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Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche Tom Sargent claimed a commanding flag-to-flag victory in the opening Porsche Carrera Cup North America race of the weekend on the streets of Long Beach. The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, who was making his first start in the single-make series since 2023, dominated Saturday’s 40-minute contest from pole in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 Cup. Sargent took a 2.245-second win over the No. 24 Kellymoss entry of Aaron Jeansonne. Jeansonne, who started third, passed the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche of Callum Hedge at the start but was unable to challenge the Australian driver, who was subbing for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS co-driver Kyle Washington. Hedge came home in third, ahead of the No. 77 Topp Racing Porsche of Tyler Maxson, who swept the season-opening pair of races at Sebring International Raceway last month. Maxson pressured Hedge in the closing laps, including making contact multiple times in the final laps of ...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA ***The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 is good to go for this afternoon’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach following the completion of a chassis change after Colin Braun’s accident in Friday’s second practice session. It’s understood the Ohio-based team worked until 1 a.m. this morning to build up what is essentially a new car for the 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. ***Frederik Vesti, who is subbing for Earl Bamber this weekend, is making his Long Beach debut, one year after the Dane took part in his first non-IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, also in place of the Kiwi due to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship. ***Vesti told Sportscar365: “I love my time in IMSA and get to do new races that I haven’t done before is huge. The first laps were really cool. I had a massive smile under my helmet. I was just looking to explore the track. There were a few tricks that I was told and ha...

Photo: Perry Nelson/IMSA Laurin Heinrich was quickest in opening practice for this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Long Beach rookie, aboard JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, reeled off a chart-topping time of 1:13.240 in the closing stages of Friday morning’s session to dethrone the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, who led much of the session. Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was third, also in a late session improvement. It bumped Laurens Vanthoor, in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 to fourth. However, co-driver Kevin Estre stopped late in the session after brushing the Turn 4 wall, before the Frenchman made his way safely into a track cut-out. Both of the factory Porsches, which are undefeated in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition so far this season, are carrying 45 kg/99 pounds of additional weight as part of a pre-event Balance of Performance adjustment. Heinrich’s Porsche is...

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA Robert Wickens says he’s not giving up hope on stepping up to a full season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program in the future after being unable to put the funding together this year for DXDT Racing’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R entry. The 37-year-old Canadian is set to again undertake a five-race sprint race portion of the season, alongside the team’s new full season driver Mason Filippi in the GTD class entry beginning with this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. “Obviously when you are racing with a customer team in sports car racing, it tends to come with a price tag to it,” said Wickens. “It’s no discredit to any of the customer teams. “It’s just kind of the circle of life of sports car racing and I wasn’t able to put together the funds required to do a full season of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as heartbreaking as it was. “I felt like I showed some results that I am not a liability and that I can do all facets of th...

Photo: Racingpixels/Creventic Optimum Motorsport took pole position in its No. 77 Mclaren 720S GT3 Evo ahead of the Michelin 12H Spa-Francorchamps. The Optimum driver lineup of Salman Owega, Harry George and Freddie Tomlinson set a fastest combined qualifying time of 2:15.534, just 0.259 seconds ahead of the No. 286 GetSpeed Team JR286 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The GetSpeed entry would also take the GT3-Am class pole. Optimum’s entry is the only McLaren on the grid in this weekend’s race. The team were at the head of the field from early on in the session with a strong time from George in Qualifying 1. Spanish team E2P Racing jostled with Optimum for the top of the timesheets in the opening two qualifying sessions, but its Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo could achieve no better than an eighth place finish at the end of Qualifying 3. Owega set a fastest overall time of 2:14.593 in Qualifying 3, sealing the pole position for Optimum. Herberth Motorsport’s No. 269 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo...

Source: Sports Car 365