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[TD="width: 225"]The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues with the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach on Saturday, April 8, part of America’s longest-running and most successful street racing event.

After racing a combined 36 hours in Florida’s classic endurance tests at Daytona Beach and Sebring, the WeatherTech Championship shifts into sprint mode with a 100-minute race for the Prototype, GT Le Mans and, for the first time, GT Daytona classes.
Race fans have an excellent opportunity to view the historic race, as it airs live on FOX from 4 – 6 p.m. ET, 1 – 3 p.m. PT. Stream the race via the FOX Sports GO website or mobile app with FS1 authentication.
IMSA Radio, a co-production with Radio Show Limited, will again provide live audio coverage of all WeatherTech Championship practice, qualifying and race sessions. Tune in live all weekend on IMSA.tv, RadioLeMans.com, Sirius channel 118, XM channel 205 and Sirius Online channel 967. You can also listen live at track on scanner channel 454.000.
Friday, April 7 (all times ET)
Action begins with a two-hour practice session which will have live audio on IMSA.com at 10:40 a.m. The second practice will be only 25 minutes, beginning at 7:45 p.m., and will be followed immediately by qualifying, which will be streamed live on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app.
Saturday, April 8
Live coverage of the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach begins at 4 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports GO app. The two-hour show includes pre-race, the 100-minute race and winners’ interviews. Live in-car cameras, timing and scoring and IMSA Radio will be streamed on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile app.
***Live international broadcast stream available on IMSA.tv and the IMSA mobile app.
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Taylors, Cadillac Carry Momentum to BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach
Monday, April 3, 2017

Saying Jordan and Ricky Taylor and the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R team are carrying momentum into this Saturday’s BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach is an understatement.
With back-to-back victories in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida to open the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the brothers are off to a perfect start for their father’s Wayne Taylor Racing team. Add in the fact that the Taylor brothers have won each of the last two WeatherTech Championship races on the streets of Long Beach, and “momentum” doesn’t seem like a strong enough word to use, especially when looking beyond this weekend’s race to the next two events on the schedule at Circuit of The Americas on May 6 and Detroit’s Belle Isle Park on June 3.
“(In the last three years at) Long Beach, we were second and then two wins,” said Jordan Taylor following the team’s Sebring victory last month. “Then COTA and Detroit, which we won last year. We go with a lot more momentum than in the past.”
However, Jordan also pointed out that this year’s 100-minute Long Beach race, which will be televised live on FOX network television at 4 p.m. ET, will be different than it has been in the recent past. For starters, this year’s race will see the Prototype Challenge (PC) class replaced by a 16-car GT Daytona (GTD) class field along with nine GT Le Mans (GTLM) entries and 10 Prototypes for a WeatherTech Championship record field of 35 cars.
Secondly, every one of those 10 Prototypes are brand new this season, with a smaller fuel capacity than the previous generation race cars. That places a premium not only on the ability of the drivers, but also the team on pit road.
“Long Beach is cutthroat with one pit stop,” Taylor said. “This year, it might be two because the fuel capacity is so small. It’s so much on the race team to get it done.”
The No. 10 team certainly has gotten it done lately, but they’ve got plenty of competition. Look no further than the other two Cadillac DPis in the field, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering machine shared by defending WeatherTech Championship Prototype champions Dane Cameron and Eric Curran, and the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R of two-time Prototype champions Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, who finished second to the No. 10 team at both Daytona and Sebring. Both teams are primed for victory at any time, and this weekend could be it.
Outside of the Cadillacs – which swept the top-three spots at Sebring – a couple of Gibson V8-powered LM P2 cars showed flashes of brilliance in the first two endurance races to start the year and could be tough to beat in Saturday’s first “sprint” race of the season.
One is the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing Multimatic/Riley shared by Renger van der Zande and Marc Goossens, which opened the year with a third-place run at Daytona. The other is the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports ORECA co-driven by Stephen Simpson and Misha Goikhberg.
Simpson was quickest in the opening practice session at Sebring and the team was in contention for a podium spot for much of the race before finishing fourth.
Mazda Motorsports also is riding some top-five momentum from Sebring to Long Beach. The team claimed a fifth-place result in the Twelve Hours with its No. 55 Mazda DPi shared by full-time co-drivers Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito – who were joined by IndyCar racer Spencer Pigot for the race. The team also has strong Southern California ties.
From a driver perspective, Joel Miller – who co-drives the No. 70 Mazda DPi with Tom Long – is a native of the “Inland Empire” and earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California Riverside.
Mazda North American Operations is based in Irvine, California and includes the Mazda Research and Development Studio, where the Mazda DPi race car – dubbed the RT24-P – was designed. The car made its worldwide debut last November at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Based on that, there will be plenty of interested onlookers at the track this weekend, which adds to the demanding nature of racing at Long Beach.
“It’s a real mental challenge,” said Nunez of racing on the tight, 1.968-mile street circuit. “There is no room for error. There are no run-off areas, so if you make a mistake, you’re into a concrete barrier. It’s a very demanding track and, as a street circuit, the surface is very bumpy. So, that makes it very technical for a driver. The new car is much more physical to drive, and you have to be sure your concentration or your body doesn’t give out.”
Long Beach represents a shot at redemption for the pair of Nissan DPi entries from the Tequila Patrón ESM team and the LM P2 car from PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. While they’ve shown a fair amount of speed through the first two races – and the No. 2 Tequila Patrón car shared by full-season drivers Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel did finish fourth at Daytona – neither the No. 2 nor the No. 22 co-driven by Ed Brown and Johannes van Overbeek were running at the finish in Sebring.
The No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Ligier LM P2 also had a DNF at Sebring. The Fresno, California-based team is hoping to turn its luck around in a home-state race and will do so with new driver Will Owen sharing the controls with team veteran Tom Kimber-Smith.
A compressed street-circuit schedule for the WeatherTech Championship at Long Beach includes a two-hour practice session beginning at 7:40 a.m. PT on Friday, followed by a second practice and qualifying session that runs from 4:45 to 6:15 p.m. local. IMSA.com will offer live streaming of qualifying in addition to IMSA Radio coverage from all on-track sessions.
The BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix gets the green flag Saturday at 1:05 p.m. PT.

