Pole & Podium For BMW M Team RLL At Laguna Seca

After the two longest races of the year at Daytona and Sebring, followed by the shortest race of the year on the Long Beach street circuit in California, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) traveled to beautiful Monterey, California for round four of the season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. They were joined by the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, which was holding their third round of the season.

Dries Vanthoor (shown in top photo) once again proved to be the king of qualifying in the top GTP class, as went four for four on pole positions this year at Laguna Seca in the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8. His lap time of 1:12.854 was just five-thousandths of a second ahead of Matt Campbell in the #6 Porsche 963. Sheldon van der Linde qualified the #25 M Hybrid V8 in sixth with a 1:13.091, with the top six cars within a half-second of each other.

In GTD Pro, Dan Harper also put in a strong qualifying performance in the #48 Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO with a 1:20-644 lap that put him in second on the grid behind the #81 Ferrari. The top six cars in GTD Pro were also within a half-second of each other. Madison Snow qualified the #1 Paul Miller car in ninth with a 1:21.316. In GTD, Patrick Gallagher qualified the #96 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO in ninth with a 1:21.495 lap, around seven-tenths off the pole time of the #32 Mercedes-AMG of Kenton Koch, who drives BMWs for Random Vandals Racing in the SRO GT World Challenge America and GT4 America championships.

The #25 M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde and Marco Wittmann finished fourth.

Once the race got underway, Dries Vanthoor built a gap to the second place Porsche in the opening laps, but later came under pressure from Felipe Nasr in the #7 Porsche and lost the lead around 50 minutes into the race. The #24 M Hybrid V8 would continue to run in the top three for the remainder of the race and nearly wrestled second place away from the #7 Porsche on the last lap but ended up in the gravel. Vanthoor and Philipp Eng held on to finish third behind the #6 and #7 Porsches. Porsche Penske Motorsport has now won every race so far this year, but the #24 BMW was the only car to seriously challenge the Porsches at Laguna Seca.

The #48 Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO started second but finished fifth in GTD Pro after a penalty.

In GTD Pro, Dan Harper started from second on the grid in the #48 Paul Miller Racing M4 GT3 EVO but was given a drive-through penalty for moving out of line at the start before crossing the start/finish line. That effectively took them out of the race, but Harper and Max Hesse fought back to finish fifth in class, with the #1 sister car of Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen in tenth. GTD Pro was won by the #77 AO Racing Porsche. In GTD, the Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 EVO just didn’t have the pace to compete at the front but ran in the top five for much of the race and ended up in ninth at the end, with the win going to the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG.

Turner Motorsport finished ninth in GTD.

Michelin Pilot Challenge

The Michelin Pilot Challenge series was also back in action at Laguna Seca, their first race since Sebring in mid-March. The CarBahn with Peregrine Racing team led by Steve Dinan put their #39 M4 GT4 EVO on the GS class pole with a 1:29.364 lap by Sean McAlister. Dillon Machavern also put in a strong qualifying performance in the #95 Turner Motorsport car, slotting into third with a 1:29.380. Austin Krainz qualified the #27 Auto Technic Racing car in twelfth, with Vin Barletta in the #96 Turner car in seventeenth.

The #39 CarBahn M4 GT4 EVO finished fourth after starting from pole.

BMW seemed poised to have a strong race, as McAlister and Machavern ran 1-2 for the entire first hour of the race, but they ultimately fell back after pit stops and multiple caution periods in the second half of the race impacted their positions. Still, there were two BMWs in the top five at the end, aided by the #57 Mercedes-AMG taking out the #44 McLaren that was running in second late in the race, with the Mercedes-AMG then given a penalty. The #39 CarBahn BMW of McAlister and Jeff Westphal finished fourth, followed by the #27 Auto Technic BMW of Krainz and Stevan McAleer in fifth. The Turner cars finished in seventh (#96) and ninth (#95). The race was won by the #28 RS1 Porsche, which is also leading the championship.

Auto Technic Racing finished in fifth with Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz.

Next up for the Michelin Pilot Challenge series is a four-hour race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where they will also be joined by the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge series, which is in action for the first time since March 1st. The next race for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is a Detroit street race on Memorial Day weekend, which will feature GTP and GTD Pro class entries.