The IMSA WeatherTech Championship finishing the Course de Monterey race today at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Morning warmups were delayed due to heavy fog in the area. However, the race started just 10 minutes late and the race started in dramatic fashion. Qualifying saw the No. 07 Penske Porsche 963 on pole with sister No.06 car starting from P2.
GTP
On the opening lap both Penske Porsche 963s locked up into the turn 2 hairpin. The incident resulted in the lead being lost on the first lap. The RLL Racing also moved up the pecking order and the No. 07 Porsche ran wide off track. The car rejoined the race in P7. Later in the race there was an incident with the No. 07 Porsche and the No. 94 Andretti Autosports GTD car. The No. 94 was nudged wide as it took the inside line for the upcoming left hand final turn. Unfortunately, for the No. 94 there wasn’t enough room to complete the move. The car ended up making contact with the back of the Porsche sending it crashing into the pit lane entry. The race was yellow flagged.
Chip Ganassi Cadillac Racing put on a thrilling performance to capture the over all win. In the GTP class Cadillac as a manufacturer secured two podium positions with the No. 01 car winning the race and the Whelen Engineering team car taking 3rd place. The No. 01 was involved in a crash earlier in the weekend but the team was poised to get the car turned around.
LMP2
With about 1 hours and 43 minutes to go, John Farano (Tower Motorsports) crashed his LMP2 car at Turn 5, bringing out the safety car and packing the field back up. Farano was alert when he was extracted from the car. Tower Motorsports released the following tweet regarding his status.
TDS Racing took the win for LMP2. The team entered two cars in the competition with the second placing P4 in the class. The No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports car had lead the race early but could not find the pace to beat the TDS Racing car to the checkered flag. Era Motorsports LMP2 car was the only one in class to finish behind the lead lap logging 100 laps compared to the 102 of the class winners.
GTDPro/GTD
GTD and GTDPro were jumbled across the grid. GTD Pro only had 5 entries for the race so the class grid was thin. The No.79 WeatherTech GTDPro Mercedes AMG GT3 secured another win on the season. The GTD cars seemed to outpace the GTDPro class at Laguna Seca with 7 cars finishing ahead of the GTDPro winner. The No. 91 Kellymoss w/Riley Porsche 911 GT3-R won the GTD class race. The No. 92 sister care took P3 behind the Turner Motorsports BMW M4 GT3.
Full Race Results are Below
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