Team Hardpoint co-drivers Rob Ferriol and Katherine Legge scored a ninth-place in Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) at the Long Beach Grand Prix with the team’s No. 88 Richard Mille/GridRival Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The top-10 finish was a strong effort for the team, making their debut on the Long Beach temporary circuit and competing in just the second street race in Team Hardpoint’s short history.

The Saturday race meant that the IMSA Championship had two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, leaving minimal time for Team Hardpoint and Ferriol, making his Long Beach debut, to learn the track prior to qualifying. Ferriol qualified just 15th of the 17 GTD cars entered to the event, but had a car ready for the longer run in the race.

Ferriol was ready for the start of the 100-minute race, a full hour shorter than a traditional IMSA sprint race. He had moved forward two positions just eight minutes in, and picked up an additional position prior to the lone full course caution of the race that came just 12 minutes into the race.

When Ferriol came to pit lane with one hour and four minutes to go after completing his required 35 minutes of drive time, he was running 11th and passed the Porsche GT3 R to Legge.

“We feel really good,” Ferriol, also the Team Hardpoint owner, said. “We felt like we left a lot undone at Detroit with our rather early end to the race. We knew we had a good car for a street race based on what we had done at Detroit, and we felt coming into the weekend we were going to be strong. It’s a Porsche track, and we as a Porsche team are getting smarter. We showed that through practice, and had a bit of a bobble in qualifying. But for the race, if we had an opportunity to qualify better we would certainly have had a better finish because Katherine was the class of the field working her way through. I managed to pick up a couple of positions in my stint, so I’m happy. We moved up six spots over the course of a 100-minute race at probably one of the hardest tracks to pass at.”

Legge had a delay in pit lane, with the pitting car in the box in front of Team Hardpoint leaving a wheel in the way as she tried to leave. Legge spent the first half of her stint closing the gap to her fellow competitors. She moved by three in quick succession and was 10th with 27 minutes to go.

With the 1.968-mile track clear in front of her, Legge and the No. 88 Richard Mille/GridRival Porsche 911 GT3 R was the quickest car on track in the final 25 minutes of the race. Her best lap of 1:20.180 (88.361 mph) was the second-fastest of the race, just 0.042-second behind the GTD class best.

“The team did a really good job and gave me a really good car,” Legge said. “We were just unfortunate, honestly. We were hoping for a yellow, we were praying for a yellow. We wanted to catch the pack and go fight them because we had a good car and we could have done it. Both Rob and I made a couple of strong passes and the car was strong so on pace we should have finished a lot further up. It just wasn’t to be today. Having said that, look how far we’ve come since the beginning of the year. We’ve worked really hard on the setup and the tire side, where we haven’t been so strong on qualifying and at the start of the runs. We’ve always been stronger toward the end of the runs. We’ve been working really hard at putting together a better all-around package, and the team knocked it out of the park on this one.”

The team turns its attention to its home race in just two weeks, back on the east coast at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). The Michelin GT Challenge, a two-hour, 40-minute sprint race featuring only IMSA’s GT classes, comes at the home of Team Hardpoint. The team’s 10,000 square foot race shop is located at VIR’s Virginia Motorsport Technology Park on the grounds at VIR.

“Seeing Katherine out there running fast lap after fast lap was a great moment for us on the timing stand, knowing how hard we continue to work week in and week out,” Ferriol said. “Despite what position we were in at the time, to see her being the fastest car on track was really good for us and we’re looking forward to coming back to VIR to get that result.”

The team moves to its home race running eighth in the GTD team championship with the No. 88 Porsche. The VIR round is another condensed two-day event for the WeatherTech Championship, with a two-hour, 40-minute race at noon EDT on Saturday, October 9. That race will air live over the air on NBC.