The 2014 Tequila Patrón Sports Car Showcase at Long Beach was a sports car race held on the Long Beach Street Circuit in California, United States, on 11–12 April 2014 as part of the Long Beach Grand Prix event weekend. The race was the third round of the inaugural Tudor United SportsCar Championship season and held exclusively for the Prototype and GT Le Mans categories, the first such event in the history of the series to not feature all four classes. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas followed their 2014 12 Hours of Sebring victory with a win at Long Beach, and giving Chip Ganassi Racing their second victory in the history of the sports car event. Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing's Chevrolet Corvette DPs completed the race podium. Jan Magnussen and Antonio García earned Corvette Racing their first GTLM category win of the season, as well as the first win for the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed that the race was part of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship schedule in September 2013.[1] It was the first year that the race was part of the series calendar, and the ninth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2006 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively. The race was the third of 2014's thirteen scheduled IMSA automobile endurance races, the shortest of the season in terms of distance, and it was the first round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn 1.968miles Long Beach street circuit in Long Beach, California on April 12, 2014.
A total of 21 cars took part in the event split across 2 classes.[2] In P, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and Action Express Racing scaled down to one car. Starworks Motorsport, Fifty Plus Racing, and DeltaWing Racing Cars skipped the event.[3] Muscle Milk Pickett Racing missed the event in order to focus on testing its Oreca 03 before the team closed.[4] [5] [6] In GTLM, Krohn Racing were absent. Dane Cameron replaced Matteo Malucelli who got suspended for dangerous driving at Sebring, in the Risi Competizione entry.[7] [8]
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday morning and one on Friday afternoon. The first session lasted two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 30 minutes.[9]
The first practice session at 7:40 am PT on Friday and ended with Scott Pruett topping the charts for Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, with a lap time of 1:16.441.[10]
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates | Scott Pruett | 1:16.441 | _ |
| 2 | P | 60 | Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian | Oswaldo Negri | 1:16.681 | +0.240 |
| 3 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | João Barbosa | 1:16.688 | +0.247 |
| Source:[11] | ||||||
The second and final practice session took place at 5:05 pm PT on Friday and ended with Christian Fittipaldi topping the charts for Action Express Racing, with a lap time of 1:16.081.[12]
| Class | Team | Driver | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P | 5 | Action Express Racing | Christian Fittipaldi | 1:16.081 | _ |
| 2 | P | 01 | Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates | Scott Pruett | 1:16.135 | +0.054 |
| 3 | P | 10 | Wayne Taylor Racing | Jordan Taylor | 1:16.475 | +0.394 |
| Source:[13] | ||||||
Pruett in the No. 01 CGR Riley DP took his first pole position of the season with a lap of 1 minute, 15.325 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Negri whose best lap in the No. 60 MSR car was 0.041 seconds slower.[14] Christian Fittipaldi qualified the No. 5 AER Corvette DP in third.[15] Olivier Pla's No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan was the highest placed of all the LMP2 entrants in fourth position. The No. 10 Corvette DP of Ricky Taylor started from fifth place.
In GTLM, Magnussen took his pole position of the season with a lap of 1 minute and 17.939 seconds.[16] He was joined by Bill Auberlen's No. 55 BMW Z4 on the grid's front row with his best lap being 0.152 seconds slower, and Dirk Müller drove the No. 56 BMW to third place.[17] Milner qualified the No. 4 Corvette in fourth position. The two Porsches were fifth and sixth (the No. 911 car driven by Tandy in front of the No. 912 vehicle of Christensen).
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by .
Class winners are indicated with bold.
