Augusto Farfus, Chaz Mostert, and Martin Tomczyk in the #42 BMW Team Schnitzer M6 GT3 finished fifth, and Christian Krognes, Nick Catsburg, and Mikkel Jensen in the #34 Walkenhorst Motorsport M6 GT3 finished eighth in the California 8 Hours at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The win in the race, the second in the five-race Intercontinental GT Challenge Series, went to Nick Foster, Tim Slade, and Miguel Molina in the #27 HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3.
The ten-hour race was run entirely under the green flag.
The BMWs were quick, leading at times, but were slightly off the pace of the winning Ferrari. The Ferrari’s best lap of the race was a 1:24.632; the fastest BMW lap was a 1:24.935 set in car #34. The fastest lap of the race, set in the first hour, was a 1:24.287, set by Alex Buncome in the #35 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, who finished ninth.
Both BMWs had to serve drive through penalties; for #42 the cause was contact with the #29 Audi, and for #34 it was a short pit stop. The two cars finished a lap down from the winning Ferrari and the second through fourth place cars.
Augusto Farfus said, “I think that fifth place was the very best that we could achieve. We did not have the best car for this circuit, but we got the best out of our package. This means that we are still in the running in the championship. Of course, we would like to get wins and podiums, but fundamentally it is about staying within striking distance of the leaders. We managed that today.”
Brett Strom, Daren Jorgensen, and Jon Miller finished second in the GT4 class, where the win went to Jason Pesek, Jade Buford, and Chad McCumbee in the #41 PF Racing Ford Mustang GT4.
The next IGTC race will be the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium in July.—Brian Morgan
[Photo courtesy Brian Morgan.]
