Porsche Penske Team Orders Fallout Lingers as IMSA Drama Rolls into Long Beach

IMSA Drama Rolls into Long Beach Brandon Badraoui - Getty Images The subplots are thickening in IMSA’s WeatherTech Championship. Headed into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday, will Porsche Penske Motorsport move past a scandal at Sebring’s 12-hour, where the crews and drivers of its No 6 and No. 7 Porsche 963s squabbled over team orders?

Can the drivers at Acura, BMW, and Cadillac, who had sand kicked in their face at Sebring by the runaway Porsches, find an advantage in the season’s third round—a 100-minute sprint race? They could well be aided by IMSA’s move toward a de facto “success handicap,” which finds the Penske Porsches ballasted by 100 additional pounds after Sebring under the Balance of Performance—on a street course, no less. Lurking in the wings will be the Aston Martin Valkyrie, which has struggled to get competitive after joining the GTP ranks two years in arrears.

It weighs in at the minimum GTP weight—a whopping 154 pounds less than the factory Porsches—and its screaming V12 remains at 100 percent of the assigned rev limit of 8,400 RPM. A sprint race may be just what the THOR team needs to break through. Might Aston Martin fare better at Long Beach?

Brandon Badraoui - Getty Images As always, the 1. 968-mile Long Beach circuit stands ready as a track where drivers can make the difference due to the proximity of the walls and brevity of the race. It’s an opportunity for established stars such as Acura’s Renger van der Zande, Tom Blomqvist, and Colin Braun, or Cadillac’s Taylor brothers, Ricky and Jordan, to reclaim some momentum from Felipe Nasr.