DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – IMSA’s planned West Coast road trip has shifted to September 2021 with the rescheduling of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca events.
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams were initially scheduled to travel north from Southern California to the Monterey Peninsula this coming April. Instead, the 2021 West Coast trip will begin at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on the weekend of Sept. 10-12, followed by the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach two weekends later on Sept. 24-26.
“The West Coast audience is extremely valuable to all of our stakeholders, and this necessary shift provides the best opportunity to serve our many IMSA race fans in California,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “Likewise, it is important to our WeatherTech Championship teams to have both California races back-to-back on the schedule. We’re grateful to our partners at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach and all involved for their flexibility.”
The two-hour, 40-minute headline race at WeatherTech Raceway scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 12 includes the WeatherTech Championship Daytona Prototype international (DPi), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. The weekend also includes a two-hour IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race as well as a pair of races for both the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and Global Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BF Goodrich Tires.
“The entire IMSA team is a valuable partner and as such, we must continue to be flexible in scheduling to be able to provide fans with the best possible racing event possible,” said John Narigi, president and general manager of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. “The spring race would have been ideal to kick-off our season for a variety of reasons, but we are ready to welcome fans, teams and sponsors back to the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship in September.”
The 100-minute Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race on Saturday, Sept. 25 will include the Daytona Prototype international (DPi), GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. It will serve as the penultimate round of the 2021 WeatherTech Championship season for all three classes and the season finale of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup season for the GTD class.
“Thanks to everyone at IMSA for their help in making this transition of the 2021 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach to the fall,” said Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President and CEO Jim Michaelian. “We want to conduct the event when we have the best opportunity to provide our guests with all of the attractive features of the Grand Prix in a safe and inviting environment. That will certainly include the Saturday IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race with three classes battling it out in a 100-minute shootout.”