IMSA sports cars at Long Beach: How to watch, start times, schedule, entry list

By Apr 5, 2022, 11:00 AM EDT
IMSA Long Beach start times
Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images
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IMSA Long Beach start times: The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will open its Sprint Cup season with Cadillacs favored for the overall win — according to their chief competition.

Though Acura opened the season with Meyer Shank racing winning the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque believes his team and MSR will be at a deficit Saturday on the streets of Long Beach. The Portuguese driver admitted as much during a Zoom news conference last week, noting that the Acuras were nearly a second off the Cadillacs last September.

“The gap is so big, there is nothing we can do about it,” Albuquerque said. “I think this specific track, the deficit is too much. It sounds like i’m whining and crying, but last year the closest lap was eight 10ths off in qualifying, and that was me stretching all the walls and trying my best. There is a limit. How can I fight them?”

Cadillacs have won all four races at Long Beach during the DPi era (2020 was canceled because of the pandemic) and swept the podium last year with Action Express’ No. 31 of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr in victory lane.

Derani is expecting a stiffer Acura challenge from the No. 60 of MSR (with Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist) and No. 10 of WTR (with Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor), but he also believes Cadillac has an edge on bumpier street circuits such as Long Beach.

“Last year, it seemed like we had some advantage over the Wayne Taylor car and the Shank car, but they seemed to have stepped up this year in terms of performance, so I’m expecting a close fight,” Derani said. “But the Cadillac is a fantastic car over the bumps. We saw that at Sebring. It’s a car that copes well with a bumpy track, and normally street tracks tend to be a little bit more bumpy than a normal track. I think this is one of the strong points of our Cadillac DPi, and hopefully, we can use that to our advantage over the race weekend at Long Beach.”

Albuquerque explained that some of the Acura deficiency is structural as the car’s ORECA chassis primarily is designed for the flat circuits of the World Endurance Championship (which has no street courses). That does give the Acura an aerodynamic advantage at some road courses such as Laguna Seca — but it’s a power hindrance on the rough pavement at Long Beach, whose slow corners and hairpin turn present even more challenges.

“The fight is to stay ahead, minimize loss and points and hope some of (the Cadillacs) have problems,” said Albuquerque, who has prototype wins at Long Beach in 2018-19. “Last year, in a full green track race, they nearly lapped us. It’s going to be very hard.”

Saturday’s 100-minute race (5 p.m. ET, USA) will feature three categories — DPi, GTD Pro and GTD. It will be the first of eight non-endurance races for GTD teams, which will earn points at Long Beach only for the Sprint Cup standings and not the overall championship.

After a GTD Pro victory at Sebring, Corvette Racing enters Long Beach with eight victories, including last year with Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in the No. 4 of the now-defunct GTLM class. The competition will be stiffer this year with five manufacturers in the class.

“The GTD Pro class has been fun,” said Jordan Taylor, the defending GTLM champion in the No. 3 C8.R Corvette with Antonio Garcia. “GTLM was pretty small last year so it wasn’t huge fights. This year between Sebring and Daytona, it’s been fun to be back in a class full of cars. On starts and restarts, you’re in the middle of packs of guys racing and it’s really competitive. It’s nice to be back to old-school racing, and that’s what we usually get at Long Beach.”

Here are the start times, starting lineup, schedule and TV info for the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach (all times are ET):

IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach start times, schedule, TV info

When: Saturday, 5:05 p.m. ET

Race distance: One hour, 40 minutes on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street course

Forecast: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 75 degrees with a 0% chance of rain at the green flag.

Entry list: Click here to see the 26-car field over three divisions for the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

RACE BROADCAST

TV: 5 p.m. ET, USA

Streaming: Peacock, the NBC Sports App,and NBCSports.com will have coverage of the event from flag to flag. Leigh Diffey is the announcer with analyst Calvin Fish and pit reporters Dave Burns and Marty Snider.

IMSA.com live qualifying stream: Friday, 8:15 p.m. ET.

IMSA Radio: All sessions live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage will begin Saturday at 5 p.m. (XM 207, Internet/App 992).

