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David Malsher-Lopez

IMSA Laguna Seca: Ganassi Cadillac holds off Porsche for victory

At the drop of the green, the two Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 of Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet locked up at Turn 2. Both Campbell and Jaminet ran wide, allowing the fast-starting Colin Braun (Meyer Shank Racing Acura) to get into the lead, followed by Pipo Derani (Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R).

Jaminet recovered to claim third ahead of the two BMW M Hybrid V8s of Connor De Phillippi and Philipp Eng, and Ricky Taylor's Wayne Taylor Racing Acura. Campbell fell to seventh ahead of Bourdais’ Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac and Tijmen van der Helm in the new JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963.

After Campbell nudged Jarett Andretti’s Aston Martin into an accident at pitlane entry, all nine GTP cars pitted, and leader Braun dropped to seventh having taken both fuel and tyres. Derani now led De Phillippi, Bourdais, Eng and van der Helm. Meanwhile, Porsche’s day got worse as Campbell was given a drive-through penalty for the incident with Andretti.

Braun elbowed his way past Eng’s BMW on Lap 33 on the climb from Turn 5 to Turn 6, and the BMW’s loss of momentum allowed Filipe Albuquerque (WTR Acura) and Jaminet to also lever their way through to demote the #24 BMW to seventh.

With 1h42m to go, John Farano crashed the Tower Motorsports LMP2 car at Turn 5, packing the field back up. All GTP cars hit pitlane, and MSR gave Braun fuel only, so his Acura took the lead ahead of Derani and Albuquerque.

Nick Tandy took over the #6 Porsche to emerge in fourth, ahead of the #25 BMW now steered by Nick Yelloly, and the #7 Porsche now driven by Felipe Nasr. Renger van der Zande replaced Bourdais in the Ganassi Cadillac, ahead of Augusto Farfus’ #24 BMW and Mike Rockenfeller’s JDCM Porsche.

Derani kept the pressure on Braun and, on the second lap after the restart, he passed the MSR Acura at Turn 3 to hit the front. Further back, the #7 Porsche of Nasr went off exiting the Corkscrew soon after passing Tandy, and the impact was hard enough to send him into the pits for repairs.

Tandy dropped to fifth behind van der Zande, who found himself stacked behind the two Acuras. Van der Zande then passed Albuquerque to claim third and closed on the struggling Braun. Once he demoted Braun, Albuquerque followed him through.

So with 70m left it was a Cadillac 1-2, with Derani and van der Zande running 14s apart. Tandy grabbed fourth from Braun into Turn 2 on lap 55, with the BMWs also demoting the struggling MSR machine. Yelloly was on a roll and demoted Tandy for fourth with just over an hour remaining.

That triggered Tandy to pit, and then Derani stopped as well, handing the car to Alexander Sims with a 20s lead. The rest followed shortly after, with Tom Blomqvist replacing Braun in the MSR Acura.

The last of them to pit – CGR's Caddy and the BMWs – got in just before IMSA threw the fourth full course caution for Aaron Telitz parking the Lexus RC F in the wall on the outside of the final corner.

For the restart with 41m to go, Sims led van der Zande, with Yelloly, Tandy, Albuquerque and Farfus completing the top six. Van der Zande went around the outside of Sims at Turn 3 to grab the lead.

Tandy then prised third place from Yelloly. Ten minutes later, Albuquerque also got around the #25 BMW, as Yelloly dropped down the order.

Tandy passed Sims for second with a quarter of an hour to go, and now had 4.4s to close on van der Zande. Although the gap fluctuated in traffic, van der Zande's winning margin was 3.8s at the flag.

Sims was a further seven seconds adrift but over 10s clear of the WTR Acura.

LMP2

Ben Keating of PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports took the lead at the start of the race from George Kurtz’s Crowdstrike Racing by APR entry, ahead of Steven Thomas of TDS Racing.

However, with 25m to go, Kurtz’s co-driver Ben Hanley tipped Ryan Dalziel’s Era Motorsports car into a half-spin on the front straight, allowing Mikkel Jensen to take the win for TDS Racing.

#9: Pfaff Motorsports, Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), GTD PRO: Klaus Bachler, Patrick Pilet (Photo by: Perry Nelson / Motorsport Images)

Mercedes, Porsche win GTD Pro and GTD

Klaus Bachler’s GTD Pro Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R led the GT field, with Roman de Angelis in close pursuit in the lead pro-am GTD car, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage.

That was chased by two more GTD Pro cars, the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes of Daniel Juncadella and Alex Riberas in the second HoR Aston. Alec Udell’s Kellymoss with Riley Porsche was next up, ahead of Jordan Taylor’s Corvette and Madison Snow’s Paul Miller Racing BMW M4.

