The2016 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase was asports car race sanctioned by theInternational Motor Sports Association (IMSA) held on theLong Beach Street Circuit inCalifornia,United States, on April 16, 2016, as part of theLong Beach Grand Prix event weekend. The race was the third of twelve scheduled rounds of the2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship, and was held for the Prototype, Prototype Challenge (PC) and Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) categories. The race was the shortest of the 2016 IMSA Championship calendar.
The No. 5 Corvette Daytona Prototype ofChristian Fittipaldi andJoão Barbosa qualified inpole position and initially held their advantage until Fittipaldi was overtaken byRicky Taylor in the No. 10Wayne Taylor Racing car andTom Long on the race's first lap. The car kept the lead through the following sequence of pit stops andJordan Taylor drove the WTR Corvette DP across the start/finish line at the end of the race to claim his and Ricky Taylor's fifth SportsCar Championship victory.Action Express Racing's No. 5 car of Fittipaldi and Barbosa finished second and the No. 31 Corvette DP ofDane Cameron andEric Curran came in third.
ThePrototype Challenge (PC) category was won byJDC-Miller MotorSports'Oreca FLM09 car ofMisha Goikhberg andStephen Simpson.Alex Popow andRenger van der Zande finished second, whileJames French andKyle Marcelli were classified third after Marcelli crashed on the final lap.Frédéric Makowiecki collided withTommy Milner with around 2 minutes remaining, allowingNick Tandy andPatrick Pilet to take victory in GTLM while Tommy Milner andOliver Gavin finished second. TheRisi CompetizioneFerrari 488 GTE ofToni Vilander andGiancarlo Fisichella completed the class podium in third place.
The result meant Barbosa and Fittipaldi took over the lead of the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 93 points. Cameron and Curran moved from fourth to second, 1 point ahead of race winners Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor. Honda continued to lead the Prototype Manufactures' Championship, but their advantage was reduced to 1 point over Chevrolet. Simpson and Goikhberg's victory allowed them to take over the lead of the Prototype Challenge Drivers' Championship with 101 points. Popow and van der Zande moved from third to second while the absentJosé Gutiérrez dropped to fifth. The result of the race meant Gavin and Milner extended their advantage to eighteen points asBill Auberlen andDirk Werner took over second in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Chevrolet moved further ahead of Porsche in the GTLM Manufactures' Championship with nine races left in the season.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015.[1] It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the ninth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2006 and 2013 when it was a round of theRolex Sports Car Series and theAmerican Le Mans Series respectively.[1] The 2016 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase was the third of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2016 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.[1] The race was held at the eleven-turn 1.968 mi (3.167 km)Long Beach street circuit inLong Beach, California on April 16, 2016.[2] The PC category would participate in the event for the first time since the2013 running.[3]
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Before the race,Ed Brown,Pipo Derani,Johannes van Overbeek, andScott Sharp led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 72 points, ahead ofScott Pruett with 62 points, andFilipe Albuquerque,João Barbosa, andChristian Fittipaldi in third with 60 points.[4] With 66 points, PC was led byRobert Alon,Jose Gutiérrez, andTom Kimber-Smith with a one-point advantage overMisha Goikhberg,Kenton Koch,Chris Miller, andStephen Simpson.[4] In GTLM, the Drivers' Championship was led byMarcel Fässler,Oliver Gavin andTommy Milner with 72 points; the trio held a ten-point gap overEarl Bamber,Michael Christensen andFrédéric Makowiecki.[4]Honda andChevrolet were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, whileTequila Patrón ESM,PR1/ Mathiasen Motorsports andCorvette Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.[4]
IMSA altered the balance of performance to try to create parity within the Prototype and GTLM categories. The Ligier JS P2 received a reduction in turbo boost pressure while the Lola B12/80 received an increase in turbo boost pressure. The DeltaWing had its weight decreased by 10 kg (22 lb). TheBMW M6 GTLM received a reduction in turbo boost pressure and a change in its refuelling hose restrictor. TheChevrolet Corvette C7.R andFerrari 488 GTE also received a change in their refuelling hose restrictor.[5]
Twenty-five cars were officially entered for the Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase, with most of the entries in the Prototype and Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) categories. Since the majority of the remaining rounds of the2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship were sprint races, teams entered their regular driver pairings for the first time this season.[6] The2015 race winners,Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR), returned to defend their title.[7]Action Express Racing (AER) fielded twoChevrolet Corvette DP cars whileVisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and WTR fielded one.[8] Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 cars andMichael Shank Racing (MSR) entered oneLigier JS P2.Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Long Beach for the second successive year.[9] Tequila Patrón ESM did not participate as the team solely focused on the 2016 North American Endurance Cup. Alegra Motorsports,DragonSpeed, and Highway to Help skipped the event. ThePrototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of seven Oreca FLM09 cars: two fromStarworks Motorsports. BAR1 Motorsports,CORE Autosport,JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech andPR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each.[8] GTLM was represented by ten entries from five different brands.[8] With the absence of the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class from the field, only three racing classes were represented in Long Beach.[2]
