# 36 DXDT Corvette starts first & falls to 6th at Long Beach

Robert Wickens was magical, starting from pole position for the IMSA sports cars on Saturday, April 18 that preceded the top-billed Acura Grand Prix for INDY Cars on Sunday at Long Beach, the premier street race in North America.

Much has been made of Wickens success in the # 36 DXDT Z06 GT3, wearing a new paint job and equipped with special hand controls designed by Bosch.  Wickens has been paralyzed from the waist down from an Indy car crash in 2018 at Pocono.

Wickens was on his way to share victory with Mason Filippi who took over during the driver change 37 minutes into the 100-minute race; until Filippi tangled up with Philip Eng in the # 25 BMW GTP prototype on a re-start which led to several more GTD cars getting by.

As a result, the DXDT Corvette finished 6th in a field of 17 GTD cars.

Also sporting a new paint job, the # 81 DragonSpeed Z06 GT3 Corvette driven by Giacomo Altoé and Henrik Hedman finished 11 th.

The # 13 Team Autosport 13 Z06 GT3 Corvette of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell finished 12th.

Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen won the GTD class for the Vasser/Sullivan team in their venerable # 12 Lexus RC F GT3.

Both Pratt & Miller IMSA GTD PRO Corvettes will re-join the action coming up on May 1 at Laguna Seca.

Photo credits: Liezl Estipona, Sam Cobb, Jim Levitt, DragonSpeed