LONG BEACH, California – Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shift from the two longest races of the year to the shortest sprint of the season at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. Three Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams across a pair of GT Daytona (GTD) classes take part in Saturday’s 100-minute sprint race on the 1.968-mile Long Beach street circuit. The race can be seen live on the USA Network beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT/5:00 p.m. EDT.
Round three of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech Championship, the Long Beach sprint follows January’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona and last month’s 12 Hours of Sebring. With a combined 36 hours of endurance racing, Daytona and Sebring are a major departure from the fast and flat-out sprint race that the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams tackle this weekend on the streets of Long Beach.
The championship-leading No. 79 WeatherTech Racing/Proton Competition Mercedes-AMG GT3 team and co-drivers Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella compete at Long Beach in the GTD Pro class. On track at the same time battling for GTD-class honors will be the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis and the No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 co-driven by Mike Skeen and Mikael Grenier.
With a victory at Daytona and third-place finish at Sebring, the No. 79 team and drivers moved their full-season GTD Pro championship bid off to a fast start. The WeatherTech No. 79 team and drivers bring a 26-point lead over the nearest GTD Pro competitor, 708 – 682, to Long Beach. The early success has also given Mercedes-AMG the lead in the GTD Pro manufacturer championship standings by the same points margin.
In GTD, Team Korthoff and Winward showed race-winning performance comparable to WeatherTech Racing at both Daytona and Sebring but now look to Long Beach to secure their first strong race results of the season.
Korthoff and Winward combined to lead an amazing 562 GTD race laps at Daytona and Sebring but a string of typical endurance racing issues prevented them from leaving either race with a result indicative of their competitive pace.
A tight, two-day event, the weekend schedule starts with morning and afternoon practice sessions Friday, April 14, which set the stage for GTD Pro/GTD qualifying that afternoon at 5:15 p.m. PDT.
Race-day Saturday, April 15, features only the 100-minute WeatherTech Championship sprint race that is scheduled to go green at 2:05 p.m. PDT.
Jules Gounon, Driver – No. 79 WeatherTech Racing/Proton Competition Mercedes-AMG GT3: “It will be my first time in Long Beach, and for Dani also, so we are really looking forward to racing on the California streets. It is pretty amazing, it all sounds like Monaco in Europe. I am really looking forward to the race, I enjoyed the track on the simulator, and it is really good. Short, and you are running very close to the walls. It will be very important to maximize the traction and rotation of our WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3. Some of the recent rule changes certainly don’t favor our car, but Dani and I love street courses and we will try to do anything to help. We are going to give it everything we have.”
Daniel Juncadella, Driver – No. 79 WeatherTech Racing/Proton Competition Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Long Beach is a new track for me. I have been on the simulator and watching online video to get an understanding of the layout. I have a pretty good history on street courses. I won the Macau Formula 3 race in 2011. I know how to experience the limits on street courses. I would compare Long Beach more to Pau (Circuit de Pau-Ville) in France, which is another famous street race. We have had a very good start on the season, and we are looking at keeping the momentum going as we start the sprint portion of the schedule.”
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: “Going from the two longest races to the shortest event of the year will present a few challenges at Long Beach. Especially given the uniqueness of the street track layout. However, I have always enjoyed Long Beach and I look forward to hitting the streets!”
