of May featuring packed grandstands and intense on-track action,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in a release. “Now, we have the best end card possible for the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500: a record-breaking purse for the history books.”

Benjamin Pedersen was named the Indy 500 rookie of the year, earning a $50,000 bonus.

The race’s purse is determined through contingency and special awards from IMS and IndyCar. The awards were presented Monday night in the annual Indy 500 Victory Celebration at the JW Marriott in downtown Indianapolis.

The payouts for the 107th Indy 500:

1. Josef Newgarden, $3,666,000
2. Marcus Ericsson, $1,043,000
3. Santino Ferrucci, $481,800
4. Alex Palou, $801,500
5. Alexander Rossi, $574,000
6. Scott Dixon, $582,000
7. Takuma Sato, $217,300
8. Conor Daly, $512,000
9. Colton Herta, $506,500
10. Rinus VeeKay, $556,500
11. Ryan Hunter‐Reay, $145,500
12. Callum Ilott, $495,500
13. Devlin DeFrancesco, $482,000
14. Scott McLaughlin, $485,000
15. Helio Castroneves, $481,500
16. Tony Kanaan, $105,000
17. Marco Andretti, $102,000
18. Jack Harvey, $472,000
19. Christian Lundgaard, $467,500
20. Ed Carpenter, $102,000
21. Benjamin Pedersen (R), $215,300
22. Graham Rahal, $565,500*
23. Will Power, $488,000
24. Pato O’Ward, $516,500
25. Simon Pagenaud, $465,500
26. Agustín Canapino (R), $156,300
27. Felix Rosenqvist, $278,300
28. Kyle Kirkwood, $465,500
29. David Malukas, $462,000
30. Romain Grosjean, $462,000
31. Sting Ray Robb (R), $463,000
32. RC Enerson (R), $103,000
33. Katherine Legge, $102,000

*–Broken down between two teams, $460,000 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, $105,500 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports