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The No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 piloted by Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly brought Acura a win in their company-sponsored Grand Prix of Long Beach for the first time in this era.
Van der Zande was able to hold off the charging No. 31 Action Express Racing Whelen Cadillac of Jack Aiken in the final seven-minute sprint of the 100-minute sprint race following the last of four full-course yellows.
Van der Zande and the No. 93 team lost the lead from pole early with the Cadillac showing speed and dominating through the majority of the race before a well-timed third full-course caution in the eyes of Acura for the No. 25 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philip Eng ending up in the wall after a scuffle with the No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche 963 with Laurin Heinrich newly behind the wheel.
View full post on XVan der Zande was exiting the pits when the caution came out and was able to nick first away from the Cadillac.
Coming into the final 30 minutes, the No. 10 WTR Cadillac, piloted at the time by Ricky Taylor, brought out the fourth and final caution to scrunch together the field for what would be less than an eight-minute sprint to the end.
"We had to work for it," van der Zande told IMSA on Peacock. "I mean, the Cadillac seemed very, very fast, and I was just barely holding on.”
With tires not fully cooled down, the Acura was able to defend its front-running position over the Cadillac, ultimately winning by 0.818 seconds.
"Oh man, I was in the zone," van der Zande said. "I didn't need any caution. I was in the zone and pulling away in traffic, and you know, traffic for me in IMSA is always... that's where the experiences count, I guess."
The No. 24 BMW M Team WRT entry finished fifth ahead of the JDC-Miller Porsche customer entry with Laurin Heinrich newly behind the wheel. Heinrich was able to keep the No. 5 in a battle for the top five with the sister BMW car to the No. 25, in which he was involved in the earlier altercation.
The No. 25 BMW finished last in class due to its crash into the concrete and subsequent 60-second time penalty for Eng's move on Heinrich the lap prior.
Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.
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