Porto, Jamin Win Incident-Filled Race 1 in Monterey

ANSA Motorsports drivers Kiko Porto and Nico Jamin emerged victorious in an incident-filled Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Race 1 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Porto took the checkered flag behind the safety car ahead of Ryan Norman and Danny Formal’s No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2.

ANSA benefitted from an efficient pit stop that propelled the winning No. 4 Lamborghini from third to first once the pit window opened after the second of three full-course cautions.

The No. 88 TR3 Racing Lamborghini of Ernie Francis Jr. and Giano Taurino finished on the final step of the podium, despite leading the race prior to the delayed mandatory pit stops.

The No. 30 ANSA machine of Loris Cabirou and Bryson Morris finished in fourth while Scott Huffaker rounded out the top-five for World Speed.

Forte Racing’s Patrick Liddy led the 40-car field to green and immediately fended off a lunge from Danny Formal into the Andretti Hairpin.

A few corners later, Taurino muscled his way past Liddy for the overall lead, pushing the Forte driver wide exiting of Turn 9, dropping him to fourth. A later spin on the first safety car restart dropped Liddy down the order, seeing him ultimately take the checkered flag in 11th.

Slade Stewart and Andy Lee took the No. 14 Flying Lizards Motorsports entry to its first Pro-Am class victory in a controlled drive that saw the duo lead the whole race.

Cole Kleck took a comfortable the win in Am in the No. 28 Alliance Racing Lamborghini he shares with Al Morey.

The No. 69 WTRAndretti entry inexplicably pulled off track at pit out before rejoining the field, meaning Anthony McIntosh would relinquish the Am class lead that Glenn McGee had maintained into the pits.

Meanwhile, LB Cup was dominated by Michael Staab, who led from lights to flag for Precision Performance Motorsports.

An early spin for the No. 11 Topp Racing Lamborghini of Raymond Davoudi briefly brought out the first full course yellow as the car was retrieved from the Turn 9 gravel trap.

The safety car came back out again less than a lap after the restart for Sam Shi spinning his No. 98 Flying Lizard machine off track at Turn 3. Simultaneously, Liddy looped his Forte Lamborghini around pushing out of Turn 6 and rejoined near the rear of the field.

While behind the safety car, Christopher Tasca found the Turn 1 tire barriers, extending the full course caution period, delaying the opening of the race’s mandatory ten-minute pit stop window.

Racing resumed with 23 minutes on the clock and the pit window opening immediately on the restart.

The race would ultimately end under caution as marshals retrieved the No. 65 Forte machine of Ray Shahi from the Turn 1 gravel runoff.

A record 41 cars were entered into this weekend’s event at Laguna Seca, but a pre-race technical issue meant that Ken Dobson’s No. 27 Am-class Forte Lamborghini did not take the green flag, dropping the Race 1 car count by one.

Race 2 begins at 9:40 a.m. PDT (12:40 p.m. EDT) on Sunday with live coverage available on Peacock and IMSA.tv.

RESULTS: Race 1