Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell claimed victory in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship of Monterey in the #6 Porsche 963.
The pole position curse continues in IMSA as the Porsche duo of Jaminet and Campbell took victory from second place on the grid.
The victory ends the winning streak of the #7 Porsche duo, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy, who had claimed three consecutive wins to start the season.
After 160 minutes, Jaminet led the #6 Porsche across the line in first, Tandy in second in the other Porsche and Dries Vanthoor in third.
A cautionless race saw the #24 BMW M Hybrid 8 car lose out once again after he secured a fourth consecutive pole position on Saturday, with both of the Porsche Penske Motorsport challengers right behind him.
BMW’s Vanthoor retains pole advantage at the start
The Belgian held onto his lead at the start before the two Porsches attempted to go three wide with the race leader, but he defended his position well.
Nasr got past Campbell as the Porsche drivers swapped places.
Tom Blomqvist made a good start in the #60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing to climb up into fourth place, whilst Nick Yelloy made an even better start in the #93 Acura to take fifth place.
At the expense of Blomqvist, Yelloy and the #25 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, Ricky Taylor in the #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing car dropped from fourth down to seventh.
The top three bunched up as they made their way through the lower-class traffic, but Vanthoor maintained his lead whilst dodging the slower cars.
Jordan Taylor in the #40 Cadillac pitted from eighth after half an hour as Louis Deletraz took over and back out into 11th.
The number #10 of Taylor, however, was forced to pit with a mechanical black flag after failing to adhere to tyre management.
With just under two hours to go, both of the Porsches applied the pressure to the leading BMW of Vanthoor, as Nasr trailed by just four-tenths around the Laguna Seca circuit.
Disaster struck for the #6 Porsche, as Campbell dropped to fifth with an apparent issue, recovering quickly as he trundled around the race circuit.
The #60 of Blomqvist inherited third place due to the Porsche’s misfortunes.
Through the traffic, Nasr continued to eye a move for first place, and after 50 minutes into the race, the Brazilian made an audacious move around the outside at Turn 5 for the race lead.
Jaminet perfects the undercut to take the lead
The other Porsche pitted and returned to the track with Jaminet taking over.
Roman De Angelis suffered a puncture in the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie as Ross Gunn took over, a lap down on the field.
Nasr peeled into the pits for Porsche from the race lead with an hour and 40 minutes left of the race, with Tandy taking over the reigns.
As Vanthoor pitted soon after, with Philipp Eng jumping in the #24 BMW, Jaminet took the race lead as Eng returned to the track ahead of Tandy.
However, Tandy soon made his way past Eng to jump back into second behind the other Porsche challenger.
Marco Wittmann in the #25 BMW occupied fourth place after the first round of pit stops, taking over from van der Linde.
Colin Braun in the #60 Acura ran wide and suffered damage to the right rear of the car, before contact with the #40 Cadillac of Deletraz.
With extensive damage, including a broken rear wing, race control ordered Braun to pit and he rejoined two laps down in last place in the GTP class.
Braun also served a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement a lap later.
In the #10 Cadillac, Felipe Albuquerque ran wide as Jack Aitken went past in the #31 Cadillac Whelen and into fifth place.
Albuquerque had occurred damaged to his car laps earlier which appeared to effect his ability to keep it on the track for Wayne Taylor Racing.
Three-way fight emerges at Laguna Seca
Just under an hour to go and the #6 Porsche of Jaminet made his final stop, remaining in the car and rejoining the track in fourth.
As Tandy pitted in the #7 Porsche, he came out ahead of Jaminet before the Frenchman regained his lead with the tyres up to temperature.
Vanthoor returned to the track after Eng pitted in the #24 BMW.
As the race neared the final 30-minute mark, the championship leader closed in on the race leader, bringing the gap down to just under a second.
The 27-year-old BMW driver also closed in on the leaders, as five seconds covered the top three with 20 minutes left.
In the final five minutes, just a second now separated the Porsche duo and the sole BMW in a tense finale at Laguna Seca.
On the final lap, as Tandy tried to manoeuvre his way past the traffic, Vanthoor saw his opportunity to make a move second, but the British driver closed the door, resulting in the BMW driver sliding off the track.
Jaminet took the chequered flag in the #6 Porsche to win the race as Tandy settled for second place in the #7 Porsche after late-race contact.
Vanthoor came home in third in the #24 BMW, as the officials decided no further investigation for the collision.
Wittmann in the #25 BMW claimed fourth, Renger van der Zande in the #93 Acura crossed the line in fifth with Aitken sixth for the Cadillac Whelen #31.
Deletraz took seventh in the #40 Cadillac, Albuquerque eighth in the #10 Cadillac and van der Helm in the #85 Porsche.
Gunn claimed 10th for the #23 Aston Martin and finally, Braun took 11th for the #60 Acura.
In the GTD Pro class, Laurin “Rexy” Heinrich took the class victory for the AO Racing #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992).
Albert Costa crossed the line in second for the DragonSpeed #81 Ferrari 296 GT3 and Antonio Garcia took third in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R
In the GTD class, Philip Ellis of the #57 Mercedes-AMG GT3 claimed first ahead of the #12 Lexus RC F GT3 of Jack Hawksworth, and Daniel Serra in the #34 Ferrari 296 GT3 completed the top three.
READ MORE – Four in four poles for Dries Vanthoor and BMW after thrilling Leguna Seca qualifying
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