Vasser Sullivan penalty hands Long Beach GTD pole to Wickens

Robert Wickens and DXDT Racing will start on the GTD class pole for tomorrow’s IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach after a post-qualifying penalty handed down to the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3.

The No. 89 Lexus, qualified by Frankie Montecalvo, was moved to the rear of the grid after the car failed technical inspection for exceeding its minimum allowed ground clearance, annulling what would have been a third straight Long Beach pole for Lexus and Vasser Sullivan Racing.

This promotes Wickens to his first career IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole position. Wickens will be the starting driver in tomorrow’s race aboard the No. 36 DXDT Racing Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, using a specially-developed hand control system from Bosch. He will then drive at least 35 minutes in the 100-minute sprint race before handing the car off to co-driver Mason Filippi.

After qualifying, but before the penalty to the No. 89 Lexus, Wickens described the session as “A bit of a redemption from last year, even making it through FP2 and having a clean weekend this year compared to last.

“DXDT Racing and Corvette Racing are doing an amazing job,” said the Canadian driver. “The car is so nice to drive. When I heard I missed [provisional pole] by a tenth, you immediately know as a driver where you could have found it. It’s a good problem to have.

“We had the equipment to put it on the pole today. Hopefully with a little more experience, I can get a little more from the car and from the hand control system from Bosch. Going into this weekend, if you told me I’d be on the front row, I would have taken it.”

This was Wickens’ first time behind the wheel of a race car since August when he ran the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway.

The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal and Trent Hindman moves up to the outside of the front row, with the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO now sharing the second row.