Off to “a dream start” in the two longest races of the IMSA season, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 will try to flex its muscles in one of the shortest races of the year.
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be a 100-minute sprint through the streets of downtown on Saturday, April 12 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, Peacock).
After closing the team’s consecutive victories in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Twelve Hours of Sebring, Penske ace Felipe Nasr said his confidence is at an all-time high on the heels of winning the Grand Touring Prototype championship last year.
“I’m living one of the best moments of my career right now in terms of the experience and people I’m working with,” Nasr said. “So fortunate to be in this position with engineering, Porsche and Penske, putting our names in history together. To me, it’s just a moment to be involved with such quality. I have the best team, so I’m able to deliver my best as well.”
It’ll be a much shorter path to a Long Beach victory for Nasr and co-driver Nick Tandy. Each will drive the No. 7 963 in a race with only one pit stop on the very narrow and tricky street course.
“It’s a different dynamic of racing,” Nasr said. It’s all about getting most of the track and the best usage of track time. For sure we’ll have strong competition heading to Long Beach as well.”
Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais won last year at Long Beach in the No. 01 Cadillac for Chip Ganassi Racing, which is on hiatus from IMSA this season. Bourdais won’t be racing Saturday, but van der Zande will team with Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 of Meyer Shank Racing as one of 11 GTP entries seeking the overall win.
The past two Long Beach wins have gone to GTP teams that ran the 90 minutes on one set of tires (Cadillac last year, the No. 6 Porsche in 2023), and van der Zande said “it’s the move” to win Saturday depending on the caution flags and the conditions.
“And it still needs to fit in the whole picture because we don’t know how the tire wear is going to be this year,” van der Zande said. “It’s going to be reasonably warm but not super warm. But if you can take more tires because of whatever window we’re in when the pit stop happens, then you take tires, and you might move forward in traffic. It’s hard to overtake. We saw last year that nobody was able to overtake me because we didn’t have the fastest car on the old tires, but we just got them behind. ... You can’t say from what’s going to be the strategy, but the strategy is gonna be making the right call on the right moment.
While Porsche has won the first two GTP races, BMW has captured the pole in both races, and track position figures to be important in a street race.
“I just love this style of racing bringing the GTP cars to Long Beach and extracting the maximum of the car in a track like that,” Nasr said. “It’s a real challenge. Trying to find the details, set up the car, maximize the tires, think about the strategy. It’s such a short and compressed weekend that you have to take decisions quicker than the previous two weekends. You’d have more time to analyze and try more.
“Where now at Long Beach it’s narrower in terms of the decisions, and you don’t have time to think. There’s no room for mistakes, and you put yourself where to maximize in every session. It’s a tough place to pass. Tough for traffic. It’s a one stop race, so you’re trying to make sure you’ve done the best you could for your teammate when you fight for victory. I know there’s a lot of competition. Acura, Cadillac and BMW are strong too. It’ll be strong competition for sure.”
There are 16 entries in the GTD category, including the defending race winner No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Robert Wickens, who has returned to racing from life-threatening injuries in a 2018 IndyCar crash at Pocono Raceway, will be making his GTD debut and sharing the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3 with Tommy Milner, a four-time Long Beach winner.
Wickens will be using a new electronic hand-controlled braking system designed by Bosch. It’s his first IMSA race since the 2017 Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Here are the start times, daily schedules and streaming info for the 2025 IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach:
2025 IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach
WHEN: Saturday, April 12 at 5 p.m.
DISTANCE: A 100-minute race on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street course in Long Beach, Califiornia.
FORECAST: According to Weather Underground, it’s expected to be 67 degrees with no chance of rain at the green flag.
STARTING GRIDS: Click here for the Long Beach starting lineup l Lineup by row l Lineup by car number
How to Watch the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
TV/streaming: The IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will be televised on the USA Network and streamed on Peacock from flag to flag beginning at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 12.
The NBC Sports broadcast will feature announcers Brian Till and Calvin Fish. Dave Burns and Kevin Lee are the pit reporters.
RADIO: All sessions live on IMSA.com; SiriusXM live race coverage begins April 12 at 5 p.m. (SiriusXM channel 206, Web/App 996)
IMSA Grand Prix of Long Beach schedule, start times
Here’s a rundown of the IMSA schedule this week on the streets of Long Beach (all times are ET):
Friday, April 11
Noon-1 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice
4-5:30 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice
8:10-9 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship qualifying (Peacock)
Saturday, April 12
5 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Prix of Long Beach (USA Network, Peacock)