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WeatherTech Championship GT Classes Bring High Speed Southern California Traffic Jam
Tuesday, April 4, 2017


Southern California is legendary for its traffic, and with a 35-car IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship field that includes 25 GT cars on the tight, 1.968-mile Long Beach street circuit, it’s going to be a 100-minute, high-speed traffic jam. Saturday’s BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach will be televised live on FOX at 4 p.m. ET.
The influx of GT machinery at Long Beach this year comes via the addition of the GT Daytona (GTD) class, the largest WeatherTech Championship class, with 16 cars on the Long Beach entry list. GTD replaces the Prototype Challenge (PC) class, which competed in this event last year after two years of Prototypes and GT Le Mans (GTLM) cars only.
Both the GTD and GTLM classes feature makes and models that would be equally at home on the Long Beach street circuit as they would be on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, some 30 miles to the northwest, or on the many scenic and twisty roads throughout Southern California. But make no mistake, the WeatherTech Championship GT cars are full-fledged racing machines, and they mean business.
For evidence of that, look no further than the end of last year’s GTLM race at Long Beach. With only a few minutes remaining, Tommy Milner – who came into the race riding a two-race winning streak with victories in the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida – led the race in the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R with Frederic Makowiecki right on his tail in the No. 912 Porsche and Nick Tandy in the No. 911 Porsche right behind Makowiecki.
In the famed Long Beach hairpin, Makowiecki attempted a pass but contacted the right rear of Milner’s car, sending the yellow Corvette spinning and leaving his own Porsche with too much damage to continue. Meanwhile, Tandy slipped past both cars, going on to lead the remaining four laps to secure the victory for himself and teammate Patrick Pilet.
Undoubtedly, Milner and co-driver Oliver Gavin – who went on to take the 2016 WeatherTech Championship GTLM title despite the disappointing conclusion to the Long Beach race – will be looking to complete some unfinished business this weekend.
“The kindest thing I can say about last year’s race at Long Beach is that the finish was very unfortunate,” Milner said. “So this weekend is a race I’d very much like to win. It has been a rough start (to the 2017 season) on the No. 4 Corvette side – all chalked up to bad luck – and a good result at Long Beach would help start our turnaround. Oliver and I have complete confidence in the team at Corvette Racing to get us headed in the right direction.”
They’ll have their hands full, however, with a deep and talented field of other GTLM machines, not to mention a stout challenge from their own Corvette Racing teammates, Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen, in the No. 3 Corvette.
Garcia and Magnussen head for Long Beach as GTLM winners last month at Sebring thanks to a stellar final driving stint for Garcia. The No. 3 duo also has been successful on the past at Long Beach, taking GTLM honors together in 2014 in addition to a 2008 American Le Mans Series win for Magnussen.
Pilet, meanwhile, returns to Long Beach with a new, mid-engine Porsche 911 RSR that was introduced to the world last November just up the road at the Los Angeles Auto Show. He also has a new co-driver in the No. 911 Porsche GT Team entry, Dirk Werner, who won the GTLM class at Long Beach two years ago as part of BMW Team RLL. Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor make up the other half of the Porsche GT Team entry in the No. 912.
For many of the first 36 hours of WeatherTech Championship racing this season, one of the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GTs have been running at the head of the GTLM pack. No. 66 Ford GT co-drivers Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand won at Daytona and finished second at Sebring, making them the points leaders heading to Long Beach. They won this event in 2011 together as co-drivers with BMW and Mueller also earned a class win in 2008.
Based on all of that, Hand and Mueller must rate among the favorites this weekend, as do their teammates, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook in the No. 67 Ford GT.
A recurring theme among the drivers mentioned as previous Long Beach winners is that they’ve done it racing BMWs. And while it’s been a bit of a tough start to the season for the two-car BMW Team RLL program, Long Beach may be just what the doctor ordered.
No. 25 BMW driver Bill Auberlen has been attending the Grand Prix of Long Beach for decades, and the Redondo Beach resident has celebrated a couple of hometown victories, in 2013 and 2015, in addition to GTLM poles each of the past two years. He’ll go for a third win with new co-driver Alexander Sims, while John Edwards and Martin Tomczyk look for a little California love in their own No. 24 BMW.
