2017 BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix
The Nissan Onroak DPi of Scott Sharp and Ryan Dalziel and the Mazda RT24-P of Tristan Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito completing the podium.
Three GTD cars who crashed into the wall on the outside of the turn eleven hairpin on the last lap caused chaos for a number of vehicles as it partially blocked the track.
[1] Since the majority of the remaining rounds of the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship were sprint races, teams entered their regular driver pairings for the first time this season.
[2] Because of the lack of space provided by the Long Beach paddock, International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) only accepted "premium" entrants (teams participating in the whole championship) for this year's race.
991 The Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3 R was reinstated to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after it was withdrawn following a number of flat tires with the car at the season-opening 24 Hours of Daytona.
[2] IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016.
[7] With 67 points, GTLM was led by Sébastien Bourdais, Joey Hand, and Dirk Müller with a four-point advantage over Antonio García, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller.
[7] In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Mario Farnbacher and Ben Keating with 66 points; the trio held a six-point gap over Jules Gounon, Christopher Mies, and Connor De Phillippi.
30 of Renger van der Zande failed, and he spun into the tire wall before going to hit the concrete barrier alongside the circuit at the turn one run-off area.
Pruett was uninjured, but the car was extricated to the pit lane by course officials for repairs, and four minutes of the practice session were left to run.
90 car because the left-front portion of its tub was damaged beyond repair, and the team did not transport a spare chassis to Long Beach.
[9] GTD cars were sent onto the track first for fifteen minutes with a ten-minute interval before those grouped in GTLM and Prototype had two separate identically timed sessions.
IMSA then arranged the grid so that the Prototype started in front of all GTLM cars, who in turn, began ahead of the GTD field.
85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Oreca 07 was the highest-placed of all the LMP2 entrants in fourth with a lap time he set in the session's closing seconds.
[25] Vilander lost control of his car's rear, and spun into the tire barrier at the end of the back straight but continued without any apparent damage.
[19][23] Richard Westbrook ran wide coming out of turn eight, and he made contact with the tire wall leaving the corner, removing his rear wing and left-rear quarter panel.
911 Porsche 911 RSR of Pilet and Dirk Werner had many of the components attached to its sub-frame replaced overnight to allow for the car's participation in the event after the damage sustained to it in the second practice session.
[28] The green flag was waved by singer-songwriter and grand marshal Chester Bennington at 13:05 Pacific Standard Time (UTC−08:00) to signal the race's commencement.
A full course caution was displayed soon after, and Vilander's Ferrari and Brown's Nissan DPi retired because of the heavy amount damage to their cars.
[30] Goikhberg had been unsettled by the bumpy track surface,[31] and he locked his brakes on the way to running straight into the turn nine run-off area.
48 Lamborghini of Madison Snow served a stop-and-go penalty for entering the pit lane for a scheduled stop while it was closed to racing traffic.
911 of Werner dived down the inside lane, and he ran into Müller's right-rear quarter panel at the turn eleven hairpin, sending him into a 360 degree pirouette, and removing the No.
Müller could not get the car facing in the correct direction due to the track's narrowness, and he created a temporary multi-car traffic jam, prompting the fourth full course caution.
24 BMW M6 had earlier advanced to first in GTLM through an alternate strategy, and he took the overall lead on the 34th lap,[33] which he held at the rolling restart from Antonio García's No.
[31] Cameron lost the place on the next lap when GTD traffic on the back straight impeded him and allowed Jordan Taylor to make the pass on the outside.
[31] Six minutes later, Tomczyk slowed with a suspected engine control unit failure exiting turn eight, handing the lead of GTLM to the No.
[36] Three GTD cars crashed into the turn eleven hairpin outside wall on the last lap and created chaos for a number of vehicles as it partially blocked the track.
50 Riley Technologies Mercedes-AMG of Cooper MacNeil and Jeanette after a strategy to make an early pit stop for fuel allowed him to keep the class lead.
[41] In the GTLM Drivers' Championship, Müller and Hand extended their lead to four points over Garcia and Magnussen, while Westbrook and Briscoe moved from third after being fifth coming into Long Beach.
[41] The final results of GTD meant Keating and Blekeeomen further increased their gap to nineteen points as Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen took over the second position.
