From the high banks of Daytona through the concrete bumps of Sebring, the VSCA SportsCar Championship now faces the narrow streets of Long Beach, California and this Saturday’s Sports Car Challenge of Long Beach.
A total of 55 cars are expected to compete in the third championship round of 2023, in LMDh, LMP2 and GTD class competition.
One of the shortest tracks on the circuit at under 2 miles total, Long Beach will promise to be a challenge for teams and drivers to manage traffic and strategy. Besides this, staying away from the walls will be a tall order.
Multiple teams have gotten acquainted with the walls of Long Beach intimately during the official practice sessions already.
“I think we’ll be seeing a lot of action. Long Beach is a bit of a breath stopper, that’s for sure. But it’s part of why we love to come here and put on a show. We hope it will be a race fans remember for all the right reasons.”, said series director Benjamin Fischer.
One of the focal points no doubt will be turn eleven and turn one, on this narrow street course. VSCA has announced that the race start zone, unlike for other races, will start at the start/finish line and end further down towards turn one, in order for cars to have a chance to assume starting formation coming out of turn eleven - the narrowest and tightest corner on the entire VSCA calendar.
Can Stow Motorsports keep their momentum in LMDh class?
Second at Daytona, winners at Sebring - the season could not have started much better for the No. 24 BMW of Stow Motorsports in the top class of LMDh. With their win just two weeks in the past, can the team from Ohio keep their momentum and perhaps even extend their points lead in the championship?
The No. 51 car of World Of SimRacing Team and Daytona winners, the No. 3 of Mayer Simspeed Performance will look to prevent this from happening.
Race4Cat Motorsports, JO Motorsports and DS Racing eSports Team have all had strong runs and results at Sebring as well. Can they continue their run and get another top-five at Long Beach or maybe even win?
It all remains to be seen and answers will come Saturday when the race takes the green flag. With no prior street course race in the history of VSCA, Long Beach is one of the most difficult races to predict so far, as no team has had a chance yet to build its name as street course specialists.
Race Factory No. 199 LMP2 strong in practice
Two and a half months into the 2023 season, one thing has been clear in LMP2 class competition: The No. 199 Dallara P217 of Race Factory are to be expected to compete for the win or at least a podium every race and have to be considered early favorites for the 2023 championship.
In two races, the team out of Evington, Virginia could have had two wins. Only due to a late-race penalty involving driver Alex Caruso did the team miss out on potentially winning again at Sebring or taking second place.
Still, one win and one third place finish out of the first two races mean the Race Factory team will enter Long Beach with a firm grip on the LMP2 championship points lead, putting the competition at a distant 77 points behind.
“I think they’ve got a ton of momentum and got a lot of things going for themselves, really. That team doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses. They got a super strong drivers lineup and the consistency to boot. It will be hard for the competition to keep them from winning it all this year, honestly, if you ask me.”, said a race fan in the busy Long Beach paddock on Friday.
Not to be neglected in all of this is the No. 19 car of Trading Paints Racing Team, who have celebrated a big win in the 12 Hours of Sebring and with that carry momentum of their own going into Long Beach.
Moving up four spots in the championship after Sebring, the team out of Allentown, Pennsylvania will try to put together the perfect game plan to conquer Long Beach and make it two in a row. With just six points to second place holders Fischer Motorsport, another big jump in the standings could be in store for the team with another good finish.
The No. 14 Dallara LMP2 of Fischer Motorsport with drivers Rico Kollmeier and Thomas Martin hope to rebound from a difficult race at Sebring.
Albrecht Motorsports right in their tow, will look to get closer to their German rivals, but most importantly also will look to decrease the gap to championship leaders Race Factory, at currently 79 points behind.
Hometown favorites VRG Sport, who have their headquarters in Los Angeles, California with drivers Andy Banfield and Jeff Yeager, will look to use their home race as a turnaround after a huge crash at Sebring.
“We love being here, obviously. Long Beach is home, so we really want to do well here. We’ve got a bunch of family and friends here and a lot of great support. It’s fun. But we also want to get a good result. And we know there are 54 other cars out there who want the same, but very little real estate to negotiate all this. So yeah, it should be interesting. (laughing)”, said Banfield (58), a series veteran in the SportsCar Championship.
One, two, three… in a row for Kinetic Racing ?
Their current streak is nothing short of impressive. And they have already established themselves as the team to beat in GTD class last year. Yet it’s been difficult for teams to do exactly that - beat them. The No. 67 Porsche team of Kinetic Racing could not possibly have had a better start to the 2023 season, winning the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.
But every race is a new reset that challenges each team to find new ways to beat the competition - for the four-time VSCA race winners of Kinetic Racing this is no different.
And it’s not for lack of competition - starting with the No. 393 Mercedes of MAD Sim Racing, who actually have the championship lead in GTD class competition, by way of a cleaner racing record and more bonus points.
Patrick Fogel, Axel Bijker and Daniel Keane have come so close twice, to winning their first VSCA race - taking second place at Daytona and Sebring.
At Long Beach the team out of Mooresville, North Carolina will look to finally put all the puzzle pieces together and get their first win.
Series veterans Torque Freak Racing have been flying under the radar so far this season, since switching from Porsche to Lamborghini for their No. 6 car. But at Sebring, the British team garnered its first podium of 2023.
Historically the team with Neil Middleton, Jonathan Dance and John Goodwin have shown that playing the strategy and track position game is one of their strong suits.
So could the No. 6 Lamborghini be among the hot tips for the GTD win at Long Beach, perhaps?
“We’ll see. I’m not going to say we’re going to be favorites. We don’t yet really know where we stand in the grand scheme of things for this race. I think this race is a bit of a wild card, to be honest. Anything can happen here, because there is just nowhere to go. So we’ll see.”, said Middleton.
Currently sitting third in the GTD championship, the No. 151 BMW of World Of SimRacing Team has had a strong start to the season. But looking at a 113-point margin to championship leaders MAD Sim Racing, the Spanish team will have to find the right balance between attacking and avoiding losing further ground.
Having an excitingly strong run at Sebring, that ultimately fell apart late because of an unfortunate strategy with a late caution period, the No. 5 Mercedes of Screeching Moose Motorsports enters Long Beach in fourth place in GTD and will look to use Sebring as extra motivation to break through into victory lane in only their third race.
For all GTD class teams, Long Beach should represent an especially tough challenge, having to deal with faster class LMP2 and LMDh cars at one of the narrowest tracks on the entire calendar.
“Oh yeah, for the GTs this race is going to be nuts. You know, you love it, but you hate it, too. Because it feels like you’re constantly getting interrupted, having to let somebody past when really you just want to run your race.”, Fischer Motorsport Porsche GT driver Rick Cats said.
Sports Car Challenge of Long Beach to be streamed live
The Sports Car Challenge of Long Beach will be streamed live on the VSCA YouTube channel (without commentary) starting Saturday at 1600 GMT. The live stream is completely free for everyone and fans can follow the race from start to finish. The live stream will include overlays with live timing and scoring.