Long Beach Grand Prix Pirelli GT4 Ends with Dominant Effort
Spencer Pumpelly and his Cayman GT4 never gave up the top spot once in what was otherwise a hotly contested race.
The action in every series of the always exciting Long Beach Grand Prix is typically hot and heated. But that wasn’t quite the case in this year’s Pirelli GT4 America Series at the 45th installment of the iconic SoCal motorsports extravaganza. The Pro category series began with Spencer Pumpelly and his Porsche 718 Cayman CS MR sitting on the pole. And from then on out, it was all Pumpelly in a dominant effort.
The Porsche driver led every single lap from start to finish. He wound up 0.687 seconds ahead of second place finisher Ian James and his Panoz Avezzano GT4. Third place belonged to Michael Cooper and his McLaren 570S GT4. Pumpelly also recorded the fastest lap in the overall and Pro ranks, averaging 81.72 mph on lap 27 of the 29-lap race.
Matt Keegan, driving a Panoz Avezzano GT4, was the top Amateur category driver with a 4th place overall finish. Coincidentally, he also set the fastest Amateur lap at 81.63 mph on lap 22. Finishing right behind him for second place was Jarrett Andretti, son of John. The young man with the famous last name finished seventh overall in his McLaren 570S GT4. Drew Stavely and his Ford Mustang rounded out the podium in the Amateur ranks and finished 10th overall.
So even thought the final results weren’t surprising, there was still plenty of action to behold at the GT4 class of the 2019 Long Beach Grand Prix. And truthfully, it’s always nice to see amateurs successfully taking on the pros at any level. Even if they didn’t quite take home the gold this year!
Photos for Team Speed by Jim Donnelley
