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Grand Prix of Long Beach: Pato O’Ward off to strong start in 2023

April 15, 2023

LONG BEACH — Pato O’Ward was one of three IndyCar drivers with a chance to win the series title in 2021 entering the final race of the season at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which was pushed back from April to September that year because of the COV1D-19 pandemic.

Alex Palou had the best chance because all he had to do was finish 12th or better to secure the title. Palou finished fourth in the race and first in the series, with O’Ward taking third in the championship behind Josef Newgarden, who took second. O’Ward had gear-box issues in the race, finishing 27th after completing just 43 of 85 laps.

But O’Ward, of Team Arrow McLaren, is young and he’s fast and has all the makings of a driver who could be crowned champion one day in the near future.

O’Ward, 23, of Monterrey, Mexico, is off to a fine start this year ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. He finished second at St. Petersburg and second at Texas Motor Speedway. With 82 points, he currently sits atop the series standings.

“It’s been the best start to a championship we’ve had the last four years now, so I can’t complain,” O’Ward said. “There’s a lot of positives to take out of what we’ve kind of brought. Speaking of first St. Pete, which arguably was our worst track last year, we had a very strong showing there.

“I’m looking forward to trying to replicate that here in Long Beach. It’s a track where we’ve sort of been there in the mix. But we need to take one more step to kind of really be the leader, so hopefully we’ve rolled off even stronger here than we have in the past, get something to work with for qualifying and then work on the race car.”

Friday was the first IndyCar practice and O’Ward had the fastest lap time of 1:06.6999. Saturday is qualifying with the race Sunday on the streets of Long Beach.

O’Ward is no different than any driver in this series or any other – winning is everything.

“It’s a long championship, right, there’s 15 races to go,” O’Ward said. “But, I mean, that’s ultimately why we do this, right? We do this to win Indy 500s, we do this to win more races, we do this to win championships. If you’re here to do something else, you should just stay home.”

So much has to go right and so many have to do their jobs well.

“There’s so much sacrifice, so much time that goes in from the drivers, the engineers and the mechanics,” O’Ward said. “I mean, it’s a 24/7 job, you know? We work on weekends rather than a normal 9 to 5 that works during the week, so it’s a bit of a different schedule.

“But nevertheless, it’s probably one of the toughest and most demanding sports all over the world. Not just for drivers, but for everybody involved.”

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O’Ward is in his fourth full-ride IndyCar season after doing one race in 2018 and eight in 2019 before signing with Arrow McLaren.

His best finish in Long Beach in three tries so far was fifth in 2022; the race was not run in 2020 because of the pandemic.

IMSA QUALIFYING

Filipe Albuquerque of Portugal won the pole for the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar series with a fast time of 1:09.909. Sebastien Bourdais, who won the Grand Prix of Long Beach main event three consecutive years when it was still Champ Car, qualified third with a fastest lap of 1:10.981.

Jack Hawksworth secured the pole for the GTD Pro class with a lap of 1:17.817. And Marco Sorensen won the pole for the GT Daytona class with a best lap of 1:17.811.

Orange County Register

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Grand Prix of Long Beach: Pato O’Ward off to strong start in 2023

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