Realistically, though, the GTLM race is wide open for any of the nine cars to win. The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE finished on the podium at both Daytona and Sebring, and when you add a 2016 season-ending victory at Petit Le Mans to the equation, co-drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander clearly have momentum. Risi has won at Long Beach before too, back in 2007.
If GTLM is a pick ‘em among five different manufacturers, pre-determining a GTD winner among the 16 cars from eight different marques is even tougher in an unpredictable season to date.
Alegra Motorsports opened the year with an improbable victory in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The team originally planned a part-time WeatherTech Championship program this year, but found itself third in the GTD point standings after Sebring.
Based on that – and the fact that the Dream Racing team that originally committed to the full season elected to sit out Long Beach – Alegra’s No. 28 Porsche will be on the grid this Saturday in the hands of Canadian standout Daniel Morad – a 2016 Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama champion – and Danish Porsche works driver Michael Christensen.
They’ll look to close the gap to current GTD points leaders Ben Keating and Jeroen Bleekemolen, who earned the first WeatherTech Championship victory in history for Mercedes-AMG in their No. 33 Riley Motorsports-Team AMG entry at Sebring. Keating and Bleekemolen represent one third of the Mercedes-AMG attack and are joined by Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette in the No. 50 WeatherTech Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the No. 75 SunEnergy1 entry for Frenchman Tristan Vautier and fan favorite Boris Said from Carlsbad, California.
Just behind Alegra in the GTD standings is the No. 57 Stevenson Motorsports team of Lawson Aschenbach and Andrew Davis. Stevenson is the lone GTD team flying the flag for Audi in Long Beach. Also alone in representing their manufacturer in the class is Turner Motorsport with the driving duo of Bret Curtis and Jens Klingmann in the No. 96 BMW M6 GT3 and 2016 GTD champions Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan in the No. 63 Ferrari 488 GT3 for Beverly Hills-based Scuderia Corsa.
Porsche, meanwhile, has four GTD entries in addition to the pair of GTLM race cars, which seems fitting since Porsche Motorsport North America headquarters is just up the road from Long Beach in Carson, California on the same campus as the new Porsche Experience Center that opened last fall. The four Porsche GTD teams include the Alegra program, the No. 54 CORE autosport Porsche 911 GT3 R for Jon Bennett and Colin Braun – winners of the PC class in Long Beach in 2013 – the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche of factory driver Joerg Bergmeister and Santa Barbara, California’s Patrick Lindsey, and the No. 991 TRG Porsche for Wolf Henzler and Jan Heylen.
The BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix field also will include a pair of Lamborghinis, the No. 16 Change Racing machine of Corey Lewis and Jeroen Mul, and the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Huracán GT3 shared by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow.
And two new GTD manufacturers – both with strong Southern California ties – will be making their Long Beach debut. Acura, with U.S. headquarters in Torrance, California, has a pair of Acura NSX GT3 race cars fielded by Michael Shank Racing. The No. 86 Acura will be co-driven by Jeff Segal and Ozz Negri, while Andy Lally and Katherine Legge – who first made a name for herself in the U.S. motorsports landscape by winning an Atlantic Championship race at Long Beach in 2005 – share the No. 93 Acura.
Lexus, which also currently resides in Torrance, has a pair of entries, which is fitting at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The cars are fielded by Michigan’s 3GT Racing and include the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 for former IndyCar racer Jack Hawksworth and Los Angeles native Robert Alon, and the No. 14 for rising star Sage Karam and the winningest North American sports car racer of all time, Scott Pruett.
Pruett is a two-time IMSA winner on the streets of Long Beach, taking a Prototype victory in 2014 and a GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype win in 2006. The IndyCar veteran also won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in 2001 and a Trans Am race on the streets of Long Beach back in 1987.
On-track activity for the WeatherTech Championship this week begins with a two-hour practice session at 7:40 a.m. PT on Friday, followed by a second practice and qualifying session that runs from 4:45 to 6:15 p.m. local. IMSA.com will offer live streaming of qualifying in addition to IMSA Radio coverage from all on-track sessions.
The green flag flies on the BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix Saturday at 1:05 p.m. PT.

