Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing Teams CRP Racing and Lone Star Racing Sweep GT America Powered by AWS Race Wins at the Grand Prix of Long Beach
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams CRP Racing and Lone Star Racing combined for a clean sweep of the top classes in the GT America Powered by AWS doubleheader Saturday and Sunday in the 49th running of Grand Prix of Long Beach. The dual double victories Saturday and Sunday by CRP Racing in GT3 and Lone Star Racing in GT2 anchored a Mercedes-AMG Customer racing weekend haul of seven total podium finishes at Long Beach that included a season-best third-place GT Daytona (GTD)-class finish by Korthoff Preston Motorsports in Saturday's 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
The rare weekend of dual series competition was the first time since 2017 that Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams in SRO America and IMSA shared the sports car spotlight at America's premier street race. The six competing teams across both series made the most of the opportunity.
The highlight was the race-win lockout by CRP and Lone Star in the twin 40-minute GT America sprints Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Jason Daskalos drove to the overall and GT3-class victories both days in the No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 while Dan Knox did the double in the GT2 division in his No. 10 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2.
Daskalos, a close runner-up in last year's GT America championship, has now taken the victory in three of the year's first four races after winning the opening race of the 2024 championship two weeks ago at Sonoma Raceway.
Knox and Lone Star missed the Sonoma opener but showed up at Long Beach for their season debut more than prepared. Knox started on the pole for both races and comfortably led every race lap run this weekend for his and Lone Star's first career race-weekend sweep.
Daskalos turned in a similar controlled performance from the pole on Sunday, but his Saturday win came after improving two race positions. Moving to the inside of the race leader with five minutes to go, Daskalos pulled off the winning pass after moving up from his third-place starting position earlier in the race.
The No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, and team drivers Mikael Grenier and Mike Skeen, staged a similar fight to the podium earlier on Saturday in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship race.
Rebounding from a brush against the unforgiving Long Beach street circuit walls in Friday practice, Grenier qualified a solid sixth for the race. He began the No. 32 team's move to the front and pitted from the lead to hand off to Skeen after pacing the field for two laps during pit stops.
The Korthoff Preston team's top pit work put Skeen back in the race in fourth with 40 minutes to go and he battled in the top five to the finish. He was one of the first GTD competitors to escape from a late-race and multi-car stoppage at Long Beach's notorious hairpin turn, emerging in third place and successfully defending the final podium position to the finish.
The Long Beach weekend's other podium player was Brent Holden in the No. 44 GMG Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 in GT America. Holden finished third in both weekend races to join Knox in giving the Mercedes-AMG GT2 its first dual podium finishes in major North American sports car competition.
Ironically, one of the two competing Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams to not visit the Long Beach podium this weekend was the IMSA GTD championship-leading No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward and Philip Ellis that dominated the season-opening Rolex 24 and 12 Hours of Sebring.
Shaking off a penalty for too many crew members over the wall when starting driver Ward pitted to hand over to Ellis just over an hour into the race, the No. 57 team still improved two spots from their starting position and even built their championship lead.
The Winward team and drivers are now 185 points ahead of their nearest competitors in first place in the GTD points race while the Korthoff Preston team's finish boosted Mercedes-AMG's lead in the GTD manufacturer championship to 134 points ahead of the second-place competitor.
Next up for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport Customer Racing teams in SRO America competition is an all-series weekend at Sebring International Raceway, May 3 – 5, that will see the Fanatec GT World Challenge and Pirelli GT4 America championships join GT America for a full schedule of six different races that weekend.
Mercedes-AMG Motorsport customer teams on the IMSA tour next compete at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, May 10 – 12.
Jason Daskalos, Driver – No. 27 CRP Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "You always want to come to Long Beach and win Long Beach, but to win back-to-back for the weekend is super special. We're off to a great start and we want to keep this momentum going to Sebring and finish the year strong. My car came to me at the end of Saturday's race, which was great. The leader caught a little traffic, which gave me the run down through the back straightaway. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 was consistent, all the way through the weekend. It warms up the tires well and I had a lot of car at the end of the races."
Mikael Grenier, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: "The opening stint was fine. I tried to save a bit of fuel to make the pit stop shorter because we knew there was a good chance there would be a safety car before the pit stop, which happened. The guys did an amazing pit stop. They had no pit stop practice because they were doing a really good job rebuilding the car. We actually gained position during the pit stop, and Mike also gained a spot on the track, so it was good. It's good to get to a podium."
Mike Skeen, Driver – No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3: "We had a great car after the first practice. We were really happy with the handling, which helped even though we missed the second practice. All of the guys rallied together really strong, put the car back together, and Mikael qualified well and had a quality run given he had no laps in the car. He got up a bit further, we made up some time in the pits, capitalized on mistakes by others, played it smart and brought it home. I'm super happy to get these guys their first podium of the year and we'll look for more in Laguna Seca."
Russell Ward, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "We extended the points lead and that's what we're here for, to win the championship. A lot of cars faired pretty poorly here, and some always do. At Long Beach, it's a tough circuit, tough to overtake, easy to get impatient. But Philip and I did a good job of keeping our noses clean. The car came back in one piece again and we're just plugging away at it. It comes back to the same saying: ‘it's not how you fall it's how you get back up.' It's a mindset."
Philip Ellis, Driver – No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3: "Overall, it was a very positive outcome for the weekend. This is probably our weakest track on the entire calendar, so I'm happy we salvaged enough points today. We had a decent race. We stayed out of trouble except for the penalty, which was unfortunate, but we were also quite lucky because when we were serving the penalty the safety car came out. The perfect race would have had us one or two spots higher but I'm happy we survived, didn't damage the car too much, and extended our points lead."
Dan Knox, Driver – No. 10 Lone Star Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2: "It couldn't have been a better weekend for Lone Star Racing. This was awesome, to get two wins in a row at Long Beach of all places. Thank you to my crew, everyone just did a fantastic job on this car. Street races seem to be my specialty. I've always done well at them and always wanted to win Long Beach. It was a great opportunity, a great chance to race here this weekend and we're so excited. The crew and everybody on the team worked so hard for this."
Brent Holden, Driver – No. 44 GMG Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2: "What can you say, this is one of the greatest races there is out there. Not being here for almost 10 years and getting a podium sweep for the weekend in a brand-new car we just took delivery of a few months ago, it's just overwhelming. Words can't describe it. The Mercedes-AMG GT2 has a lot of potential. We've got it in a good spot right now and I think it will do even better when we get more time with it."
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