MIA’s Lazare, de Quesada Take Laguna Win

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Jesse Lazare made a move around Trent Hindman in the closing stages of Saturday’s IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race to take top honors in the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120.

Lazare drove his No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4 he shared with pole-sitter Michael de Quesada to victory in the third round of the season, in a race that ran largely caution-free.

While having started on pole, the Canadian squad lost the lead during the mid-race pit stop sequence, which went in favor of the No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport of Trent Hindman.

Hindman, however, came under attack by Lazare, who got around him for the lead with 28 minutes to go and took a 0.691-second win.

It marked the first Pilot Challenge victory of the season for the Canadian squad, which gave the Artura GT4 its maiden series’ win in last year’s season-ending round at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Daniel Morad completed the GS class podium in the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 after getting around IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship ace Jack Hawksworth, making a cameo appearance in the No. 50 Hattori Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO, with less than ten minutes to go.

Hawksworth and co-driver Jaden Conwright, who started from the rear of the class field due to a post-qualifying technical infraction, came home fourth.

The No. 19 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 of Rory van der Steur and Alexandre Premat completed the top-five, which was represented by five different GT4 manufacturers.

Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor have remained undefeated in TCR this year, with the Unitronic JDC-Miller Motorsports duo taking their third class win out of three races this season.

Taylor in the No. 17 Audi RS 3 LMS TCR passed the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra of Mason Filippi in the closing 20 minutes en route to victory lane.

It came in a come-from-behind run for the Audi, which suffered two off-course excursions early in the two-hour contest.

The No. 33 BHA Hyundai completed the class podium following a late charge by Robert Wickens, who made his racing return since his serious accident in last month’s NLS round at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The race was slowed twice for cautions, the first just a few laps into the race for a heavy crash by Tom Collingwood in the No. 38 BGB Motorsports Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport.

It was followed by a small fire that grounded the No. 80 VGRT Hyundai at the Corkscrew just moments after the resumption of racing.

RESULTS: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John