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Published on Apr 9, 2017
Relive all the action from the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach, the third race of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi5PeRQU3sU

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Sunday At The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=228KyBO0mzI

Periodic sound interruptions from the radio broadcast...
..doesn't match what is happening...they think they are cool, maybe...ggrrrrr
While the cars sit ready on the frid.

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Rex Obrut

I hate the audio loop they use for this, if I wanted to listen to excerpts from old Indy 500 coverage I would be watching those older races. I would really prefer to be able to listen to the cars and commentary actually going on instead.

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[h=2]Parente bests Long for Long Beach PWC win[/h] Sunday, 09 April 2017


By Alison Sneag / Images by Richard James

This year, defending Pirelli World Challenge series GT champion Alvaro Parente could celebrate properly at Long Beach.
A year after he was awarded the win after a postrace penalty to provisional winner Johnny O'Connell, Parente pulled off his second straight pole-win sweep the No. 9 K-RAX Racing McLaren 650S on the streets on Long Beach, a circuit he hadn't even laid eyes on until arriving at the course last season. Parente fended off Wright Motorsports' Patrick Long on two restarts, finishing about three seconds ahead of the runner-up in a 31-lap contest. Parente's K-PAX teammate Bryan Sellers was third, followed by the The Collection/TR3 Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 of Daniel Mancinelli and R.Ferri Motorsport's Alex Riberas, who came home fifth in his Long Beach debut.

“Definitely very happy to cross the finish line first this time,” said Parente, who picks up his second win of the season. “The closest moment [with Patrick] was at the start, in that first braking area. There was respect with everyone, Bryan (Sellers) was there also in the back and tried to go inside but I was able to keep my position, even though that was all very close.”

Long, who finished second here last year after O'Connell's penalty, admitted his Porsche 911 GT3R couldn't catch up to the two-time Long Beach winner.
“We were a little better in the brakes in Turn 1, but that was about the only place we had a bit of a margin," said Long. “I could close up on him in the last sector, last couple corners, but he did a good job of keeping consistent through the last quarter. We didn’t really have a car to get alongside him today.”
The 48-minute race was stopped for about 15 minutes on lap 8 on when a burst fire hydrant on a side street created a pool of water near Turn 8, bringing out a full-course yellow and then a red flag two laps later. The cause was reportedly a car hitting the hydrant off of nearby Ocean Blvd. City officials were quick to shut off the hydrant, allowing track officials to contain and dry the area. But it was quite a surprise for the drivers.
“I had no warning," Parente said. "I was coming flat [on the straightaway], and then suddenly I saw a river in front of me,” Parente said. “Just foot off the throttle, and pray I won’t crash or anything and just skidded through the puddle.”
“It was probably 20 feet of running water, and with slick tires at 140mph that’s not what you want to see," Long echoed. "We’ve all been there on the freeway when you start aquaplaning, the best thing to do is just relax and let it end. I’m happy that no one had an incident and they responded really well, so hats off to the track crew and the World Challenge series. I said to [PWC CEO Greg] Gill, ‘Good job responding to an unnatural disaster.’”
With just under 20 minutes left, Mike Hedlund brought out a full-course caution when his K-PAX McLaren 650S GT3 spun coming out of the Turn 11 hairpin and hit the wall.
Parente got a jump on the restart but Long could always be found in the rear view, less than half a second behind. Parente kept pounding out fast laps, eventually setting a 1m19.070s with just over two minutes remaining, besting Michael Cooper's 2016 record of 1m19.638s.
“On those restarts, the first two or three laps, Patrick was quicker than me and then once I got temperature pressures, even though I was trying to keep them and getting them ready for the restarts, it wasn’t muscle," Parente related in explaining how he managed to keep besting his own record. "So I just got into a rhythm, pressures were up to after a few laps, and managed to push again and start to go faster.”
In the closing minute O'Connell nosed into the Turn 1 tires, ending a frustrating morning for the Cadillac Racing veteran, who drove deep into Turn 1 on the first lap, couldn't get the car turned and hit the wall, causing heavy damage to the front of this Velocity Red ATS-V.R Coupe. He and spent several laps with bodywork jammed between his rear bumper and wing.
"The first thing that comes to mind is Cadillac's motto, 'Dare Greatly,'" O'Connell said. "I Dared Greatly today. I left everything I had out there on track today. It is unfortunate. All we can do is keep digging and win for Cadillac. We will put this one behind us and move onto Virginia. When you have one arm tied behind your back, what do you do?"

