CGR Cadillac Breaks Through for Laguna Seca Win

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

Cadillac has become the first manufacturer to claim a repeat win in the new IMSA GTP era following victory for Chip Ganassi Racing in Sunday’s Motul Course de Monterey.

Renger van der Zande got around the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Alexander Sims on the race’s fourth restart with 41 minutes to go and held on to score the win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

It marked the fourth different team to win in the first four WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this season.

Van der Zande shared driving duties with Sebastien Bourdais, who overcame an accident in Friday’s practice session that initially set the team back in the early part of the weekend.

The No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet came home second, thanks to a late charge by Tandy, who got by both the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 Hybrid V8 of Nick Yelloly and Sims’ AXR Cadillac in the closing 30 minutes.

Tandy finished 3.882 seconds behind van der Zande’s winning Cadillac, with Sims and co-driver Pipo Derani completing podium in third.

Yelloly faded in the final stint to come home ninth overall, promoting the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport Acura ARX-06 to fourth with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel.

The No. 24 BMW of Augusto Farfus and Philipp Eng was fifth, ahead of the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, while the debuting JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche recorded a seventh place result, finishing on the lead lap.

Braun led early after pole-sitter Matt Campbell locked up the brakes of his No. 7 Porsche in dramatic fashion.

The MSR driver, however, dropped to seventh by the second hour after struggling on double-stinted Michelin tires, which proved to a common factor across the class with teams on split strategies amid a series of early race yellows.

A drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 94 Andretti Autosport Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Jarett Andretti, who crashed into the pit lane barrier, saw Campbell nearly go down a lap.

The No. 7 Porsche’s race effectively ended when co-driver Felipe Nasr drove off-course and into the Turn 10 barriers, damaging multiple corners of the car and dropping eight laps behind en route to a 32nd place finish overall.

LMP2 class honors went to the No. 11 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Mikkel Jensen and Steven Thomas, with the duo surviving hard-fought battles with the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports and No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entries.

Peugeot factory driver Jensen finished 5 seconds clear of Paul-Loup Chatin, with Ben Hanley third in class in the CrowdStrike APR entry, which had started on pole with co-driver George Kurtz.

Chatin and Hanley made side-to-side contact while battling in the closing stages of the two-hour and 40-minute contest.

Van Berlo, Metni Lead GTD Sweep of Top Seven Positions 

Kellymoss with Riley scored its maiden class win with Kay van Berlo and Alan Metni leading a sweep of the top seven positions for GTD entries in the production-based ranks.

Van Berlo drove the No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R to a 9.678-second class victory over the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Bill Auberlen and the sister No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche of Julien Andlauer.

It marked Menti’s first WeatherTech Championship victory and the first for a Bronze-rated driver this season.

The No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin of Andy Lally stretched his fuel mileage to finish fourth in class after leading through the final restart before finally losing the position to van Berlo with 24 minutes to go and dropping off the podium.

GTD Pro class honors, meanwhile, went to the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Jules Gounon and Dani Juncadella after the top two cars were penalized for an improper wave-by procedure.

Both the No. 23 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin of Ross Gunn and Antonio Garcia’s No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD were assessed stop-plus two-minute and 50 second penalties for passing the leading pack while under the fourth yellow.

The two cars had been running first and second in class at the time.

Gounon finished eighth among the GT cars, in the lowest finish for a winning GTD Pro entry in WeatherTech Championship history.

Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat came home second in class in their No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3, with the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche rebounding from an early race drive-through penalty to complete the GTD Pro podium.

RESULTS: Motul Course de Monterey powered by Hyundai N 

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