senor honda

[h=2]Long Beach IndyCar notebook[/h] Friday, 07 April 2017


By Marshall Pruett / Images by Pruett, Dale Coyne Racing & IMS Photo

Notes from Friday's IndyCar activities at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

JR Hildebrand clearly enjoys being the one long-haired hippie within the all-business Ed Carpenter Racing team. Compared to his team owner, whose hair is always short and meticulously coiffed, Hildebrand has chosen to embrace his inner rebel and let his locks grow and grow.
He's the easiest driver for fans to spot among the 22 Verizon IndyCar Series pilots in the field at his home state race, and he plans to keep it that way to for his No. 1 supporter.
"Obviously I'm from California, and I sort of don't care," the 29-year-old told RACER. "My wife's been digging on it, so who's more important than that to be appeasing with my general look? Even in the IndyCar Series, there's been some history of long-haired dudes who've had success, so I don't think I'm an outlier from that perspective. I do think we occasionally take ourselves a little too seriously, so it doesn't bother me to be disrupting that trend."
To his surprise, Carpenter has supported the unkempt look so far, and to his dismay, he recently learned Mrs. Hildebrand's appreciation for long hair isn't limited to her husband.
"Ed's told me he wants to make sure that if I last the season this way, he wants me to play Jesus for his kids around Christmas time!" he said while laughing. "I don't feel like I need to conform to anybody's ideas. For a while [Alex Tagliani] was going with the Tony Stark look for a while with his beard that was very much a Bronte Tagliani request, and I've got the same kind of program going on with my better half with Keanu Reeves.
"We just watched 'John Wick' and 'John Wick 2' the other day, and there was clearly a little glimmer in her eye during those movies ... and I'm thinking, do I have competition here? I mean, I'm an effing IndyCar driver, right?"

