Long Beach Grand Prix Victory!
Jonny Edgar achieves dream Long Beach Grand Prix win on debut with AO Racing’s famous Porsche GT3, “Rexy”!
Jonny, the reigning European Le Mans Series champion, was given the call up to race for his IMSA LMP2 Endurance Cup team, AO Racing in the team’s one-off outing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, driving their famous Porsche 911 GT3, affectionately named Rexy.
Jonny had never driven the car or been to Long Beach before but despite this, both he and his teammate, reigning FIA World Endurance Champion, Laurens Vanthoor were instantly quick and over Friday’s two practice sessions set very competitive lap times. Jonny was even on top of the GTD class timing pages at times.
It’s been 18 months since Jonny was last required to qualify a car, but the BRDC Superstars driver didn’t disappoint and put in an exceptional performance to go second fastest, less than a tenth away from the pole sitting Lexus from Vasser Sullivan Racing.
The 21 year old was given the unique opportunity to also take the start of the 100 minute sprint race on the Saturday and made a solid start, keeping out of trouble on the tight and twisty circuit. Jonny ran in third position in the early stages of the race and despite a safety car intervention, Cumbria’s finest kept his composure and protected Rexy’s position out on track, fighting against the Lexus and Aston Martin cars from Vasser Sulivan and Heart of Racing. A perfectly timed pit stop allowed the team to get the jump on the cars ahead and following another full course yellow for an accident on track, Laurens Vanthoor, who had now taken over the driving duties, lead the GTD field on the restart.
Jonny’s teammate did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the race and crossed the line in first place in the GTD. With Porsche winning overall in GTP, Jonny helped the German marque secure an impressive double victory on the streets of Long Beach.
Jonny: “I am very happy with how the weekend went! It was a challenge to try and adapt quickly with it being my first time at Long Beach and first time racing the Porsche GT3 as well. On top of that, Long Beach was my first qualifying session for 18 months. It was a great opportunity to race in Rexy alongside Laurens and to come away with the win was amazing as that was our goal before starting the weekend. The team did a great job all weekend with the car set up and the strategy and pit stop in the race got us into the lead which Laurens did a great job to hold onto in the final stint on old tyres.”
Jonny Edgar will be back in a GT3 car this weekend for the 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Jonny and his Corvette #33 teammates, Ben Keating and Daniel Juncadella, lead the way in the LMGT3 standings following their win at the 1812KM of Qatar and they will be keen to extend their lead at the famous Italian circuit.
The 6 Hours of Imola will be broadcast live on TNT Sports in the UK and will also be available to watch on FIAWECTV.com