In GTA, polesitter James Sofronas took the win and finished 10th overall, followed by Wright Motorsports' Michael Schein and Magnus Racing's John Potter. Sofronas also recorded the quickest race lap in the GTA category Sunday at 1:20.145 (88.42 m.p.h.), re-setting the race lap record for the class.
Schein now leads Sofronas by six points in the standings.
For Sofronas, a Long Beach winner in PWC in 2009 and 2013, it was a nice way to end a week that started with GMG Racing’s Santa-Ana based motorcoach and trailer robbed following an open house; fans and police managed to find some of what was taken.
“I knew the start was going to be a hairball, which it always is here following into Turn 1," he said. "I figured I would follow Johnny O’Connell – I know he knows his way around here – and he created a nice little vacuum for me to slide in, but there were parts flying all over the place. From Turns 4 to 7 there was carbon fiber scattered like confetti, and so you just have to dodge it and make a clean run through it.”
Of the robbery, he said the team “dodged a bullet” but he still had parts missing.

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[h=2]Hinchcliffe ends drought with Long Beach win[/h] Sunday, 09 April 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Images by LAT

James Hinchcliffe ended a two-year win drought with victory in a rollercoaster Verizon IndyCar Series race at Long Beach.
The Canadian's Schmidt Peterson Motorsport Honda was a frontrunner all afternoon, and made the first of his big moves when he stayed out one lap longer than then-race leader Ryan Hunter-Reay before making his final visit to the pits. That allowed him to leapfrog his Andretti rival once he rejoined after his stop, and put him in the catbird seat for the final phase of the race.
Hunter-Reay was no longer in the equation in the final laps – more on that in a moment – and Hinchcliffe instead found himself needing to fend off St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais on a restart with three laps to go.
But he didn't have to work that hard to do so. Hinchcliffe shot away from the Frenchman at the final green, and greeted the checker with a 1.4s advantage in his pocket.
"This racetrack has been so good to me over the years, and it's always one I wanted to be on top of," he said. "To finally get [the win] here is awesome."
Bourdais, who'd fought back after being forced to stop for a new wing after just two laps, conceded that he didn't have a response to Hinchcliffe at the end, but was justifiably pleased with another good result for the Coyne team.
"We played to our strengths," he said. "I've always been pretty comfortable saving fuel, and it just came to us. [At the final restart] I was just trying to hang on to second place; I didn't really have the balance at the end to chase [Hinchcliffe] so I tried to hold on to second.
And third went to Josef Newgarden, who earned his first podium since moving to Penske from Ed Carpenter Racing.

"It's exciting," he said. "It's nice to get the first podium for The Captain out of the way. We made good stops and had the car to challenge for the win if everything worked out perfectly, but









Two main factors conspired to shape the outcome; the first being an absolutely horrendous day for reliability in the Andretti Autosport camp. All four cars were eliminated by various mechanical failures, and two – those of Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi – could justifiably have considered themselves contenders for the win.
Hunter-Reay was running in second place just five laps short of the finish when his car suddenly shut itself off.
"I have no idea [what happened]," he said. "It was going to be a good fight at the end, and then ... that happened. It's so frustrating. It was something electrical. I tried cycling the car a few times and it wouldn't fire and then after we flipped a few switches it fired back up again."
Similarly, Rossi had been among the top five all afternoon until he suffered a suspected engine failure on lap 68.
Marco Andretti was less of a threat to the front, but his early exit on lap 13 inadvertently set into motion the other big moment of the race. At that point, Scott Dixon was leading, but when Andretti jinked off the track and into the run-off at Turn 6, the Ganassi team – possibly anticipating a yellow - pulled him into the pits and switched from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy.
But the yellow never came, and a frustrated Dixon was on the back foot for the rest of the race. He eventually finished fourth, acutely aware of what might have been.
"[Two-stopping] was always the plan; not sure what changed up there," he said. "We gave the race away at that point. The car was super-fast and we'd trimmed the car to stay up front, so it got tricky later in the race when we were in traffic. Hard to swallow, that one. We were leading, pulling away, saving fuel ... it was going to be an easy two-stop strategy for us, and we ended up fourth."
Simon Pagenaud recovered from starting last and then suffering a cut tire in the opening laps to claw his way back to a satisfied fifth ahead of Coyne rookie Ed Jones. Carlos Munoz and Spencer Pigot were next across the line, followed by Helio Castroneves, who started from pole and immediately dived into an afternoon of weirdness. The Brazilian was swamped at the start, and was picking his way back up through the field when he was issued a drive-through penalty for speeding in pitlane.
He served that – and in doing so, committed another pitlane speed violation. As punishment for that one, he was sent to the rear of the field for the second restart.
Graham Rahal rebounded from a late stop for a cut tire to complete the top 10, although his cause was helped by JR Hildebrand and Mikhael Aleshin colliding on the final lap. It was Aleshin's second incident for the day, following on from an earlier bump with Tony Kanaan that forced the Ganassi car into the pits with a punctured left-rear. That one was reviewed and cleared by race control, although his clash with Hildebrand resulted in his being demoted from 11th to 12th.
Much earlier, a prolonged challenge by Will Power on Charlie Kimball had ended with contact that put Kimball out of the race on the spot, and left Power a lap down.

