Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya have won the IMSA Monterey Grand Prix at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. The pair brought the #6 Team Penske Acura ARX-05 DPi across the line first ahead of the #7 sister car of Helio Castroneves and Ricky Taylor.
Taylor had started the #7 from pole position and led the way for the majority of the race's first hour, but was passed by Cameron when he was held up in slower traffic. It was a lead the #6 would not surrender, taking a dominant with for Acura Team Penske.
Behind the two Acuras, the Wayne Taylor Racing and Whelen Engineering Cadillac battled for the third and final podium spot. It appeared like the #10 DPi-VR of Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande had the upper hand, but it was Pipo Derani who persevered by taking third place away from the Dutchman in the closing stages of the race.
This was despite a scare for Derani earlier in the hour when he ran wide on approach to the Corkscrew, skipping across the gravel and taking some of the Weathertech banners with him. The Brazilian was able to recover to claim a podium spot.
The top five was completed by yet another Cadillac, as the #5 Mustang Sampling machine of Joao Barbosa and Filipe Albuquerque narrowly held off the #77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P of Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez. This was the only Mazda to see the chequered flag, as the #55 of Harry Tincknell and Jonathan Bomarito retired with mechanical issues.
In GT Le Mans, a fascinating battle of varying strategies ended with the #66 Ford GT of Dirk Müller and Joey Hand on top. Corvette Racing proved to be the Ford's main challengers, running a strategy that put them out of sync with the other runners, with resulted in them running up front for a significant portion of the race. It proved to be an unsuccesful attempt at victory, although the #3 of Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia did claim the third and final podium behind the winning Ford and the #24 BMW M8 GTE of John Edwards and Jesse Krohn.
Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin came fourth in the #4 Corvette, ahead of the #25 BMW of Tom Blomqvist and Connor de Philippi and the #67 Ford of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.The two Porsches had a difficult and forgettable weekend, with the #912 of Earl Bamber and Laurens Vanthoor seventh and the #911 of Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet finishing last in class.
in GT Daytona, the #48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Bryan Sellers and Corey Lewis started from pole and proved simply untouchable, lapping most of the GTD field and taking a class win ahead of the #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 of Toni Vilander and Cooper Macneil, with the podium completed by another Lamborghini in the form of the #44 Magnus Racing entry of John Potter and Andy Lally.
The #9 PFAFF Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R of Zacharie Robichon and Scott Hargrove came home in fourth, which was enough for the Canadian outfit to lock up the Weathertech Sprint Cup as rivals Meyer Shank Racing endured a nightmare race that saw the #86 Acura NSX GT3 Evo of Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher finish eighth in class.
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