Vervisch: Early Puncture Led to “Right Strategy” for GTD Pro Win

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA

A left-rear puncture early in Sunday’s StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca ended up being a lucky charm for Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies, who ended up having the “winning strategy” in GTD Pro.

Vervisch and Mies claimed the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory for the EVO-spec Ford Mustang GT3, benefitting from the top-four placed GTD Pro cars all needing late-race top-ups on energy in the two-hour and 40-minute contest, which saw only a single full-course caution.

While having qualified third in class, Mies’ No. 65 Mustang GT3 EVO was forced into the pits with less than 30 minutes completed for the puncture, which put the Multimatic Motorsports-run factory squad off-sequence on strategy.

However, little did they know it would come back to benefit them when the then-class leading No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Nick Tandy, as well as the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims, Ben Barnicoat’s No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 and the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Connor De Phillippi all were forced to pit in the closing laps for an additional top-up.

Vervisch went the final 1 hour and 2 minutes on the same tank of energy to claim his and Mies’ first WeatherTech Championship class victory since last year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“There was a little problem in the first stint, which was put us on a different strategy,” said Vervisch. “At the end, it looked like it was the winning strategy.

“We had to go very long on the same tires and push hard. We knew that would be difficult because it’s a very aggressive track, at least for us. The tire suffers a lot.

“Obviously we knew that they were fuel saving and hoping for a yellow. I think about 17 minutes before the end of the race we understood they would have to pit for fuel.

“But I still saw them driving so you’re still waiting until they effectively go in the pit lane.

“Then I saw it and that was a nice feeling.”

Vervisch then fended off the No. 4 Corvette of Nicky Catsburg for class victory.

“Honestly I thought the Corvette would just pass me by but surprisingly I could keep it in front of him and just amazing strategy,” he said.

“I think it proves that the EVO is really a great step in the right direction.

“I never hoped or thought that we could win here because we always considered this track as our worst track for the Ford Mustang since the beginning. That’s really cool.”

Mies echoed Vervisch’s sentiments on the performance from the EVO, which debuted at this year’s Rolex 24.

“Last year we got lapped here by pure pace with the pre-EVO car so we were actually a bit afraid that something similar would happen again,” said Mies.

“Obviously the EVO package did its job. I’m just happy that after a good start to the last season, but it was quite difficult learning tracks and how we race in IMSA, that we finally had a good result for the team.”

Corvette’s Milner, Catsburg Take Over GTD Pro Points Lead With Runner-Up Finish

Catsburg finished just 1.277 seconds behind the Belgian, marking his and co-driver Milner’s second consecutive podium result.

“We found the strategy that worked,” said Catsburg. “We always have a good strategy from the team so it’s really great.

“I was hoping I could pass the 65 and I felt like I was a little inconsistent there.

“Sometimes as soon as you get close, you start making mistakes. So I feel like I need to up my game a little bit there.

“We could have won, I think, but still P2 is super nice and very good to put us in first for the championship.”

Catsburg and Milner now hold a 51-point lead over Paul Miller Racing’s De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen.

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