Benjamin Pedersen cut his teeth in motorsports on the open-wheel racing ladder both domestically in F4 and F3 Americas as well as in the UK racing in the British F3 Championship. After multiple race wins and podium finishes he graduated to Indy Lights and then to the NTT IndyCar Series racing full-time for AJ Foyt in 2023. Moving to the LMP2 prototype class the following year in both IMSA and European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Pedersen joined the Vasser Sullivan IMSA GTD program this year and won the 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in only his third start! Aaron Telitz is in his eighth season with the team and in addition to being the 2020 Sprint Cup driver’s champion, he also helped the team secure the team and manufacturer’s championships in the same year. Telitz also worked his way up the open-wheel ladder having raced in karts for many years before moving into the U.S. F2000 National Championship earning a win and six podiums. From there, he won the 2016 Pro Mazda Championship beating current Indy car start Pato O’Ward. Wins continued in Indy Lights and he earned the honor of testing on Indy car for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He joined the Vasser Sullivan team to drive in the endurance races which included a second-place finish at Daytona before becoming a full-time driver for the team. We caught up with both of these winners just after their winning post-race press conference at the 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Enjoy!

By Larry Mason

Copyright © 2026 Larry Mason

Interview and photos Copyright © by Larry Mason (unless otherwise noted)

photo courtesy of Lexus

Benjamin Pedersen and Aaron Teltiz celebrate in Victory Lane after winning the 2026 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – in  a Lexus!

The flashy Lexus RC F GT3 GTD race car driven by Pedersen and Telitz not only survived the concrete jungle of the mean streets of Long Beach, they thrived by beating all the GTD competitors to bring home the win in one of the biggest events of the year!