LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long-awaited win droughts ended under sunny Southern California skies in Saturday’s 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third round of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.
Acura won overall and Grand Touring Prototype, ending its pursuit of its first win at Long Beach since the manufacturer took over race title sponsorship in 2019. And in Grand Touring Daytona, Lexus snapped a two-year win drought since its last victory at Long Beach in 2024.
From the Motul Pole Award, the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 of Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande captured the victory. That sentence made the race seem simpler than it was.
The No. 93 car ran longer on the first stint to overcome a loss of track position from the lead, as Yelloly briefly lost the lead in traffic lapping a GT car to Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.
But after staying out long enough and then just being on the right side of a full-course caution flag, the No. 93 regained the lead once the cycle of pit stops was complete.
Van der Zande then needed to withstand a final stint charge from Aitken’s teammate Frederik Vesti, making his Long Beach debut up against the multi-time Long Beach race winner. Vesti quickly got within a few tenths of a second of van der Zande.
A final green flag flew with just over six and a half minutes remaining, and while Vesti remained within several tenths of a second, he was unable to make a move on van der Zande.
The Dutchman won by 0.818 seconds over the Dane, en route to his second straight IMSA street race win (Detroit 2025), third Long Beach win in five years (2022, 2024) and sixth IMSA street race win in the last 10.
“Perfect scenario for me Saturday in Long Beach; we had to work for it,” van der Zande said, surrounded by his family in victory lane. “Cadillac seemed very fast and I was barely holding on. The rear tires were completely gone. But we did it!
“I was in the zone and pulling away in traffic. Traffic for me in IMSA is where my experience counts. The Cadillac came so close. But man, that was great!”
Behind the two up front, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor finished third ahead of the sister No. 7 Porsche 963.
In GTD, Vasser Sullivan Racing’s weekend pace with its two Lexus RC F GT3 cars paid off with a win to snap a two-year winless streak, and 30 years since team co-owner Jimmy Vasser won at Long Beach in 1996 en route to an eventual Indy car season championship.
The team’s No. 12 entry of Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen broke through for the win, as Telitz made a pass of Mason Filippi’s No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R with 40 minutes remaining following a restart.
Filippi took over the No. 36 car from Robert Wickens, who was making his series return and called his first stint a “fairytale.” He led the bulk of his stint from the pole before pitting and making a successful and quick driver change, leading by several seconds.
But the ferocious and hard-charging GTD field quickly got to Filippi, who lost time against a BMW prototype entry shortly after losing the lead. Filippi lost four more positions through Turns 4 to 8, dropping to sixth, and also lost his left side mirror in the process.
The podium battle behind the No. 12 Lexus saw Turner Motorsport leap to second with its No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher, a pair of Ferrari 296 GT3 EVOs from Conquest Racing and Inception Racing, and the aforementioned No. 36 DXDT Corvette.
Perhaps the hardest luck entry was the other Vasser Sullivan Lexus, the No. 89 car qualified by Frankie Montecalvo and started by Jack Hawksworth. Following a ground clearance violation that relegated the fastest qualifying car Friday to the rear of the GTD field, the team opted to switch drivers and start Hawksworth, who promptly charged through the field. The No. 89 car made it to the lead, but hadn’t pitted yet, and needed to do so with under 40 minutes remaining to ensure Montecalvo could finish and fulfill his driving requirements. That car finished sixth.
