The Long Beach Street Circuit(pictured in 2009), where the race was held
The race marked IMSA's return toLong Beach after the previous year's edition was cancelled as a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled to be run on April 17, 2021, the race was to kick off the two "West Coast Swing" rounds also consisting ofWeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, however, the event postponed to September 25, 2021, due to the ongoingCOVID-19 Pandemic in California.[1] As a result of getting postponed, the race was set to clash with the6 Hours of Fuji WEC race atFuji, however the WEC event would get cancelled.[2] The race marked the first time since the2021 Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio where spectators and fans were mandated to wear masks.[3] GTD Would be returning to Long Beach for the first time since 2017.
On September 17, 2021, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outliningBalance of Performance for the event.[4] In GTD, theFerrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 received a 10 kilogram weight increase while theLamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo got a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters. No changes were made in DPi and GTLM.
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday morning and one on Friday afternoon. The first session lasted one hour on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 75 minutes.[10]
The first practice session took place at 9:00 AMPT on Friday and ended withFelipe Nasr topping the charts forWhelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:13.498, ahead ofRenger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac.[11] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4Corvette RacingChevrolet Corvette C8.R ofNick Tandy with a time of 1:19.734, ahead ofAntonio García in the No. 3 Corvette.[12]Patrick Long set the fastest time in GTD with a time of 1:20.544, ahead ofBryan Sellers in thePaul Miller Racing entry.[12] The session wasred flagged three times. The No. 55 Mazda ofOliver Jarvis stopped at turn ten due to a mechanical problem in the opening minutes of the session.[13] Alex Riberas spun at turn 9 resulting in the second red flag of the session.[13] The final stoppage came whenOliver Pla crashed the No. 60 Acura with 14 minutes remaining in the session resulting in the session ending early.[11][12]
Qualifying was broken into three sessions.[10] The first was for cars in the GTD class.Madison Snow qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 1 car forPaul Miller Racing, beatingRobby Foley in the No. 96Turner Motorsport BMW by more than one-tenth of a second.[21] Richard Heistand was third in the No. 39 CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing Audi followed byZacharie Robichon in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.[22]
The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes.Jordan Taylor qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 3 car forCorvette Racing, besting teammateTommy Milner in the sister No. 4 Corvette Racing entry.[23]Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session driving the No. 9 car for Pfaff Motorsports and earned 35 championship points. Vanthoor was 0.148 seconds clear ofBryan Sellers in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.[22]Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 14 Lexus followed byBill Auberlen in the No. 96 BMW.[23] The session was shortened afterAlex Riberas, driving the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, spun at turn eight and attempted to rejoin the track. Riberas blocked the track and squeezedPatrick Long's No. 16 Porsche to the barrier. For causing a red flag, Riberas had his best two laps from the session deleted.[24]
The result of the race meant Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor were still in the lead of the DPi Drivers' Championship with 3071 points, but their advantage had been reduced by 79 points as the victory of Derani and Nasr meant the two drivers were nineteen points behind.[30] The result kept Antonio García and Jordan Taylor atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Jaminet advanced from sixth to fifth.[30] As a result of winning the race, Sellers and Snow advanced from fourth to second in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Robichon and Vanthoor jumped from second to first while Auberlen and Foley dropped from first to fourth.[30] Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Porsche continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura and Corvette Racing kept their respective advantages in their respective Teams' Championships. Pfaff Motorsports took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship with two rounds remaining in the season.[30]
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Whelen Engineering Racing
Felipe Nasr
Kevin Magnussen
Loïc Duval
Filipe Albuquerque
Mazda Motorsports
Oliver Jarvis
Pfaff Motorsports
Daniel Mancinelli
GRT Grasser Racing Team
