The No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche GT3 R that started second on the grid behind Corvette was looking strong for a podium finish if not an all out win but the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD having started from pole and who leading for the first third of the race with Jordan Taylor behind the wheel brought the Corvette into the pits for fuel and tires on Lap 29. In a strange sequence of events during the tire change, one of the Corvette’s wheel nuts rolled into pit lane into the path of Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche GT3 R which was running third in class at the time. The wayward nut punctured the Porsche’s radiator, knocking the car out of the race and resulting in a drive-through penalty to the Corvette Racing entry.

Long Beach certainly delivered plenty of action in GTD, the Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R of Wright Motorsports had a strong run from 12th place to fight for fourth, but contact from another car bumped them back to finish fifth. Ryan Hardwick did great for his first time at the circuit, and the Wright Motorsports team not only gained the most positions, but had the fastest pit stop throughout the race.

Rob Ferriol and Kathern Legge of Team Hardpoint finished a few places behind Wright Motorsports crossing the line in seventh place in the Porsche 911 GT3R. Kyle Washington and James Sofronas of GMC Racing after an action packed race we’re happy to take a top 10 in class finish with no damage to there there Porsche 911 GT3R

The fifth-place finish at Long Beach moves Pfaff Motorsports to second in the championship standings, less than three weeks ahead of the fourth round of the season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. That race, the two-hour, 40-minute Monterey Sports Car Championship Presented by Motul, is scheduled for Sunday, May 1 at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT and can be watched live on NBC Network. The race airs live at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock and IMSA Radio.

Driver Quotes:

Matt Campbell: “What can I say, it was one of the weirdest DNFs of my racing career thus far. Obviously, Mathieu had a fantastic start. We were a solid P2 only a few seconds behind the Corvette and then in our pit stop, everything was going smoothly with the driver change and the crew was doing a phenomenal job once again. Every stop this year has been flawless. Unfortunately, this time a rogue wheel nut rolled down pit lane, flew up and hit our car and went into our front radiator area which caused the puncture. Once I started the engine and pressure was going through the system, water was coming out and we weren’t able to continue, which is a big shame. It was an easy loss of points there and I think we really had a chance for at least a solid P2. But nevertheless, it wasn’t meant to be and we’ll try again in Laguna Seca in a few weeks.”

Mathieu Jaminet: “Of course, it was a disappointing end to the weekend. We had a clean run until that and the car was spot on. The team did an amazing job, it was the third race in a row where I think we really performed and maximized the performance. I guess this would’ve been a nice P2 for us without the incident in pit lane. It’s just super unfortunate, I’m really disappointed and also losing the championship lead due to that. We’ll take the positives – the car is good, the team is doing great – we’ll bounce back in Laguna Seca in two weeks.”