IMSA Sportscar Round 3 Preview – Simpson wants another Long Beach victory

South Africa’s US MSA sportscar racing ace Stephen Simpson and his Russo-Canadian teammate Misha Giokhberg head to California looking for a repeat success following their Prototype Challenge class win at Long Beach last year. The duo will however be challenging for overall victory in 2017 aboard their premier-class JDC-Miller Racing Oreca.

“The Long Beach Grand Prix is a great race,” Simpson pointed out. “It is also known as America’s Monaco and has been going for over 40 years when the first of seven Formula 1 grands prix was raced there back in 1976. “It then changed to one of the highlights on the IndyCar and IMSA calendar, so going back to this historic venue located just south of Los Angeles is always a special weekend.

“It is also the first race of the year where we are back to two drivers after our two longest races of the year, Daytona and Sebring and Misha and I will be looking to repeat our successes from last year when we won the race in the PC class. “Apart from racing in the main prototype class, the other big change is that the GT Daytona Class has been added to the race, meaning it is going to be an incredibly busy race track, so traffic management is going to play a key role in the end result.

“The JDC Miller Motorsports Team have been doing a great job and although we are going to Long Beach with a different car, I am feeling confident we can have a solid weekend and continue our good start to the season.”

The Long Beach Grand Prix will be live streamed as usual on www.imsa.com from 01h00 SA time Sunday 9 April.