IMSA's Long Beach field announced

Thirty-five cars spread across three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes will represent the series when it visits Long Beach for its April 7-8 event.

Round three of IMSA's premier championship will feature 10 cars in the Prototype category with seven of the custom Daytona Prototype internationals and three of the global LMP2 cars. GT Le Mans, with its notorious manufacturer battles, will have nine entries, and the Pro-Am GT Daytona class completes the entry list with 16 cars.

Following the opening endurance races at Daytona and Sebring, Long Beach will mark the first short event for WeatherTech Championship competitors in 2017. Due to the packed schedule that includes the headlining Verizon IndyCar Series, Pirelli World Challenge and numerous support series, IMSA's BUBBA burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach event is the shortest on the calendar at 1h40m.

IMSA's southern California stop is a homecoming for many teams and drivers, and for some manufacturers, including Mazda, which is based in nearby Irvine.

"While Mazda's true home-court advantage comes at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca each season, being able to race just down the road from our North American headquarters means a great deal to us," said Mazda Motorsports boss John Doonan. "Many Mazda employees and enthusiasts join us for the Long Beach festivities."

With the heavy involvement of Mazda's Irvine design staff involved in shaping its new RT24-P DPi, Doonan can't wait for his colleagues to see the Soul Red and Machine Grey prototypes in action on the streets of Long Beach.

"The true tie-in comes from the fact that our R&D engineers often use the streets and roads all around Long Beach and Southern California to test and refine the driving experience of our entire road car line-up," he said. "We hope to bring success to the brand with the new DPi package in its maiden visit to the streets of Long Beach."