The 2019 BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It was held at Long Beach street circuit in Long Beach, California on 13 April 2019. The race was the third round of the 2019 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2019 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2018.^[1] It was the sixth consecutive year it was part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the thirteenth annual running of the race, counting the period between 2006 and 2013 when it was a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series respectively. The BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix was the third of twelve scheduled sports car endurance races of 2019 by IMSA, the shortest of the season in terms of distance, and it was the first round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[2] The race was held at the eleven-turn 1.968 mi (3.167 km) Long Beach street circuit in Long Beach, California on April 13, 2019.^[3]

On 4 April 2019, IMSA released a technical bulletin regarding the Balance of Performance for the race. In the Daytona Prototype International (DPi) class, the Acura ARX-05 was made 20 kilograms lighter, and received an increase in turbo boost, along with the Nissan DPi. The Mazda RT24-P was restricted in its boost, while being made five kilograms lighter. The Cadillac DPi-V.R, which won the previous two events of the 2019 season, was given a 10 kilogram increase. In GT Le Mans (GTLM), there were less significant changes. The Porsche 911 RSR was lightened by 10 kilograms, while the Ford GT had a slight reduction in boost.^[4]

Before the race, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 67 points, ahead of Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr, and Eric Curran on countback followed by Hélio Castroneves, Ricky Taylor, and Alexander Rossi in third position with 58 points.^[5] With 63 points, Philipp Eng led the GTLM Drivers' Championship by 2 points ahead of Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy, and Frédéric Makowiecki in second position followed by Connor De Phillippi and Colton Herta with 59 points in third position.^[5] Cadillac and Porsche were leading their respective Manufactures' Championships while Konica Minolta Cadillac and Porsche GT Team each led their own Teams' Championships.^[5]

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 two hours on Friday morning while the second session on Friday afternoon lasted 45 minutes.^[8]

In the first practice session, Felipe Nasr set the fastest lap in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac, with a time of 1:12.394. Ricky Taylor's No. 7 Acura was second fastest followed by Juan Pablo Montoya in the sister No. 6 Acura Team Penske entry.^[9] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 911 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy with a time of 1:17.549, ahead of teammate Earl Bamber in the sister No. 912 Porsche. Oliver Gavin was third fastest in the No. 4 Corvette followed by Jesse Krohn in the No. 24 BMW and Antonio García rounded out the top five.^[10][11] The session was red flagged twice for on-track accidents. 50 minutes into the session, Misha Goikhberg crashed the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac at the turn 4 barrier.^[9] 17 minutes later, Simon Trummer spun the No. 84 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac before hitting the turn 1 tire wall and causing the second red flag.^[12]

Hélio Castroneves led the final session in the No. 7 Acura, with a lap time of 1:11.918. Felipe Nasr's No. 31 Cadillac was second fastest followed by Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda.^[13] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 912 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR of Laurens Vanthoor with a time of 1:16.710. Nick Tandy in the sister No. 911 Porsche was second fastest followed by Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 Corvette.^[14]

Friday's late afternoon qualification session into was broken two sessions that lasted 15 minutes each.^[8] Cars in GTLM were sent out first and, after a ten-minute interval, DPi vehicles drove onto the track. All cars were required to be driven by one participant and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest lap.^[15] IMSA then arranged the grid so that the DPi field started in front of all GTLM cars.

Hélio Castroneves in the No. 7 Acura set a new track record to clinch his first pole position of the season with a time of 1 minute and 11.332 seconds.^[16][17] He was joined on the grid's front row by Nasr in the No. 31 Cadillac who was 0.218 seconds slower.^[17] Following in third was the No. 6 Acura of Juan Pablo Montoya with the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac of João Barbosa in fourth.^[16] Jonathan Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda set the fifth fastest time, but would start at the back of the DPi field after Mazda Team Joest rebuilt the car with a spare monocoque chassis as a result of Bomarito crashing at turn 6.^[18]

In GTLM, Nick Tandy clinched his first pole position of the season, with his fastest lap being 0.064 seconds faster than his teammate Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 912 Porsche.^[19] Following in third was Oliver Gavin's No. 4 Corvette with the No. 66 Ford GT of Sébastien Bourdais in fourth.^[19] Antonio García completed the top five in the No. 3 Corvette followed by Ryan Briscoe's No. 67 Ford GT in sixth, and both BMW Team RLL entries rounded out the GTLM qualifiers.^[16]

