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Cadillac Racing finishes runner-up in Long Beach Grand Prix

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Media Resources: Images | Media Advances | Cadillac Newsroom
LONG BEACH (April 18, 2026) – Cadillac Racing came close but finished runner-up in the 51st running of the Long Beach Grand Prix IMSA race.  Jack Aitken and Fred Vesti, drivers of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, started fourth and finished second, just .818 of a second behind the winning car of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly of Michael Shank Racing.  There was a full-course caution which hampered the No. 31 and benefited van der Zande and Yelloly with pit strategy.  That said, it was the fifth consecutive podium for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac as they won twice to end the 2025 season (Indianapolis and Road Atlanta) and then a second-place effort in the 2026 Rolex 24 at Daytona and a third at Sebring. 
Cadillac Racing now has 107 podiums (23 GTP, 84 DPi) since joining IMSA prototype competition in 2017.  Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor, drivers of the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, finished eighth, while Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, finished 23rd overall after a minor incident with about 20 minutes left in the race.  The next IMSA GTP event is the Monterey Sportscar Championship at Laguna Seca (California) Raceway on May 3. The two-hour 40-minute race starts at 4:10 pm EDT (1:10 pm PDT) and will be streamed live on Peacock and NBC Sports Network. IMSA Radio will stream live audio coverage on XM 206, Channel 996 on the SiriusXM app and IMSA.com.
What they’re saying No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken: “I think we had a really good day to be honest from our side. There are a few key things you need to do a street track like this, you need to have a good start, have a good stop and don’t make mistakes and I think everyone on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac pretty much checked those boxes, so it hurts a little bit not to get the win, but the yellow was timed perfectly for the 93 but that’s how it goes, but it was a lot of fun driving. It’d felt good and it felt quick and it was a really good run, so you can’t complain too much, but we are hungry for that win.” Frederik Vesti: “Being a little frustrated with a second-place finish says a lot about this team. Jack did amazing today going from fourth to first and we were slightly unlucky with that full course yellow, which was a little bit frustrating. But from my side we were trying to keep it clean because we need to get to the finish line, but I was pushing every where I could to get by Renger, but he has experience around these streets and he wasn’t easy to get by, but the fifth straight podium for me and for the team and I’m super proud of that.”
Cadillac Racing finishes runner-up in Long Beach Grand Prix 
Media Resources: Images | Media Advances | Cadillac Newsroom
LONG BEACH (April 18, 2026) – Cadillac Racing came close but finished runner-up in the 51st running of the Long Beach Grand Prix IMSA race.  Jack Aitken and Fred Vesti, drivers of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, started fourth and finished second, just .818 of a second behind the winning car of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly of Michael Shank Racing.  There was a full-course caution which hampered the No. 31 and benefited van der Zande and Yelloly with pit strategy.  That said, it was the fifth consecutive podium for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac as they won twice to end the 2025 season (Indianapolis and Road Atlanta) and then a second-place effort in the 2026 Rolex 24 at Daytona and a third at Sebring. 
Cadillac Racing now has 107 podiums (23 GTP, 84 DPi) since joining IMSA prototype competition in 2017.  Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor, drivers of the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, finished eighth, while Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor, driver of the No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, finished 23rd overall after a minor incident with about 20 minutes left in the race.  The next IMSA GTP event is the Monterey Sportscar Championship at Laguna Seca (California) Raceway on May 3. The two-hour 40-minute race starts at 4:10 pm EDT (1:10 pm PDT) and will be streamed live on Peacock and NBC Sports Network. IMSA Radio will stream live audio coverage on XM 206, Channel 996 on the SiriusXM app and IMSA.com.
What they’re saying No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken: “I think we had a really good day to be honest from our side. There are a few key things you need to do a street track like this, you need to have a good start, have a good stop and don’t make mistakes and I think everyone on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac pretty much checked those boxes, so it hurts a little bit not to get the win, but the yellow was timed perfectly for the 93 but that’s how it goes, but it was a lot of fun driving. It’d felt good and it felt quick and it was a really good run, so you can’t complain too much, but we are hungry for that win.” Frederik Vesti: “Being a little frustrated with a second-place finish says a lot about this team. Jack did amazing today going from fourth to first and we were slightly unlucky with that full course yellow, which was a little bit frustrating. But from my side we were trying to keep it clean because we need to get to the finish line, but I was pushing every where I could to get by Renger, but he has experience around these streets and he wasn’t easy to get by, but the fifth straight podium for me and for the team and I’m super proud of that.”
No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R Louis Deletraz: “Very tough day in Long Beach. After yesterday’s race qualifying we were running fourth up front, and I think the pace was decent, we just got the wrong strategy. The yellow came out and we cycled last pretty much. We tried, we were up there. Thank you Cadillac, thank you Wayne Taylor Racing, and congrats to the No. 31 Whelen on the podium. We will be back in Laguna Seca.” Jordan Taylor: “I think we had good pace all weekend, especially in the No. 40 car. It felt like one of our stronger weekends so far this year just with pace, especially in FP2 we felt really strong. Louis did a great job in qualifying to put us on the second row. I think in the race it was just the worst timed yellow possible where we were probably going to come in on the next couple laps, and the yellow came out. It was a worst-case scenario with the yellow – just like Sebring – and it put us in the back, so no more stops after that. It’s a hard place to pass, so there was not much we could do.”No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R Filipe Albuquerque: “Well, we tried a risky strategy for the race because we had nothing to lose. The funny thing was that a lot of cars tried the same strategy, and unfortunately it didn’t pay out. Unfortunately, Ricky had a moment over the curb and he lost the car. When things are not going right, you go even worse, and if we put everything together the bad things on one weekend are okay, it just means the next weekend will be better.” Ricky Taylor: “This was a really hard weekend for us on the No. 10 car. I feel like we started Practice 1 a bit behind and struggled all weekend. Filipe actually had a great stint in the car, and the team tried to go off strategy to make something happen. I think it would have actually worked out okay, but we had a little traffic in the pits that hurt us getting out so we lost a bit of track position there. In the end, it was the incident that cost us finishing on the lead lap. It will be nice that we have a quick turnaround for Laguna.”

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