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[h=2]WTR leads opening IMSA Long Beach practice[/h] Friday, 07 April 2017



By Marshall Pruett (words and images)

Wayne Taylor Racing spoiled Tequila Patron ESM's morning when Jordan Taylor moved the No. 10 Cadillac DPi-V.R to the top of the time sheet on the final lap of the two-hour session. Ryan Dalziel came within one minute of ending the opening Long Beach WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session with his No. 2 Nissan DPi Onroak as the fastest of the 35 cars in attendance, and the first car to break Cadillac's stranglehold on the Prototype class.

Taylor (1m14.982s) put a considerable distance between his DPi and the Nissan (+0.493s) and the No. 5 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R (+0.607).

The Porsche GT Team recorded a 1-2 in GT Le Mans as the Nos. 911 (1m18.670s) and 912 (1m18.781s) Porsche 911 RSRs of Patrick Pilet and Kevin Estre led Jan Magnussen's No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R (+0.159s). GT Daytona, making its Long Beach debut, featured the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 as the fastest among the 16 GTD entries.

PMR's Bryan Sellers (1m19.925s) topped the No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen (+0.063s) and Alegra Motorsports' Michael Christiansen in the No. 28 Porsche (+0.128s).

It was a messy open to the IMSA weekend as practice was halted just prior to the 40-minute mark when Visit Florida Racing's Renger van der Zande locked his brakes and spun into the wall in the Turn 1 runoff area. His No. 90 Riley/Multimatic Mk. 30 WEC LMP2 car connected most heavily with the right-front and left-rear corners, and the Dutchman climbed from the car uninjured and helped to clear debris from the circuit. Significant repairs will be required before the car is ready to take part in qualifying late this afternoon.

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Power fastest in second Long Beach practice

Friday, 07 April 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Image by IMS Photo

Will Power set the pace in Friday's second Verizon IndyCar Series practice session at Long Beach.
The Team Penske driver laid down his 1m17.0800s lap shortly after swapping his black Firestones for a set of the softer reds with about 15 minutes left on the clock, and his time held for the remainder of the afternoon.
"Car feels comfortable," said Power, who has two wins here. "So, yeah, work on it. It kind of sucks if you're quickest because (indiscernible) details, you know. Wish I was fifth or something, it would have been a much better. You don't want to show people what you got too soon.
"For me, if you count the last two races of last year and St. Pete, it's basically been three DNFs on tracks that I'm really good at. It's about time I had a good run here. Really need to have a good run. It would be great."
Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti was second fastest, 0.2276s down on Power.

"Basically, we're confirming what we've seen all through testing," Andretti said. "We have the pace, we need to make sure we convert it into results, and I want to make sure we can do that.

Penske and Andretti dominated the top of the order, with Simon Pagenaud ending the session third fastest ahead of Takuma Sato, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves.
Dixon, who had been quickest in the morning, had to settle for eighth fastest in the afternoon behind Sebastien Bourdais, while his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Tony Kanaan was left 13th fastest after causing the day's only stoppage.
The Brazilian outbraked himself and stalled in a run-off with just under 10 minutes remaining, but was able to resume running after being restarted.

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[h=2]What Long Beach looks like Graham Rahal Toyota Gran Prix[/h]

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Pirelli World Challenge at Long Beach

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9389795

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[h=2]No slowing Cadillac: WTR on Long Beach pole[/h] Friday, 07 April 2017


By Marshall Pruett (words and images)

With two straight wins and a pair of pole positions for Cadillac's DPi-V.R, including one today by Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing entry on the streets of Long Beach, the class of the Prototype field is proving to be immune to Balance of Performance changes.

The three Cadillacs were slowed again by IMSA coming into the first street race on the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar after the WTR DPi-V.R won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, but the efforts to contain the Dallara-based prototype were thwarted by Taylor (1m13.549s) and Action Express Racing's Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 Cadillac (+0.204s) as the brand locked out the front row.

