Heinrich Makes Last-Lap Pass for Win in Laguna Seca Thriller

Photo: Porsche

Laurin Heinrich claimed a thrilling victory in Sunday’s StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, giving the privateer JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 squad its first overall IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP win.

Heinrich, who made a late-race charge, passed the No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber on the final lap and held off the Kiwi to take a 0.758-second win.

It came after a hard-fought battle between the two cars in the closing laps of the two-hour and 40-minute contest, which only featured a single full-course caution.

While running third in the final hour, Heinrich vaulted into second thanks to an aggressive pass on the No. 25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Marco Wittmann with 13 minutes to go.

He then clawed his way to the rear of Bamber’s Cadillac, with the two cars making slight contact, resulting a left-rear tire rub on the Kiwi’s Whelen-sponsored entry.

Bamber made several leaps through traffic but was unable to match the pace of the Porsche factory driver.

It marked the first overall WeatherTech Championship victory for the John Church-led squad since winning the 2021 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring when Tristan Vautier, Sebastien Bourdais and Loic Duval prevailed in a Cadillac DPi-V.R.

Heinrich, who takes over the GTP points lead as a solo driver after winning the ’36 Hours of Florida’ with Porsche Penske Motorsport, shared top honors with the JDC-Miller’s longtime co-driver Tijmen van der Helm.

Wittmann and co-driver Philipp Eng completed the podium in third after, like Heinrich, made energy-only final stops.

While the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Louis Deletraz led early from pole, Bamber’s co-driver Jack Aitken got around the Swiss driver for the lead on Lap 20 with slight side-to-side contact on the outside of Turn 1.

A caution for the 13 Autosport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Matt Bell, who stopped on track with a suspected mechanical problem, saw the majority of GTP cars pit, but all on various strategies.’

The No. 7 Penske Porsche of Felipe Nasr emerged in the lead due to a short-energy stop, and led until the Brazilian’s final stop for right-side Michelins with 40 minutes to go.

However, a fuel-only final stop for Bamber got him out ahead, and back into the lead with 15 minutes to go when the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, ho was gambling on a late-race yellow, finally stopped for an energy top-up.

Blomqvist, who was in the Turn 3 barriers at the start of the race, managed to finish fourth after starting and finishing the race in the No. 60 machine he shared with Colin Braun.

The sister No. 93 Acura of Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly completed the top-five, ahead of Nasr, who along with Porsche Penske Motorsport teammate Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 entry, faded while gambling on alternative strategies.

Both of the 2026-spec Porsche 963s, which were carrying the most weight this weekend, were unable to challenge on pace.

The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie came home eighth, ahead of the No. 24 WRT BMW and No. 40 WTR Cadillac, which faded in the hands of Jordan Taylor late in the race.

WTR’s No. 10 Cadillac was an early retirement after Filipe Albuquerque had contact with the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Jake Walker on the opening lap, resulting in left-rear suspension damage.

Ford Emerges Victorious in GTD Pro; Hindman, Formal Take GTD Honors 

A series of late-race pit stops for fuel from the top four cars in class gave the No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports-run Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Fred Vervisch and and Christopher Mies the victory in GTD Pro.

Vervisch held off a hard-charging Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R for the ‘Blue Oval’s first WeatherTech Championship class win since last year’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the first with its EVO package.

The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Harry King and Nick Tandy, who led for much of the race, completed the class podium in third.

Trent Hindman, meanwhile, claimed GTD class honors in his No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 he shared with Danny Formal.

It came after Hindman and the eventual second place class-finishing No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Tom Gamble, both made fuel-only final stops and emerged in the virtual lead.

While several cars, including the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Callum Ilott, ran long in the hopes of a late yellow, Hindman picked up the class lead with ten minutes to go.

It marked Hindman and Formal’s first WeatherTech Championship win since Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last year.

Additionally, Formal claimed a clean sweep of the weekend, taking Pro-Am class victories in both Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America races, also with WTR.

The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe completed the GTD podium in third.

RESULTS: StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship

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