Vasser Sullivan's Long Beach Success Continues

Vasser Sullivan Racing’s recent run of success at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach continued today when Parker Thompson planted the No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 on the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) pole for the third round of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The Vasser Sullivan squad boasts a back-to-back winning streak at Long Beach, with Ben Barnicoat and Parker Thompson having scored a win here in GTD last year after Jack Hawksworth and Barnicoat took the GTD PRO victory in 2023. It’s also the team’s third straight Long Beach pole in either GTD PRO or GTD; no IMSA GT team has done so at Long Beach since Corvette Racing did so from 2007 to 2009 in the former American Le Mans Series’ GT1 class.

It was Thompson’s turn to shine again today as he out-fought Jonny Edgar (No. 177 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R) and Tom Gamble (No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 EVO) by the thinnest of margins to earn the inside of the front row for tomorrow’s 100-minute race.

Thin margins? Consider that Thompson toured the 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit in 1 minute 17.877 seconds (90.974 mph), 0.06 of a second faster than Edgar and 0.062 quicker than Gamble. Manny Franco was fourth, just 0.291 of a second off, in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

“We put a lot of importance on qualifying today,” said Thompson, who will share the car with Hawksworth on Saturday. “Obviously the Grand Prix of Long Beach is very exciting with close walls. The racing tends to be exciting when it comes to the pit stops. It’s tough to pass around here and track position is almost everything.

“The way these weekends are laid out, you never know what you’re going to get in qualifying,” he continued. “You’ve got IndyCars on the same weekend putting down rubber, you’ve got Stadium Super Trucks and other cars out there. I thought that the field would have collectively went faster, although it was very tight. But I’m happy to be up here.”

Thompson attributes Vasser Sulllivan’s success here both to the team and to the Lexus RC F GT3’s affinity to the streets of Long Beach, and believes the team is the best in GTD beyond just Long Beach.

“Our preparation always seems to be rewarded here,” he says. “Particularly in California, Jimmy Vasser was a resident here and that always helps. He’s had a lot of success here and his team has a lot of success too.

“Our Lexus RC F just seems to love Long Beach. I think I speak for most front-engined cars but it’s interesting to see Rexy (the No. 177 AO Porsche) up there - that’s obviously is about as rear-engined as it gets. But all the front-engined cars have had a lot of success around Long Beach. So kudos to IMSA for making it tight. I was definitely sweating. It looks like they’ve figured things out Balance of Performance-wise as they’ve got a rear-engined car behind a front-engined car which is no easy task.”

Speaking of thin margins, all told seven drivers posted times within a half second of Thompson’s pole winning lap, although the seventh fastest qualifier - Robert Wickens - forfeited his fastest lap (1:18.239) as the result of causing a red flag in the afternoon practice session.

Wickens, making his first WeatherTech Championship start since 2017 and his GTD class debut in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R equipped with hand controls featuring the Bosch electronic braking system, had to rely on his second fastest lap of the session - a 1:18.411.

The penalty slots Wickens into eighth spot on the grid with the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, the No. 89 Vasser Sullivan Lexus and the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 EVO between the DXDT ‘Vette and Franco’s fourth placed Ferrari.

Robert Wickens Rides Roller Coaster Friday in Long Beach

Robert Wickens experienced a bit of a roller coaster day in his GTD debut in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette Z06 GT3.R. His day got off to a difficult start as mechanical gremlins kept Wickens’ Bosch electronic braking system-equipped ‘Vette stationary on pit lane for some 20 minutes of the hour-long morning practice session before the issues were resolved. Even then Wickens found himself sharing the track with drivers, cars and – most of all – tires that had fully warmed to the task.

Later, Wickens yielded to co-driver Tommy Milner who posted one of the fastest laps of the session - one that gave Wickens a target to shoot for when he got back in the car with about 15 minutes left in the practice session. 

“I felt like I was just kind of flustered the whole session,” he said. “With our issues that we had at the start of the session, when I finally went out for my installation lap, I felt like everyone else had already had hot tires and I was just a nuisance on the track … I had a hard time kind of just settling down and finding a rhythm. But Tommy drove the car, put in a great lap. And then when I got in at the end of the session, I had a great reference lap on the dash to understand how to extract lap time from this Corvette Z06 GT3.R around Long Beach.

“It’s kind of the exact reason why I was so happy to have a teammate like Tommy here this weekend. I know after this practice we can look at some data and calm down and come up with a strong approach to try and find time to improve.”

If only it was so easy as all that. Given the complications of getting Wickens to the IMSA paddock on the outside of the track between Turns 10 and 11 what followed was a rather unique debrief post-press conference, as the DXDT engineering group huddled with Wickens and Milner outside of the press room in the bowels of the Long Beach Convention Center to go over the data from the practice and prepare for the second practice and, later qualifying.

The debrief must have worked as come the second practice session in the afternoon and who should top the timesheets, but Robert Wickens. The Canadian shaved the best part of three seconds off his morning’s best to turn a lap of 1:18.157, followed immediately by a lap at 1:17.897.

So much for the good news. The bad news is that during the session Wickens slid down the escape road in Turn 1 and was unable to get the DXDT Corvette turned around to rejoin the track, thus triggering a red flag. And according to IMSA rules, anyone causing a red flag in practice automatically forfeits their fastest lap in qualifying.

Knowing he needed not one but two quick laps to qualify at or near the front of the GTD field, Wickens posted a flyer at 1:18.411 and quickly followed that with an even quicker lap at 1:18.239, the latter of which would have put him fifth on the GTD grid. As it was, the 1:18.411 was good enough for eighth spot in the 16-car GTD field.

Results are HERE