The race marked IMSA's return to Long Beach after the previous year's edition was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled to be run on April 17, 2021, the race was to kick off the two "West Coast Swing" rounds also consisting of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, however, the event postponed to September 25, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic in California.[1] As a result of getting postponed, the race was set to clash with the 6 Hours of Fuji WEC race at Fuji, however the WEC event would get cancelled.[2] The race marked the first time since the 2021 Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio where spectators and fans were mandated to wear masks.[3] GTD Would be returning to Long Beach for the first time since 2017.
On September 17, 2021, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the event.[4] In GTD, the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 received a 10 kilogram weight increase while the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo got a fuel capacity reduction of 2 liters. No changes were made in DPi and GTLM.
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Saturday, one on Friday morning and one on Friday afternoon. The first session lasted one hour on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 75 minutes.[10]
Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 9:00 AM PT on Friday and ended with Felipe Nasr topping the charts for Whelen Engineering Racing, with a lap time of 1:13.498, ahead of Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac.[11] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4 Corvette RacingChevrolet Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy with a time of 1:19.734, ahead of Antonio García in the No. 3 Corvette.[12]Patrick Long set the fastest time in GTD with a time of 1:20.544, ahead of Bryan Sellers in the Paul Miller Racing entry.[12] The session was red flagged three times. The No. 55 Mazda of Oliver Jarvis stopped at turn ten due to a mechanical problem in the opening minutes of the session.[13] Alex Riberas spun at turn 9 resulting in the second red flag of the session.[13] The final stoppage came when Oliver Pla crashed the No. 60 Acura with 14 minutes remaining in the session resulting in the session ending early.[11][12]
Qualifying was broken into three sessions.[10] The first was for cars in the GTD class. Madison Snow qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 1 car for Paul Miller Racing, beating Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW by more than one-tenth of a second.[21] Richard Heistand was third in the No. 39 CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing Audi followed by Zacharie Robichon in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.[22]
The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 3 car for Corvette Racing, besting teammate Tommy Milner in the sister No. 4 Corvette Racing entry.[23]Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session driving the No. 9 car for Pfaff Motorsports and earned 35 championship points. Vanthoor was 0.148 seconds clear of Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini.[22]Jack Hawksworth was third in the No. 14 Lexus followed by Bill Auberlen in the No. 96 BMW.[23] The session was shortened after Alex Riberas, driving the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin, spun at turn eight and attempted to rejoin the track. Riberas blocked the track and squeezed Patrick Long's No. 16 Porsche to the barrier. For causing a red flag, Riberas had his best two laps from the session deleted.[24]
1 The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports entry had its two fastest laps deleted as penalty for causing a red flag during its qualifying session.
Race
Post-Race
The result of the race meant Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor were still in the lead of the DPi Drivers' Championship with 3071 points, but their advantage had been reduced by 79 points as the victory of Derani and Nasr meant the two drivers were nineteen points behind.[30] The result kept Antonio García and Jordan Taylor atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Jaminet advanced from sixth to fifth.[30] As a result of winning the race, Sellers and Snow advanced from fourth to second in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Robichon and Vanthoor jumped from second to first while Auberlen and Foley dropped from first to fourth.[30] Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Porsche continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura and Corvette Racing kept their respective advantages in the their respective of Teams' Championships. Pfaff Motorsports took the lead of the GTD Teams' Championship with two rounds remaining in the season.[30]