The 2017 BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was an International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)-sanctioned sports car race held on the Long Beach Street Circuit in California, United States, on April 8, 2017 as part of the Long Beach Grand Prix event weekend. The race was the third of twelve scheduled rounds of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and was held for the Prototype, Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) categories. The race was the shortest of the 2017 WeatherTech Championship calendar.
Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor won an incident packed race in their 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R to take their third win in the opening three races of the championship. The Nissan Onroak DPi of Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel and the Mazda RT24-P of Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito completing the podium. Corvette Racing's Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won in the GTLM class driving a Chevrolet Corvette C7.R while the Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette won in the GTD category.
Three GTD cars who crashed into the wall on the outside of the turn eleven hairpin on the last lap caused chaos for a number of vehicles as it partially blocked the track. The biggest loser was the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette of Jan Magnussen and Antonio García. They had been leading the GTLM class but their path through the hairpin was blocked and they dropped from sixth outright and first in class to tenth outright and fifth in class, handing the class win to their teammates. Although the passing had happened under yellow flag conditions, IMSA officials took the view, as they had done earlier in the race when a crash at the hairpin partially blocked the track, that the passing was done to avoid completely blocking the track and no penalties were handed out.
Background Entry list
Thirty-five cars were officially entered for the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix, with the bulk of entries in the two Grand Touring (GT) categories: Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD). Since the majority of the remaining rounds of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were sprint races, teams entered their regular driver pairings for the first time this season. Because of the lack of space provided by the Long Beach paddock, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) only accepted "premium" entrants (teams participating in the whole championship) for this year's race. Seven Daytona Prototype International (DPi) chassis were represented in the Prototype class, including a trio of Cadillac DPi-V.R cars and a duo of Nissan Onroak DPi and Mazda RT24-P vehicles. They were joined by three global-specification Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) cars, represented by three out of the four major chassis: one Oreca 07 entered by JDC-Miller MotorSports, a Ligier JS P217 utilised by PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and one Riley Mk. 30 operated by VisitFlorida Racing.
With the absence of the Prototype Challenge class from the field, only three racing classes were represented in Long Beach. GTLM was represented by nine entries from manufacturers such as Corvette Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing USA, Porsche, Ferrari (Risi Competizione) and BMW with no major changes in that field. In the list of GTD entrants, sixteen GT3-specification vehicles were represented by eight different manufacturers. The No. 991 The Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3 R was reinstated to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after it was withdrawn following a number of flat tires with the car at the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona. Although it was listed as an entrant, Dream Racing's No. 27 Lamborghini Huracán did not participate despite their headquarters being within a close proximity to Long Beach. Alegra Motorsports had originally planned to focus solely on the 2017 North American Endurance Cup but the team entered its No. 28 Porsche 991 GT3 R for the Long Beach round.
Preview
IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the tenth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2006 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively. The 2017 BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was the third of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2018 by IMSA, the shortest of the season in terms of distance, and it was the first round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn Long Beach street circuit on April 8.
After the 12 Hours of Sebring three weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 70 points, ahead of Filipe Albuquerque, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 65 points, and Dane Cameron, Mike Conway, and Eric Curran in third with 56 points. With 67 points, GTLM was led by Sébastien Bourdais, Joey Hand, and Dirk Müller with a four-point advantage over Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Mario Farnbacher and Ben Keating with 66 points; the trio held a six-point gap over Jules Gounon, Christopher Mies, and Connor De Phillippi. Cadillac, Ford, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, and Riley Motorsports each led their own Teams' Championships.
IMSA altered the balance of performance to try to create parity within each category for the third time in the season. All of the Cadillac DPi-V.Rs had their fuel tanks reduced by , and the size of their fuel hose restrictors were reduced by to increase the amount of its refuelling time. The Mazda RT-24Ps and the Nissan Onroak DPis had their turbocharger pressures raised for an increase in performance. The Riley/Multimatic MK30's refuelling hose restrictor was shortened by . The Porsche 911 RSR had its weight increased by , but lost performance with a reduction to its air restrictors, a decrease of fuel capacity, and a shortening of their refuelling hose restrictor.