DAILY SCHEDULE IMSA LONG BEACH

Here’s a rundown of the IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach(all times ET):

Friday, April 8

10:45-11:25 a.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup practice

12:15-1:15 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice

1:30-1:50 p.m.: Historic IMSA GTP Challenge (GTP) practice

2:05-2:35 p.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup practice

3:40-4 p.m.: Stadium Super Trucks practice

4:15-6 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice

6:15-7:15 p.m.: NTT IndyCar Series practice

7:30-8 p.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup qualifying

8:10-8:55 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying

9:30-9:50 p.m.: Super Drift Challenge practice

10-11:30 p.m.: Formula D Super Drift Challenge, Race 1

Saturday, April 9

11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m.: NTT IndyCar Series practice

12:55-1:15 p.m.: Historic IMSA GTP Challenge qualifying

1:45-2:25 p.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup, Race 1

3:05-4:20 p.m.: NTT IndyCar Series qualifying

5-7 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race

7:30-8 p.m.: Stadium Super Trucks, Race 1

8:15-8:35 p.m.: Historic IMSA GTP Challenge, Race 1

9-9:20 p.m.: Super Drift Challenge practice

9:30-11 p.m.:Formula D Super Drift Challenge, Race 2

‘It’s gnarly, bro’: IndyCar drivers face new challenge on streets of downtown Detroit

By Jun 2, 2023, 7:32 PM EDT
IndyCar Detroit downtown
James Black/Penske Entertainment
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DETROIT – It was the 1968 motion picture, “Winning” when actress Joanne Woodward asked Paul Newman if he were going to Milwaukee in the days after he won the Indianapolis 500 as driver Frank Capua.

“Everybody goes to Milwaukee after Indianapolis,” Newman responded near the end of the film.

Milwaukee was a mainstay as the race on the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 for decades, but since 2012, the first race after the Indy 500 has been Detroit at Belle Isle Park.

This year, there is a twist.

Instead of IndyCar racing at the Belle Isle State Park, it’s the streets of downtown Detroit on a race course that is quite reminiscent of the old Formula One and CART race course that was used from 1982 to 1991.

Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year (with a 2009-2011 hiatus after the Great Recession).

The Penske Corp. is the promoter of this race, and they did a lot of good at Belle Isle, including saving the Scott Fountain, modernizing the Belle Isle Casino, and basically cleaning up the park for Detroit citizens to enjoy.

The race, however, had outgrown the venue. Roger Penske had big ideas to create an even bigger event and moving it back to downtown Detroit benefitted race sponsor Chevrolet. The footprint of the race course goes around General Motors world headquarters in the GM Renaissance Center – the centerpiece building of Detroit’s modernized skyline.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

JOSEF’S FAMILY TIES: Newgarden wins Indy 500 with wisdom of father, wife

Motor City is about to roar with the sound of Chevrolet and Honda engines this weekend as the NTT IndyCar Series is the featured race on the nine-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street course.

It’s perhaps the most unique street course on the IndyCar schedule because of the bumps on the streets and the only split pit lane in the series.

The pit lanes has stalls on opposing sides and four lanes across an unusual rectangular pit area (but still only one entry and exit).

Combine that, with the bumps and the NTT IndyCar Series drivers look forward to a wild ride in Motor City.

“It’s gnarly, bro,” Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward said before posting the fastest time in Friday’s first practice. “It will be very interesting because the closest thing that I can see it being like is Toronto-like surfaces with more of a Long Beach-esque layout.

“There’s less room for error than Long Beach. There’s no curbs. You’ve got walls. I think very unique to this place.

PRACTICE RESULTS: Speeds from the first session

“Then it’s a bit of Nashville built into it. The braking zones look really very bumpy. Certain pavements don’t look bumpy but with how the asphalt and concrete is laid out, there’s undulation with it. So, you can imagine the cars are going to be smashing on every single undulation because we’re going to go through those sections fairly fast, and obviously the cars are pretty low. I don’t know.

“It looks fun, man. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. It’s going to be learning through every single session, not just for drivers and teams but for race control. For everyone.

“Everybody has to go into it knowing not every call is going to be smooth. It’s a tall task to ask from such a demanding racetrack. I think it’ll ask a lot from the race cars as well.”

The track is bumpy, but O’Ward indicated he would be surprised if it is bumper than Nashville. By comparison to Toronto, driving at slow speed is quite smooth, but fast speed is very bumpy.

“This is a mix of Nashville high-speed characteristics and Toronto slow speed in significant areas,” O’Ward said. “I think it’ll be a mix of a lot of street courses we go to, and the layout looks like more space than Nashville, which is really tight from Turn 4 to 8. It looks to be a bit more spacious as a whole track, but it’ll get tight in multiple areas.”

