The Verizon V-Prix of Long Beach was held in glorious conditions in the Californian city, with Will Taylor and Yakumi Takahashi qualifying on the front row for the street race. While the top two got equal getaways, from the second row Michal Kubat switched off from the rolling start allowing Jawa Ahmad to creep ahead, and into Shoreline Drive the Malaysian cut in front, breaking Kubat’s front right suspension and pitching him into the wall. The first safety car period was called to clear the debris, neutralising the race until lap 5.
On lap 9 Taylor started to come under serious pressure from Takahashi, and the Japanese dived down the inside into the turn 11 hairpin, completing the block pass to take the lead. He started to gain a margin at around half a second a lap until lap 34, when his Toyota engine spectacularly failed, sending plumes of smoke into the Long Beach air. In addition to this, there was a small oil spill on the outside of the roundabout turn 3. While most of the field took the racing line, both Rodrigo Sanchez and Callum Brandon ran wide, sliding into the outside wall and out of the race. The race was placed under caution for the second time, this time taking until lap 38 to clear. From the restart, Taylor was in the clear while Jawa Ahmad was asleep, eventually falling behind both Keith Boston and Kiara Thunder by the end of lap 45 as his pace dropped off significantly in the heat. Lap 59 saw a spectacular incident along East Seaside Way, with Enzo Domenicalli and Brock Kidd side by side – the Italian on the outside for the following right hander. Despite this, Domenicalli chopped across the front of Kidd and was launched into the air, all four wheels leaving the ground. This led to both the Cerberus and American cars slamming into the Tecpro barriers resulting in the third caution of the race, with Kidd evidently livid at the incident. Taylor again maintained the lead from the restart on lap 64, this time under significant pressure from Boston and Thunder. Thunder was the raciest of the three, pulling an excellent move into the hairpin to take second, but Boston wouldn’t give up. Into turn 1, he dived to the inside, but couldn’t slow down in time, having to take to the pit exit in avoidance. This not only let Thunder off the hook, but Daniel Bruner – who had been slowly gaining positions from 10th on the grid – took third place from him. Meanwhile Felipe Cesar became the second championship contender to retire as he pulled into the pit lane on lap 73 with engine trouble from 9th. Will Taylor took his maiden victory after 85 laps ahead of Kiara Thunder by 5.3 seconds, with Daniel Bruner a further 5 seconds back in third. Keith Boston, Nick Addison, Jawa Ahmad, Marcus Thunder and Jamie Gerrard rounded out the top 8.
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April 2018
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