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A Quick Look Ahead to What’s On Tap Friday in Long Beach
April 11, 2025
By Tony DiZinno IMSA Wire Service
ONG BEACH, Calif. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship begins its sprint portion of the 2025 season today on the streets of Long Beach. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach serves as Round 3 for both the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes.
Here’s the Friday setup ahead of on-track activity and additional items to follow going into the weekend:
On-Track Schedule
A condensed two-day weekend sees most on-track time today around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit.
Practice 1: 9-10 a.m. PT (local time)
Practice 2: 1-2:30 p.m. PT
GTD Qualifying: 5:10-5:25 p.m. PT
GTP Qualifying: 5:35-5:50 p.m. PT
The Saturday race is at 2:05 p.m. PT (5:05 p.m. ET) on USA Network and Peacock and streaming internationally via the IMSA official YouTube channel.
Long Beach First-Timers
Drivers getting their first taste of the Long Beach street circuit this morning include:
GTP: Three of the four BMW M Team RLL drivers: Dries Vanthoor, Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde
GTD: Tom Gamble, Casper Stevenson at Heart of Racing Team, Korthoff Competition Motors’ Seth Lucas and Kenton Koch, Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman, AO Racing’s Jonny Edgar
DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens is also making his first IMSA start at Long Beach, but has past experience at the track in both IndyCar and Formula Atlantic competition. As an 18-year-old in 2007, Wickens qualified seventh and finished third in Atlantic in a field that also included future WeatherTech Championship race winners Jonathan Bomarito, John Edwards, Franck Perera and Richard Heistand.
Koch, who shares the No. 32 Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Lucas, also couldn’t hide his excitement of making his track debut here. After numerous exclamation points, Glendora, Calif. native Koch wrote on his Instagram story, “Finally get the opportunity to race in my home race after years of watching from the sidelines since I was a toddler. What a treat this will be.”
Both Heart of Racing drivers are keen to debut at-track as well.
“It looks like an awesome challenge. It has been a track on my bucket list for years,” Stevenson said.
Gamble added, “I’m looking forward to heading to Long Beach, it’s my first time at the circuit and it’s one I’ve always wanted to drive.”
Full-Circle Ford Moment for Jenson Altzman
Gradient Racing debuts its new sprint lineup of Jenson Altzman and Robert Megennis in the No. 66 Ford Mustang GT3. Altzman has a unique “full-circle” moment this weekend.
He is both the first driver to ascend into Mustang GT3 by the ladder system (as a Ford Performance Junior Team driver), and his parents used to pace the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and IndyCar fields at Long Beach. At four years old, he used to ride-along – now he is returning to the race, driving the Gradient Racing Mustang GT3.
Altzman will continue in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) races as well with McCumbee McAleer Racing with Aerosport, so will pull double duty on weekends where both IMSA series compete.
Also of note, Gradient’s 2024 lineup of Stevan McAleer and Sheena Monk celebrate the one-year anniversary of their first race together at Long Beach. McAleer shared the team’s then-No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 last year and with Monk, drove to a fourth-place finish.
The pair now share the JG Wentworth-adorned No. 021 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, as Triarsi heads into its first Long Beach start.
Altzman Photo Courtesy of Ford Performance