Ferrari's 488 GTE received a fuel cell increase by , a boost pressure raise from all revolution per minute ranges, and had added to its refuelling hose restrictor to shorten its refuelling time. The BMW M6 GTLM also received a boost pressure increase while it had a fuel cell raised by . The Acura NSX was given a higher top-end boost range to its twin-turbocharged engine; the two Lexus RC Fs had a horsepower reduction with the loss of to the air restrictor on the air intake of their engines. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was given a weight increase of , while the Porsche 991 GT3 R had its weight lowered by .
Practice and qualifying A two-hour practice session was held on the Friday morning before the race. Jordan Taylor led overall in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R with a lap of 1 minute and 14.982 seconds on his final attempt of the session. The No. 2 Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan Onroak DPi of Ryan Dalziel was second-fastest. Fittipaldi was third in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing vehicle, Jonathan Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda RT-24P placed fourth, with Cameron's No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing car in the fifth position. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Pilet with a time of 1 minute and 16.670 seconds. His teammate Kévin Estre in the sister No. 912 car was second and Magnussen's No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R placed third. Paul Miller Racing's No. 48 Lamborghini Huracán of Bryan Sellers, whose lap was 0.063 seconds faster than Bleekemolen's No. 33 Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG. Michael Christensen in the No. 28 Alegra Motorsports Porsche 991 R rounded out the category's top three.
The session was red flagged three times for on-track accidents. 41 minutes into the session, the brakes on the No. 90 VisitFlorida Racing Mk. 30 of Renger van der Zande failed, and he spun into the tire wall before going to hit the concrete barrier alongside the circuit at the turn one run-off area. The car sustained heavy damage to its right-front and left-hand quarter panels, but van der Zande was uninjured and exited his car without external aid. William Owen locked the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P2's brakes and had a similar accident to van der Zande at the first corner 23 minutes later. Owen got the car back to the pit lane and the session was stopped for six minutes while debris was cleared from the circuit. The final stoppage came when Scott Pruett crashed the No. 14 3GT Racing Lexus RC F into the outside wall leaving the fifth corner with its left-hand quarter. Pruett was uninjured, but the car was extricated to the pit lane by course officials for repairs, and four minutes of the practice session were left to run. After practice, Visit Florida Racing withdrew the No. 90 car because the left-front portion of its tub was damaged beyond repair, and the team did not transport a spare chassis to Long Beach.
Ricky Taylor's No. 10 car led the second 25-minute practice session, followed by Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda by six-tenths of a second. Fittipaldi placed third after spinning in the session's closing minutes. The No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin was fastest in GTLM and GTD was topped by Sellers's No. 48 Lamborghini Huracán. Andy Lally's No. 86 Michael Shank Racing Acura NSX was heavily damaged at its right-front after hitting the wall, and Pilet picked up right-rear suspension damage to the No. 911 Porsche when he glanced the barrier at turn nine. Thursday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three groups and lasted for a total of 90 minutes. GTD cars were sent onto the track first for fifteen minutes with a ten-minute interval before those grouped in GTLM and Prototype had two separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulate that teams are required to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid so that the Prototype started in front of all GTLM cars, who in turn, began ahead of the GTD field.
Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Cadillac bettered his own lap record of the Long Beach Street Circuit from the 2014 event to clinch his first pole position of the season, his second at Long Beach, and the 14th of his career with a time of 1 minute and 13.549 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Fittipaldi whose best lap in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing car was 0.204 seconds slower, and he improved his best lap during the later stages of the qualifying session. Tristan Nunez qualified the No. 55 Mazda RT-24P in the third position. Mikhail Goikhberg's No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Oreca 07 was the highest-placed of all the LMP2 entrants in fourth with a lap time he set in the session's closing seconds. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac of Curran started from fifth place. The duo of Extreme Speed Motorsports Nissan Onroak DPis were sixth and ninth: Scott Sharp in the No. 2 car was faster than the sister No. 22 entry of Ed Brown. They were separated by the seventh-placed Tom Long in the No. 70 Mazda RT-24P and Owen's No. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P2 was eighth.