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[h=2]All 4 Andretti cars forced to retire at Long Beach[/h] Sunday, 09 April 2017



By Marshall Pruett (words and image)

The four-car Andretti Autosport team was dealt a series of brutal blows throughout the Long Beach Grand Prix, and if they thought the 2016 race was unkind, Sunday's race set a new low for the Honda-powered program.

Twelve months ago, the team left Long Beach with four ill-handling or damaged cars and drivers relegated to P12, P18, P19 and P20 at the finish. With an assortment of engine failures – of the mechanical or electrical variety – halting their collective charge this year, the entire squad finished in perfect order from P17-P20.

Making matters worse, most of the Andretti Honda drivers were genuinely fast as Ryan Hunter-Reay led 28 laps and Alexander Rossi ran consistently in the top three until their fortunes changed. Rossi's day ended when motor issues knocked him out of third on Lap 63, Hunter-Reay lost second place with six laps remaining when the car shut off, Takuma Sato's day came to an oily end on Lap 78, and earlier in the race, Marco Andretti fought with electrical gremlins before parking his car on lap 14.

"I tried cycling the car a few times and it didn't fire," said Hunter-Reay. "Then, once we had sat [in the runoff] for a few moments, we tried flipping a few switches and it fired back up again but it was too late to rejoin the race. It felt like the same issue we had at Pocono (2016). It really hurts when it's that close to the end and I was closing on [race winner James Hinchcliffe]; we were going to have a good showdown there at the end. That's why this sport can be so rewarding and so cruel, there's nothing you can do. Frustrating for sure but today it was out of our hands."

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Pagenaud tops warm-up

Sunday, 09 April 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Image by LAT

Simon Pagenaud topped the times in the final warm-up session before today's Verizon IndyCar Series race at Long Beach.
The reigning series champion, who will start from the rear of the grid for the race after incurring a penalty in qualifying yesterday, claimed the top spot with a 1m06.6497s. That put him just over 0.2s clear of closest rival Takuma Sato, leaving Alexander Rossi – one of just two drivers to throw on a set of reds, the other being Andretti stablemate Ryan Hunter-Reay – to complete the top three.

Ganassi's Scott Dixon enjoyed a spell at P1 before eventually finishing the morning fourth fastest, just ahead of teammate Tony Kanaan.

The morning was punctuated by a few harmless spins, with Rossi finding the run-off in the opening minutes and Schmidt's Mikhael Aleshin over-reaching for grip at around the halfway mark, but the only red flag appeared in response to Spencer Pigot (below) finding the wall at Turn 1.
The ECR driver tagged the tires just hard enough to crack his front wing, but once rescued by the Holmatro Safety Team he was able to return to the pits under his own power, and the session resumed after a three-minute stoppage.

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Rare strategy misfire leaves Dixon fuming

Monday, 10 April 2017



By Robin Miller / Image by LAT

It was a perfect start and a perfect pace but, as it turned out, not the perfect strategy.
So instead of winning Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Scott Dixon settled for a fourth place that left the four-time series champion fuming.
Starting second, Dixon smoked pole-sitter Helio Castroneves as the field accelerated down Shoreline Drive, sailed into the first turn with a nice lead and then did what he does best – run fast enough to stay in front while saving fuel.

The strategy was obvious: make the 85-lap race on two pit stops, which is exactly what winner James Hinchcliffe did.
But when Marco Andretti slowed with no power on the back straightaway, Dixon got called into the pits on lap 15 – which committed him to three stops.
"I have no idea why we did that," he said while sitting on the pit wall and trying to cool off, literally and figuratively. "Two-stopping was always the plan, not sure what changed there. We gave the race away at that point."
Mike Hull, the team leader and Dixon's strategist, admitted it was a reaction to what cost his driver a victory in Toronto last year and St. Pete last month, when he stayed out and the track went full-course yellow.
"We thought Marco would be full course," Hull explained. "Scott was at the pit entrance and based on how we were stung at Toronto and St Pete, chose to come in. Looking back it was the wrong decision."
Even though it put him on a different strategy, Dixon still looked like he might be able to pull it off.
He was simply going to have to run as fast as possible to try and build up enough of a cushion to negate making one fewer stop. So Ryan Hunter-Reay led laps 16-28 before stopping the first time and Dixon led laps 30-42 before his second stop. But, balked by traffic, the 2008 Indy 500 winner could never build enough of an advantage while pacing laps 58-62 and rejoined the race in fourth following his final pit stop on lap 63.
"The car was super-fast and we'd trimmed the car to stay up front, so it got tricky later in the race when we were in traffic," said Dixon. "It's hard to swallow, that one. We were leading, pulling away, saving fuel ... it was going to be an easy two-stop strategy for us, and we ended up fourth."

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VIDEO INDYCAR FAST FORWARD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WjlkC1Fsh8

Published on Apr 10, 2017
A 30-minute recap of the 2017 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

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[h=1]Sights & Sounds of the 2017 Long Beach Grand Prix[/h]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfYoR1FaA14
by Chris Draper