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 two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 25 minutes.[10]
In the first practice session,Jonathan Bomarito set the fastest time in the No. 55 Mazda with a time of 1 minute, 15.917 seconds, 0.039 seconds faster thanJordan Taylor's No. 10 Corvette DP.[11]Ryan Hunter-Reay was third fastest in the No. 90 Corvette DP,Joel Miller's No. 70 Mazda placed fourth, andDane Cameron's No. 31 AER car rounded out the top five.[11] The fastest PC class car wasColin Braun in the No. 54 CORE Autosport car with 1 minute, 17.185 seconds, followed byRenger van der Zande in the No. 8 Starworks entry.[11] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R ofOliver Gavin.Lucas Luhr in the No. 100 BMW was second andJan Magnussen's No. 3 Corvette was third.[11] The session ended prematurely whenRichard Westbrook's No. 67 Ford GT caught fire in the closing minutes.[12]
In the final practice session,Ricky Taylor's No. 10 car set the fastest time with a lap of 1 minute, 15.474 seconds. Braun was fastest again in PC and GTLM was topped byEarl Bamber's No. 912 Porsche.[13]
Friday afternoon's 55-minute three-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTLM were sent out first before those grouped in PC and Prototype had two separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order. IMSA arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of all PC and GTLM cars.[14][10]
Christian Fittipaldi in the No. 5 AER Corvette DP took his first pole position of the season, and the 3rd of his career with a lap of 1 minutes, 14.962 seconds that he set on his fifth try.[15] He was joined on thegrid's front row by Ricky Taylor whose best lap in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing car was 0.171 seconds slower.[16]Tom Long's No. 70 Mazda took third followed byEric Curran's No. 31 Corvette DP in fourth.[17] Trisan Nunez's No. 55 Mazda started from fifth place.[15]Andy Meyrick qualified the DeltaWing in sixth position.[18]Marc Goossens spun the No. 90 Corvette DP at turn eleven and stalled; resulting in a red flag.[15]
French set the fastest time in PC for Performance Tech Motorsports followed by Bennett in the No. 54CORE Autosport car.[15] Kvamme crashed at turn one. The red flag was thrown and caused the session to be abandoned.Misha Goikhberg was handed pole position as the session did not reach minimum time to be declared official and Starting positions were set by Teams' Championship standings.[17]
In GTLM,Bill Auberlen took his second consecutive pole of the season with a lap of 1 minutes, 17.272 seconds.[16] Porsche took second and third positions, led by its No. 912 car driven by Bamber (whose time was 0.183 seconds faster thanNick Tandy's third-placed No. 911 entry).[16] The two Corvettes were fourth and fifth (the No. 4 car driven by Gavin in front of the No. 3 vehicle of Magnussen).[19]Lucas Luhr qualified the No. 100 BMW M6 in sixth followed by Hand's No. 66 Ford GT in seventh, and the highest-placed Ferrari was Fisichella's No. 62 488 GTE.[20] The No. 67 CGR Ford entry did not participate in qualifying as the team were continuing repairs.[21]
Pole positions in each class are indicated inbold and by ‡.
Ricky Taylor was delighted with the victory, saying: "The guys give us an awesome car. It was a Corvette DP 1-2-3, which is very special. We couldn’t be happier. Jordan did and awesome job. Everybody was fantastic."[24] Jordan Taylor said of the result : "I was able to pull a little bit of a gap thanks to the 31 and kind of maintain that until the end of the race. Thankfully, we didn’t catch too much traffic in the last 10 to 15 laps and we were basically able to hold our pace and get to the end."[24] Fittipaldi stated : "We managed to get by the Mazda going into the hairpin. The No. 10 was about FOUR seconds ahead or something like that and we managed to close it down a little bit. It was a pretty solid race."[24]
Makowiecki accepted responsibility for causing the late-race collision with Milner which cost the No. 912 Porsche victory in GTLM: " The collision in the penultimate lap was my fault. I was a touch too optimistic heading into the corner."[25]
With a total of 93 points, Barbosa and Fittipaldi's second-place finish allowed them to take the lead of the Prototype Drivers' Championship. Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor advanced from sixth to third.[4] As a result of winning the race, Goikhberg and Simpson took the lead of the Prototype Challenge Drivers' Championship with 101 points. Alon and Kimber-Smith dropped from first to third while Popow and van der Zande advanced from third to second.[4] The final results of GTLM meant Milner and Gavin increased their gap to eighteen points as Auberlen and Werner took over the second position.[4] Honda and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Corvette Racing continued to top the GTLM Teams' Championship. Action Express Racing and JDC-Miller Motorsports became the leaders of their respective class Teams' Championships with nine rounds left in the season.[4]
Class winners are denoted inbold and ‡. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), and GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans).
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