Laurin Heinrich claimed JDC Miller Motorsports’ first win in the IMSA GTP era at Laguna Seca with a last lap overtake on Cadillac’s Earl Bamber, in the #5 Mustang Sampling-sponsored Porsche.
Second was Bamber in the #31 Action Express Cadillac, while third went to Marco Wittmann in the #25 BMW.
This marks the first customer team win in IMSA’s modern GTP class.
Louis Deletraz started the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac from pole, with Bamber’s teammate Jack Aitken second. The two Cadillac drivers raced away from Nick Yelloly in the #93 Meyer Shank Acura, but Aitken clearly had the quicker car underneath him and soon took the lead off Deleraz.
The Briton quickly made a gap, and after an hour of green flag racing he had a 6 second gap on the Swiss driver behind him.
Deletraz then pitted early in an attempt to go off strategy, handing over to Jordan Taylor.
After the rest of the field pitted some time later, Sheldon van der Linde led in the #24 BMW, with Bamber second, J. Taylor third, Heinrich fourth and Colin Braun in the #60 MSR Acura fifth, with the top 3 nose to tail and Heinrich a further 10 seconds back. Van der Linde was able to fend off Bamber, though, leading the race for BMW and Team WRT.
However, a full course yellow for a stranded GTD car, the #13 13 Autosport car of Matt Bell, would soon put the field under caution. With pitstops at Laguna Seca under caution ‘cheaper’ than under green flag, the entire GTP field pitted.
The #7 Porsche crew, with Felipe Nasr at the wheel of the car, short fueled the Porsche 963 to enable the Brazilian to come out ahead of his rivals and leading the race behind the safety car. Second was Renger van der Zande, who’d earlier taken over from Yelloly in the #93 MSR Acura, Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche, and J. Taylor.
Safety car mixes the field up
Nasr retained the lead at the start but didn’t have the pace to pull out a gap from van der Zande or Bamber behind. Both would soon pit, promoting Wittmann, in the #25 BMW, and Heinrich to second and third.
When Nasr pitted from the lead, as he’d been short fueled in the previous stop, he had to pay and take more fuel at his final stop as a consequence, dropping him down the order and out of contention. JDC Miller, though, had got the strategy correct and Heinrich was now fourth, with Tom Blomqvist, in the #60 having taken over from Braun earlier, now leading. The Briton owed a stop, however, and would relinquish this lead to Bamber, Wittmann and Heinrich.
Heinrich puts on a charge
When Blomqvist stopped it was tight on exit between all four drivers, with the Acura driver just losing third to Heinrich on pit exit.
In third now and with a sniff of second – at least – Heinrich set about passing Wittmann, with Bambner a few more seconds up the road. The German dispatched of his countryman in the BMW in short order, and set his sights on catching Bamber in the Cadillac, with only 10 minutes or so left in the race.
But the uber-talented German was able to catch the Kiwi, with a few laps to go, and from there an extremely tense final few minutes ensued as the two duked it out for the lead. Bamber’s Cadillac had greater acceleration out of Laguna Seca’s historic corners, but Heinrich’s 2025-spec Porsche had the legs on top speed, leading to a great fight.
When Bamber got stuck in traffic on the final lap, Heinrich pounced and took the lead, banging wheels in the process. From there he took the car home to record JDC’s first IMSA overall win for 5 years, and first in the modern GTP era.
Bamber came through second, just 7 tenths adrift of Heinrich. Third was Marco Wittmann in the #25 BMW, just over 3 seconds away.
“It was a really good dog fight,” said Bamber after the race.
“We had a great car all day. Our guys did an amazing strategy. But we just didn’t have enough rear tyres at the end of the race. And, you know, the Porsche, Laurin (Heinrich) came at a huge rate of knots through the field.
“None of us could really pass and he could just manage to cut through and once he finally got me, I saw how much grip he had. I think if you’re not going to finish first, you finish second, but it’s obviously better to not get passed on the last lap, but it was a great fight and it was nearly done, but that’s what it is.”
Fourth and fifth were the two MSR Acuras, Blomqvist in the #60 ahead of Renger van der Zande in the #93.
Ford and WTR Lamborghini win GTD Pro and GTD at Laguna Seca
In GTD Pro, Fred Vervisch and Chris Mies took victory at Laguna Seca in the #65 Ford Mustang, ahead of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner in the #4 Pratt Miller Corvette and Nick Tandy and Harry King in the #77 AO Racing ‘Rexy’ Porsche.
Jack Hawksworth started the #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus from pole and led early on, and was in third, with Ben Barnicoat at the wheel, late into the race.
However, a late race fuel splash for Tandy, Barnicoat, and Alexander Sims in the #3 Pratt Miller Corvette, decided the race, handing the win to Vervisch and second to Catsburg. Tandy was leading until that late splash and tried to eke the fuel out for the remaining 7 minutes, but unfortunately could not make it work, and with no yellows late on, he was forced to pit and end up third.
Trent Hindman and Danny Formal won the GTD class in the #45 WTR Lamborghini. Second was Tom Gamble and Dudu Barrichello in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, while third went to Frederik Schandorff and Brendan Iribe in the #70 Inception Ferrari.
The GTD polesitter, the #34 Conquest Ferrari of Lorenzo Patrese and Albert Costa, led early on with Patrese at the wheel, but the Italian had to pit with flames shooting from the right-hand side exhaust at the rear of the car, with the team later retiring the Ferrari from the race as it had an unfixable issue.
See the full results on IMSA’s website.
Discussion about this post