After a yellow Bachler jumped the red light at pit exit – for which he would receive a stop and 60sec hold penalty – so it was Taylor’s Corvette that took the lead in GTD Pro class ahead Jack Hawksworth’s Lexus.

Following the third yellow, Kellymoss with Riley ran 1-2, with Alec Udell ahead of Kay van Berlo having just pitted before the yellow, and they were chased by the Turner M4s of Bill Auberlen and Robbie Foley. In GTD Pro, Alex Riberas’ HoR Aston led ahead of Antonio Garcia who was now in the Corvette.

Udell had to pit with 63m to go, van Berlo stopping next time by, leaving Turner and Paul Miller to run 1-2-3 for BMW just briefly until they pitted too.

Andy Lally led GTD for Magnus Racing (Aston), ahead of van Berlo and Auberlen, while Ross Gunn led GTD Pro ahead of Garcia. However, the latter pair had blown the wave-by rules under yellow and had to pit for stop-and-hold penalties.

That left Jules Gounon’s WeatherTech Mercedes leading GTD Pro, ahead of the earlier penalized Pfaff Porsche and the #14 Lexus, albeit in 12th through 14th overall in GT. Van Berlo passed Lally after a slightly physical confrontation with 20m to go, and soon Lally also had to give up second to Auberlen. With under 10m to go, Lally also lost third to Julian Andlauer (in for Udell).

Van Berlo won GTD by 10s ahead of Auberlen who had two seconds in hand over Andlauer.

Gounon took GTD Pro victory by eight seconds from the #14 Lexus, as Ben Barnicoat nipped Patrick Pilet for second by a mere 0.2s.

Cla Class Driver Chassis Laps Gap
1 GTP France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Cadillac V-Series.R 102  
2 GTP United Kingdom Nick Tandy
France Mathieu Jaminet
Porsche 963 102 3.882
3 GTP Brazil Pipo Derani
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
Cadillac V-Series.R 102 10.636
4 GTP United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Acura ARX-06 102 21.041
5 GTP Austria Philipp Eng
Brazil Augusto Farfus
BMW M Hybrid V8 102 22.818
6 GTP United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United States Colin Braun
Acura ARX-06 102 23.109
7 GTP Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Porsche 963 102 23.818
8 LMP2 United States Steven Thomas
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
ORECA LMP2 07 102 43.809
9 GTP United States Connor de Phillippi
United Kingdom Nick Yelloly
BMW M Hybrid V8 102 45.677
10 LMP2 United States Ben Keating
France Paul-Loup Chatin
ORECA LMP2 07 102 48.904
11 LMP2 United States George Kurtz
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
ORECA LMP2 07 102 49.158
12 LMP2 France François Heriau
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
ORECA LMP2 07 102 50.003
13 LMP2 United States Eric Lux
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
ORECA LMP2 07 102 1'03.324
14 LMP2 Denmark Dennis Andersen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
ORECA LMP2 07 102 1'04.674
15 LMP2 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
ORECA LMP2 07 100  
16 GTD Alan Metni
Netherlands Kay van Berlo
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97  
17 GTD United States Bill Auberlen
Chandler Hull
BMW M4 GT3 97  
18 GTD United States Alec Udell
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97  
19 GTD United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 97  
20 GTD United States Brendan Iribe
Switzerland Frederik Schandorff
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO 97  
21 GTD United States Alan Brynjolfsson
United States Trent Hindman
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97  
22 GTD United States Patrick Gallagher
United States Robby Foley
BMW M4 GT3 97  
23 GTD PRO Spain Daniel Juncadella
France Jules Gounon
Mercedes AMG GT3 97  
24 GTD Canada Roman De Angelis
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 97  
25 GTD Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
Italy Loris Spinelli
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 97  
26 GTD United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
BMW M4 GT3 97  
27 GTD PRO United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Lexus RC F GT3 97  
28 GTD PRO Austria Klaus Bachler
France Patrick Pilet
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97  
29 GTD PJ Hyett
Seb Priaulx
Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 97  
30 GTD PRO Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Corvette C8.R GTD 95  
31 GTD PRO United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 95  
32 GTP Australia Matt Campbell
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Porsche 963 94  
33 GTD United States Russell Ward
Switzerland Philip Ellis
Mercedes AMG GT3 86  
34 GTD Sheena Monk
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Acura NSX GT3 75  
35 GTD United States Frankie Montecalvo
United States Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 58  
36 GTD United States Mike Skeen
Canada Mikael Grenier
Mercedes AMG GT3 37  
37 LMP2 Canada John Farano
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
ORECA LMP2 07 34  
38 GTD United States Jarett Andretti
Colombia Gabby Chaves
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 9  
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