Gradient Racing Shines in the California Sun At the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 finishes fourth in impressive run at Long Beach
• Wayne Taylor Racing #10 Acura finishes P8 after tough day at the beach 
• Record crowds expected over the weekend at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

Gradient Racing stormed through the sunny streets of Long Beach, where co-drivers of the #66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer notched a fourth-place finish after starting 17th on the grid. 

Starting 17th following an engine change on Friday, Monk worked methodically to make up positions during her stint of the 100-minute IMSA Sprint race before handing the car over to McAleer—making his first start as a full-time driver for the Gradient Racing organization.

McAleer continued to build on Monk's progress, before a late-race pileup at the hairpin gave him an opportunity to jump a number of cars in his class, expertly navigating around the outside of the stopped traffic to his eventual finishing position of fourth. 

The fourth-place result ties Monk's career-best IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finish. The duo also finished highest of the Bronze Cup drivers at today's Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

In the electrified GTP category, the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global cars faced a tough day. The #40 Acura ARX-06 of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor had an early exit from the race, hitting the wall in Turn 1 just before the halfway mark.

The sister #10 WTRAndretti Acura of Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque started eighth and recovered from a drive through penalty to finish exactly where they began the race, in eighth.

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Acura Race Results

• Finished 4th in GTD - #66 Stevan McAleer and Sheena Monk; Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22
• Finished 8th overall - #10 Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor; Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06
• Finished 10th in GTP - #40 Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor; Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 [not running – contact]

Quotes
Ricky Taylor (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06) Finished 8th: "This was a difficult weekend for the team. On the No. 10 Konica Minolta car side, we were in a position where we could take some risks, but it just didn't quite work out today. I took some risks that resulted in a penalty, and that was just on me, taking a little bit too much risk. But I think we improved the car throughout the weekend. Coming off of last year we had really high expectations. For whatever reason, when we unloaded, we didn't have the same performance. The team worked really hard to improve throughout the week, and I think we ended up racing the best car we had all weekend. So, we're going to keep taking steps forward. We'll put this result behind us and have a good second third to the season."

Stevan McAleer (#66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22) 4th in GTD: "Super happy for this result in my first race as a full-time driver for Gradient Racing. We had an engine change last night, and started dead last today. To go from 17th to fourth on a street circuit, I'm just super pumped. I'm super happy for Sheena. You can see the excitement in this Gradient Racing team. They've had a few races where they've struggled, but now we have a fourth place and we are going to build on that. This car was definitely quick enough to get on the podium today. I'm excited for Laguna. We're going in there full swing and we're gonna see how we do." 

Sheena Monk (#66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22) 4th in GTD: "I'm just really happy for JG Wentworth and also for Acura at their home Grand Prix. It's a testament to this entire program and the drivers to go from dead last, being patient and choosing the spots. We were able to go from 17th to fourth. It looked like for a minute we were really close to getting on the podium—which we would have loved for Acura at the Long Beach Grand Prix. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting our JG Wentworth Acura in victory lane one of these days soon."

David Salters (President, HRC US) on this weekend's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race in Long Beach: "Not a great day at the office. We'll regroup and focus forward. We win as a team and lose as a team. That's racing. Onwards."

Fast Facts

• This weekend marks the fifth year of Acura title sponsorship of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and the 49th running of North America's oldest and most successful street circuit event.
• Acura and its performance arm, Honda Racing Corporation USA, have recorded a total of nine sports car victories at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, second only to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for Acura and HRC US.
• HPD was renamed HRC US in January to reflect the new role of the company in Honda's global racing efforts. With this change, HRC US will take on an increased role in Honda's global motorsports activities.

Next
The 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship remains on the west coast, moving north to the Monterey Peninsula for the Motul Course de Monterey, May 10-12 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.

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