The overall battle came down to just a few seconds.
At Long Beach, none of Acura’s ARX-05 contingent could keep pace with the four-car Cadillac group in DPi. But Laguna Seca is not Long Beach, and the natural terrain road course rewards a very different kind of car. Here, the Acuras reaped the benefits.
After the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi suffered an early mechanical issue and the No. 02 CGR Cadillac crashed, the two remaining Cadillacs were no match for the Acuras of Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing. That left a two-horse race, one the No. 10 WTR car largely controlled. The No. 60 Shank Acura stayed close, however, and with an hour to go briefly took the lead on a clever undercut. Filipe Albuquerque took the lead back for WTR in a dramatic Corkscrew move with just over an hour to go, then successfully defended against another undercut a few laps later. Albuquerque then managed a lead of just over a second for the remainder of a race, eventually growing it to three seconds in the final laps before taking the team’s first win of the season.
In GTD Pro, the No. 9 Pfaff Porsche coasted to a win after taking control mid-race. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet beat out the No. 14 Lexus and No. 24 BMW by over 30 seconds, taking Porsche’s second win of the season and first since Daytona.
Porsche was also victorious in the pro-am GTD category, where Jan Heylen and the No. 16 Wright Porsche ran down the No. 96 Turner BMW over the final stint to take the lead and eventually win by just over five seconds. The Turner car came third in class after losing second to the No. 39 Peregrine Racing Lamborghini in the final laps.
Tower Motorsports won in LMP2, while LMP3 was not entered in today’s race.
IMSA is back in two weeks at Mid-Ohio, a race that will oddly include every IMSA class *but* GTD Pro. That race is on Sunday, May 15th.
Keyword: WTR Acura, Pfaff Porsche Take IMSA Wins at Laguna Seca