Gradient Racing Recover from Blocked Track to Top 10 with Fastest Lap at Long Beach
Gradient Racing recovered to take a solid top-10 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finish at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday as Katherine Legge set the fastest lap around the iconic California street circuit.
Such a result had looked unlikely an hour earlier when a blocked track relegated Sheena Monk virtually to the tail of the field aboard the #66 JG Wentworth Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22.
But an impressive fightback strengthened the team’s points position as Sheena and Katherine moved up to sixth place in the Drivers’ standings and was a reminder of the growing momentum behind the team from Austin, Texas and its all-female crew.
Arriving at the scene of the team’s IMSA second-place finish 12 months earlier, the Gradient squad knew that the Acura NSX GT3 Evo 22 would be one of the cars to beat around the fabled street track.
So it proved with Atlanta-based Briton Katherine showing excellent pace in practice whenever behind the wheel; the focus of the sessions being to maximize seat time for Sheena, who had never previously driven at the track.
Over one second in laptime was gained between the two Friday practices, allowing Sheena to qualify a career-best 12th in class, despite a red flag two minutes from the end of the session that prevented her from improving on her previous best mark.
Sheena put in a determined opening stint of what was – at one hour, 40 minutes – one of the shortest races on the calendar as well as being the first round of the IMSA Sprint Cup; running within a five-car battle for sixth spot.
It was the closeness of this battle that was her undoing. Entering Long Beach’s infamous blind hairpin on on the half-hour mark, she found the track blocked as a result of an incident between a few cars at the head of the queue.
Over 30 seconds were lost and with no Full-Course Yellow periods until the final moments of the race, it proved impossible for Katherine to claw back more than a handful of spots before the checkered flag.
Emerging 11th after climbing aboard, Katherine took just 20 further minutes to rise to ninth. While she closed to within touching distance of eighth before the ‘yellow’ finish, it remained agonisingly out of reach. Setting the fastest lap by over a tenth of a second was a deserved reward.
The points scored for ninth spot helped the pair move up the Drivers’ standings to sixth overall while Gradient Racing hold sixth in the Teams’ Championship.
IMSA remains in California for its next race, a few hours north at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, on May 12-14.
Katherine Legge said: “I’m really torn about the race because the team gave Sheena and I a very fast Acura and I think we could have taken it to the front. We were even able to pass people, which is miraculous around here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a magic yellow to help us cycle to the front, but as always Acura showed that the pace was there on the streets of Long Beach. Sheena’s learnt a lot of hard lessons this weekend. It’s tricky coming to a street circuit for the first time, but she’s gained some experience now and when we come back next year, I’m sure she’ll kick some serious butt!”
Andris Laivins, Team Manager, said: “We’ve had an okay day, but the result doesn’t reflect how fast we were. After Sheena lost all the time with the blocked track, what we needed was a yellow to get back into the fight. Instead, we ran green until right before the finish and once we got strung out, the chance to make up ground wasn’t there. Despite that, I’m pleased with the team performance. We executed a very fast pitstop and the pace of the #66 JG Wentworth Acura was very good. Katherine setting the fastest lap was a nice bonus.”