"We've had such a great car and it makes it so much more stressful for us to get the job done," Taylor said. "They give us a winning car every time. It's good to be back here on pole. It means so much with how hard it is to pass."

Set in front of countless employees from its nearby national headquarters, Mazda shined in qualifying as Tristan Nunez captured third with his No. 55 RT24-P DPi (+0.579s) and JDC-Miller Motorsports Misha Goikhberg rocked the Prototype establishment by taking fourth (+0.859) in the No. 85 ORECA-Gibson WEC P2 ahead of the second AXR Cadillac, the second Mazda and both Nissan Onroak DPis.

Crashes marred the GT Le Mans class in the run-up to qualifying and at the conclusion of the session as Patrick Pilet clouted the Turn 9 exit barrier with his No. 911 RSR during the pre-qualifying practice session. The Frenchman's accident halved the chances for the Porsche GT Team to claim pole, and with just 50 seconds remaining in the session, IMSA threw the red flag in reaction to a bodywork-shedding incident involving Richard Westbrook's No. 67 Ford GT and the end of a tire barrier.

With the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing car leaving its rear wing and left-rear fender in the middle of the circuit, IMSA halted qualifying while the sister No. 66 Ford GT was on a mission to dislodge Jan Magnussen's No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R from pole. In the end, the 50 seconds remaining was not enough time for cars to return to the track and complete a flying lap, and the Dane was left to celebrate his pole (1m16.909s) by edging Joey Hand in the No. 66 (+0.092s) and Risi Competizione's Toni Vilander (+0.134s) with the No. 62 Ferrari 488 in third
"Very, very, very happy," Magnussen said. "Great qualifying, the car was fantastic. Had I needed to find some more, I would have tried."
The eight-car GTLM field was covered by 0.578 seconds.
Paul Miller Racing's Bryan Sellers was the class of the GT Daytona field in his No. 48 Lamborghini Huracán GT3, just as it was during the two-hour morning practice session.
"The last lap, that's it; we had nothing left," Sellers said after scoring his first pole of the year. The diminutive American (1m19.243s) knocked 3GT's Jack Hawksworth off the pole in the waning moments of the 15-minute session, and despite any disappointment he might have felt, the front row starting spot for the No. 15 Lexus RC F (+0.033s) was nothing less than impressive for the brand-new program.
Alegra Motorsports was a late addition to the Long Beach entry list and the Rolex 24 at Daytona class winners were rewarded for making the cross-country trip with the blast to third (+0.132s) by Canada's Daniel Morad.
Like GTLM, and in what has become an expectation in GTD, the top 12 were covered by less than one second – 0.999s – to be exact.
The gaps in the Prototype class are significant, but with so many GT cars running in lockstep, Saturday's Bubba Burger Grand Prix could see ferocious battles among the door bangers. And can the WTR team open the DPi era with a hat trick? Tune in and watch it unfold live on FOX Sports 1 starting at 1 p.m. PT.

senor honda

[h=2]Dixon back on top in IndyCar practice 3[/h] Saturday, 08 April 2017


By Mark Glendenning / Image by LAT

Scott Dixon was fastest in the final practice session before qualifying for this weekend's Verizon IndyCar Series round at Long Beach.
On a track that had been washed clean by overnight showers, the Kiwi posted a 1m07.1348s with his final timed lap to finish the morning just 0.0002s ahead of Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay. Reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud was third fastest, and quickest of the Chevrolets.
For much of the session, the guy to beat was Schmidt's James Hinchcliffe, although the Canadian's morning was cut short when a suspected gearbox problem left him parked in the run-off at Turn 6. Nevertheless, his best time of 1m07.1746s was still good enough for him to finish up sixth fastest.
Elsewhere, Tony Kanaan's difficult start to the weekend continued when his running was limited to five laps by an electrical problem.
"It took a long time to fix, and the guys did a great job," said the Brazilian, who ended the morning 15th fastest. "They gave me five laps, which is not great when you're struggling, but it was a great job by them to even give me that [much]. We have a lot of work to do for qualifying."