The concept of having four-wide pit stops is something that excites the 24-year-old driver from Monterey, Mexico.

“I think it’s innovation, bro,” O’Ward said. “If it works out, we’ll look like heroes.

“If it doesn’t, we tried.”

Because of the four lanes on pit road, there is a blend line the drivers will have to adhere to. Otherwise, it would be chaos leaving the pits compared to a normal two-lane pit road.

“If it wasn’t there, there’d be guys fighting for real estate where there’s one car that fits, and there’d be cars crashing in pit lane,” O’Ward said. “I get why they did that. It’s the same for everybody. I don’t think there’s a lot of room to play with. That’s the problem.

“But it looks freaking gnarly for sure. Oh my God, that’s going to be crazy.”

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing believes the best passing areas will be on the long straights because of the bumps in the turns. That is where much of the action will be in terms of gaining or losing a position in the race.

“It will also be really easy to defend in my opinion,” Palou said. “Being a 180-degree corner, you just have to go on the inside and that’s it. There’s going to be passes for sure but its’ going to be risky.

“Turn 1, if someone dives in, you end up in the wall. They’re not going to be able to pass you on the exit, so maybe with the straight being so long you can actually pass before you end up on the braking zone.”

Palou’s teammate, Marcus Ericsson, was at the Honda simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana, before coming to Detroit and said he was shocked by the amount of bumps on the simulator.

Race promoter Bud Denker, the President of Penske Corporation, and Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix President Michael Montri, sent the track crews onto the streets with grinders to smooth out the bumps on the race course several weeks ago.

“They’ve done a decent amount of work, and even doing the track walk, it looked a lot better than what we expected,” Ericsson said. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad. I hope not. That’ll be something to take into account.

“I think the track layout doesn’t look like the most fun. Maybe not the most challenging. But I love these types of tracks with rules everywhere. It’s a big challenge, and you have to build up to it. That’s the types of tracks that I love to drive. It’s a very much Marcus Ericsson type of track. I like it.”

Scott Dixon, who was second fastest in the opening session, has competed on many new street circuits throughout his legendary racing career. The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion for Chip Ganassi Racing likes the track layout, even with the unusual pit lane.

“I don’t think that’s going to be something that catches on where every track becomes a double barrel,” Dixon said. “It’s new and interesting.

“As far as pit exit, I think Toronto exit is worse with how the wall sticks out. I think in both lanes, you’ve got enough lead time to make it and most guys will make a good decision.”

It wasn’t until shortly after 3 p.m. ET on Friday that the IndyCar drivers began the extended 90-minute practice session to try out the race course for the first time in real life.

As expected, there were several sketchy moments, but no major crashes during the first session despite 19 local yellow flags for incidents and two red flags.

Rookie Agustin Canapino had to cut his practice short after some damage to his No. 78 Dallara-Chevrolet, but he was among many who emerged mostly unscathed from scrapes with the wall.

“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” said Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood, who was third fastest in the practice after coming off his first career IndyCar victory in the most recent street race at Long Beach in April. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall (too hard), which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.

“It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into Turn 3 than everyone expected. But overall they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.”

Most of the preparation for this event was done either on the General Motors Simulator in Huntersville, North Carolina, or the Honda Performance Development simulator in Brownsburg, Indiana.

“Now, we have simulators that can scan the track, so we have done plenty of laps already,” Power told NBC Sports. “They have ground and resurfaced a lot of the track, so it should be smoother.

“But nothing beats real-world experience. It’s going to be a learning experience in the first session.”

As a Team Penske driver, Power and his teammates were consulted about the progress and layout of the Detroit street course. They were shown what was possible with the streets that were available.

“We gave some input back after we were on the similar what might be ground and things like that,” Power said.

Racing on the streets of Belle Isle was a fairly pleasant experience for the fans and corporate sponsor that compete in the race.

But the vibe at the new location gives this a “big event” feel.

“The atmosphere is a lot better,” Power said. “The location, the accessibility for the fans, the crowd that will be here, it’s much easier. I think it will be a much better event.

“It feels like a Long Beach, only in a much bigger city. That is what street course racing is all about.”

Because the track promoter is also the team owner, Power and teammates Scott McLaughlin and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden will have a very busy weekend on the track, and with sponsor and personal appearances.

“That’s what pays the bills and allows us to do this,” Power said.

Follow Bruce Martin on Twitter at @BruceMartin_500