Qualifying Results

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

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Pos.	Class	No.	Team	Driver	Time	Gap	Grid
1	DPi	7	Acura Team Penske	Hélio Castroneves	1:11.332	—	1‡
2	DPi	31	Whelen Engineering Racing	Felipe Nasr	1:11.550	+0.218	2
3	DPi	6	Acura Team Penske	Juan Pablo Montoya	1:11.847	+0.515	3
4	DPi	5	Mustang Sampling Racing	João Barbosa	1:11.870	+0.538	4
5	DPi	55	Mazda Team Joest	Jonathan Bomarito	1:11.884	+0.552	111
6	DPi	77	Mazda Team Joest	Tristan Nunez	1:12.147	+0.815	5
7	DPi	10	Konica Minolta Cadillac	Jordan Taylor	1:12.312	+0.980	6
8	DPi	84	JDC-Miller Motorsports	Simon Trummer	1:12.455	+1.123	7
9	DPi	85	JDC-Miller Motorsports	Misha Goikhberg	1:12.650	+1.318	8
10	DPi	50	Juncos Racing	Kyle Kaiser	1:12.694	+1.362	9
11	DPi	54	CORE Autosport	Jon Bennett	1:13.389	+2.057	10
12	GTLM	911	Porsche GT Team	Nick Tandy	1:16.313	+4.981	12‡
13	GTLM	912	Porsche GT Team	Laurens Vanthoor	1:16.377	+5.045	13
14	GTLM	4	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin	1:16.520	+5.188	14
15	GTLM	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Sébastien Bourdais	1:16.662	+5.330	15
16	GTLM	3	Corvette Racing	Antonio García	1:16.685	+5.353	16
17	GTLM	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Racing	Ryan Briscoe	1:16.874	+5.542	17
18	GTLM	25	BMW Team RLL	Tom Blomqvist	1:17.021	+5.689	18
19	GTLM	24	BMW Team RLL	John Edwards	1:17.236	+5.904	19
Sources:[20][21]

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1. ^ Car number 55 was moved to the back of the DPi field as a result of Jonathan Bomarito's crash in Turn 6 during qualifying. A crack was found in the car's monocoque chassis which required the team to rebuild the car using the team's spare tub. In accordance with Article 23.5.3 of the IMSA Sporting Regulations the car was moved to the back of the starting grid in its class.^[18]

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DPi Drivers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 1 Pipo Derani Felipe Nasr 92 2 1 Hélio Castroneves Ricky Taylor 90 3 1 Filipe Albuquerque João Barbosa 89 4 3 Jordan Taylor Renger van der Zande 88 5 2 Dane Cameron Juan Pablo Montoya 77 Source:[22]

LMP2 Drivers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 Cameron Cassels Kyle Masson 67 2 Matt McMurry Gabriel Aubry 60 3 Sebastián Saavedra Pastor Maldonado Ryan Cullen Roberto González 35 4 Andrew Evans 35 5 Robert Masson Kris Wright 32 Source:[22]

GTLM Drivers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 4 Earl Bamber Laurens Vanthoor 91 2 Patrick Pilet Nick Tandy 87 3 3 Antonio García Jan Magnussen 87 4 Dirk Müller Sebastien Bourdais 84 5 2 Connor De Phillippi 83 Source:[22]

GTD Drivers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 Mirko Bortolotti Rik Breukers Rolf Ineichen 70 2 Frankie Montecalvo Townsend Bell Aaron Telitz 54 3 Andy Lally John Potter Spencer Pumpelly 53 4 Mario Farnbacher Trent Hindman Justin Marks 52 5 Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Felipe Fraga 51 Source:[22]

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• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

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DPi Teams' Championship standings Pos. +/– Team Points 1 1 #31 Whelen Engineering Racing 92 2 1 #7 Acura Team Penske 90 3 1 #5 Mustang Sampling Racing 89 4 3 #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac 88 5 2 #6 Acura Team Penske 77 Source:[22]

LMP2 Teams' Championship standings Pos. +/– Team Points 1 #38 Performance Tech Motorsports 67 2 #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports 60 3 #18 DragonSpeed 35 4 #81 DragonSpeed 30 Source:[22]

GTLM Teams' Championship standings Pos. +/– Team Points 1 3 #912 Porsche GT Team 91 2 1 #911 Porsche GT Team 87 3 2 #3 Corvette Racing 87 4 1 #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing 84 5 3 #25 BMW Team RLL 83 Source:[22]

GTD Teams' Championship standings Pos. +/– Team Points 1 #11 GRT Grasser Racing Team 70 2 #12 AIM Vasser Sullivan 54 3 #44 Magnus Racing 53 4 #86 Meyer-Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian 52 5 #33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports 51 Source:[22]

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• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

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DPi Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Cadillac 105 2 Acura 96 3 Nissan 88 4 Mazda 86 Source:[22]

GTLM Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Porsche 100 2 BMW 91 3 Ford 90 4 Chevrolet 88 5 Ferrari 32 Source:[22]

GTD Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos. +/– Manufacturer Points 1 Lamborghini 70 2 Audi 60 3 Lexus 56 4 Ferrari 56 5 Mercedes-AMG 54 Source:[22]

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• Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.