SportsCars

Westbrook, Valiante Take Laguna Seca Victory

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Valiante leads thru the Corkscrew
Valiante leads thru the Corkscrew

MONTEREY, Calif. – Under sunny skies and cool temperatures, it was a perfect day for fans at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and it was a near-perfect race for the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Chevrolet Corvette Daytona Prototype of Richard Westbrook and Michael Valiante.

The team won the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda, by a 1.351-second margin over the winner of the last TUDOR Championship race two weeks ago at Long Beach, the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP of brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor.

“We worked really hard for this," said Westbrook, who brought the car home, winning for the first time since Watkins Glen in 2014. “We got out mojo back in Long Beach," where the team finished third at the Tequila Patron Sports Car Showcase, “and I’m so pleased to get a win with this awesome team." The win also gave the VisitFlorida.com team the points lead.

In third was the Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian No. 60 Honda Ligier JS P2, in that team’s strongest showing of the year. Fourth was the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Action Express Corvette DP, which won at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Last year, the TUDOR Championship’s four classes were split into two separate races here, but this year, all 35 cars were on track for a single two-hour, 40-minute race on the tight, twisting 2.238-mile track. The difference in lap speed between the Prototype cars and the GT Daytona cars was typically 10 to 12 mph, so traffic was an issue all race.

“Fighting traffic was a big factor," said Ricky Taylor, and he said the fact that they had their final pit stop a few laps earlier than the No. 90 car coincidentally allowed the winning car to return to the track with less traffic to deal with.

The slower GTD cars “were pretty disrespectful at times," making it tough to get around them, he said. “But the majority of the time, it was good, hard racing."

Also, there was a surprising absence of full-course caution flags – there was only two, one on lap 20 for debris, another on lap 27 for the No. 45 car Flying Lizard Audi R8 LMS, which spun into a gravel trap. More cautions would have bunched the cars up, and given the faster cars a break before they reached the slower cars at the back of the pack. But that didn’t happen, despite a late collision between the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW and the No. 22 WeatherTech Porsche sent both into a gravel trap.

In GT Le Mans, the two BMW Z4 GTLM cars of BMW Team RLL took first and second, with the winning car – the No. 24 John Edwards and Lucas Luhr, edging out the second-place No. 25 team car of Dirk Werner and Bill Auberlen who won two weeks ago at Long Beach. Third was the No. 911 Porsche North America 911 RSR.

“The team is really working well together," John Edwards said. “It’s important to try to run mistake-free."

In Prototype Challenge, the polesitting car also went on to win, with the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 of Chris Cumming and Bruno Junqueira dominating the class all day. Second in PC was Colin Braun and Jon Bennett in the No. 54 CORE Autosport entry, followed by Mike Hedlund and James French in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA.

For the veteran Junqueira, it was his first win at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. “This is one of my favorite tracks," he said. “I’ve been on the podium five times, so it is good to finally be able to stand on the top step."

In GT Daytona, Spencer Pumpelly and Patrick Lindsey qualified on the pole and went on to take the victory in the No. 73 Park Place Motorsport Porsche 911 GT America. It was redemption for Pumpelly, who was leading the class in an Audi last year until the final lap, when the car race out of fuel.

There were no such mistakes this year. “The guys on pit road executed so well for us today," Lindsey said. “This is a great validation for an amazing team."

Second was the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 LMS of Christopher Haase and Dion von Moltke. Third was the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT America of Ian James and Mario Farnbacher, the winner at Sebring in the last race for the GTD class.

Next up for the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, Michigan on May 29 and 30.

Results from Sunday’s IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda race at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, with starting position (in parentheses), finishing position, drivers, car, laps completed and average speed.

  1. (3) Michael Valiante/Richard Westbrook, Corvette DP, 112 laps, 93.547 mph
  2. (1) Jordan Taylor/Ricky Taylor, Corvette DP, 112, 93.533
  3. (4) John Pew/Oswaldo Negri, Ligier JS P2 Honda HPD, 112, 93.260
  4. (5) Christian Fittipaldi/Joao Barbosa, Corvette DP, 112, 92.833
  5. (7) Eric Curran/Dane Cameron, Corvette DP, 112, 92.827
  6. y-(11) Chris Cumming/Bruno Junqueira, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 110, 91.672
  7. (8) Tristan Nunez/Jonathan Bomarito, Mazda, 110, 91.338
  8. (20) Jon Bennett/Colin Braun, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 110, 91.299
  9. x-(13) Lucas Luhr/John Edwards, BMW Z4 GTLM, 108, 90.140
  10. (15) James French/Mike Hedlund, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 108, 90.120
  11. (10) Dirk Werner/Bill Auberlen, BMW Z4 GTLM, 108, 89.930
  12. (16) Patrick Pilet/Michael Christensen, Porsche 911 RSR, 108, 89.843
  13. (14) Pierre Kaffer/Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari F458 Italia, 108, 89.656
  14. (18) Michael Christensen/Joerg Bergmeister, Porsche 911 RSR, 108, 89.581
  15. (17) Tommy Milner/Oliver Gavin, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 108, 89.543
  16. (23) Mikhail Goikhberg/Zach Veach, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 108, 89.540
  17. (19) Antonio Garcia/Jan Magnussen, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, 108, 89.426
  18. (21) Wolf Henzler/Bryan Sellers, Porsche 911 RSR, 108, 89.404
  19. (24) Todd Slusher/John Falb, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 106, 87.991
  20. (22) Mirco Schultis/Renger van der Zande, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 104, 86.713
  21. z-(25) Patrick Lindsey/Spencer Pumpelly, Porsche 911 GT America, 103, 85.884
  22. (27) Dion von Moltke/Christopher Haase, Audi R8 LMS, 103, 85.851
  23. (2) Scott Pruett/Joey Hand, Riley DP Ford EcoBoost, 103, 85.748
  24. (31) Ian James/Mario Farnbacher, Porsche 911 GT America, 103, 85.463
  25. (34) Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell, Ferrari 458 Italia, 103, 85.404
  26. (30) Christina Nielsen/James Davison, Aston Martin V12 Vantage, 102, 85.129
  27. (29) John Potter/Andy Lally, Porsche 911 GT America, 102, 85.121
  28. (33) Cooper MacNeil/Leh Keen, Porsche 911 GT America, 102, 84.699
  29. (26) Marc Miller/Jeff Mosing, Dodge Viper SRT, 102, 84.635
  30. (32) Patrick Byrne/Guy Cosmo, Audi R8 LMS, 100, 83.345
  31. (35) Michael Marsal/Markus Palttala, BMW Z4, 98, 82.430
  32. (28) Ben Keating/Jeroen Bleekemolen, Dodge Viper SRT, 97, 80.794
  33. (12) Mike Guasch/Tom Kimber-Smith, ORECA FLM09 Chevrolet, 96, 83.684
  34. (6) Katherine Legge/Memo Rojas, DeltaWing DWC13 Elan, 38, 35.826
  35. (9) Tom Long/Joel Miller, Mazda, 18, 95.784

x-GT Le Mans class winner

y-Prototype Challenge class winner

z-GT Daytona class winner

RACE STATISTICS

Time of race: 02:40:46.127

Margin of victory: 1.351 seconds

Race Distance: 250.656 miles

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