Rennsport One’s pit crew made a snap decision 52 minutes into the race Saturday to bring in Luca Mars for full service right before the first caution. The series of pit stops put teammate Jan Heylen in the lead and he was able to hold on from there to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 for their first win together.
“Laguna [Seca] never disappoints. It was a super-fun race,” Heylen told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum in victory lane. “I was happy to have a little gap on the last [few laps]. The car was awesome, Luca did a great job. Porsche gave us a great car along with [Rennsport One]. Couldn’t be happier.”
The margin of victory was .676 seconds over Rebel Rock Racing’s Frank DePew and Robin Liddell. Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves and Thiago Camilo were third in their Supra, followed by CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing’s Sean McAlister and Jeff Westphal. AutoTechnic Racing’s Stevan McAleer and Austin Krainz were fifth.
McAlister led the field to green in his BMW. Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern was able to get past Ibiza Farm Motorsports’ Moisey Uretsky on the first lap to move up to second.
McAlister was able to pull out to a comfortable lead in the opening laps. Meanwhile, Machavern fell into the clutches for Chaves for second.
A game-breaking moment in the race occurred 52 minutes into the race when Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Eric Powell cut his left front tire. A number of teams saw this and dove into the pits to make their first pit stop.
In that group was Mars, who was running 10 seconds back of McAlister in fourth. Shortly afterwards, the first full course caution of the race came out when the tire casing came off of Powell’s car in the Corkscrew.
Those who did not get into the pits before the yellow flew, led by McAlister, pitted during the yellow. Drivers that had stopped prior to the caution were able to stop for a splash of fuel.
Mars’ stop to switch to Heylen prior to the caution allowed him to take only a little fuel and win the race off pit road. The caution was also a lifesaver for Winward Racing.
Prior to the caution, Bryce Ward had made contact with Rockwell Automotive Development’s Bruno Colombo in turn 2 and had been given an avoidable contact penalty. Ward was able to serve that penalty before the yellow. A blazing fast pit stop to put Daniel Morad in the car put them into contention.
When the race restarted, the battle was on between Heylen and Michael Cooper in the Ibiza Farm McLaren. Further back, Westphal went off at turn 6 and dropped out of the top 10.
Unfortunately, the race became one of those events where cautions breed cautions. A spin into the gravel at turn 5 for AR Motorsports’ Thomas Merrill brought out another yellow and kept the field bunched up. Just after the restart, Karl Wittmer suffered a right front failure on his Honda Civic Type-R TCR and pulled off to cause another yellow.
When the race restarted, there were only 30 minutes to go. As a result, the race became a scramble. Liddell did what he could to move up the order.
Meanwhile, Morad began to battle Cooper for second. He sold Cooper a dummy move, then swept to the inside to take the position. Cooper was able to keep on Morad’s outside exiting turn 5 and ran him side-by-side into turn 6.
At turn 6, Morad moved a little to the right in order to set himself up for the turn. This move sideswiped Cooper and forced him to drop his right rear wheel in the dirt. There was no coming back from that as Cooper lost control and spun his McLaren across the track, where he hit KohR Motorsports’ Billy Johnson in the passenger door before coming to rest.
Cooper was ok, but his McLaren was heavily damaged and out on the spot. Johnson, who was running fourth prior to the crash, was able to drive back to the pits and briefly continued before dropping out. Morad was judged to be at fault and was given a stop and 60-second hold. As a result, he and Ward finished 13th in class, 21st overall.
The mix-up that came out of the crash and penalty put Camilo up to second with Liddell hot on his tail. Liddell was able to take second away a lap after the restart, but could do nothing to prevent Heylen from taking the win.
In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mark Wilkins led the field to green in his Hyundai. Giving chase early on were Montreal Motorsports Group’s Louis-Phillippe Montour and Harry Gottsacker in another BHA Hyundai.
An important moment in the TCR class occurred eight minutes into the race when LAP Motorsports’ Scott Thomson spun exiting turn 6, the first of three incidents for him. The spin resulted in a local yellow that requires drivers to slow down.
Wilkins heeded the yellow, but Montour and Gottsacker split him, putting Gottsacker into the class lead. IMSA officials gave both drivers drive-through penalties for passing under yellow.
The penalties not only gave Wilkins the lead back while Gottsacker and Montour ended up way behind, but gave him a big advantage. That allowed Wilkins to keep the lead for the rest of his stint in the car.
The caution for TCR teams wasn’t quite as critical as it was for Grand Sport teams. Most of the class pitted during the caution. The No. 33 team kept the lead with Bryson Morris now behind the wheel.
With the string of yellows, Precision Racing LA’s Ryan Eversley was able to move up to second and sniff the rear end of Morris. The Cooper-Johnson crash closed things up again for one more dash.
In fact, it closed things up too much as there was a stackup at turn 11 when the TCR leaders ran up on the stricken Mustang of Johnson. That allowed Eversley to get past Morris for the lead. However, Eversley was penalized for jumping the restart. He and Celso Neto would eventually finish eighth in class.
The front of the field was completely jumbled up as a result of the stackup. Denis Dupont was able to move up from fifth during the caution to second during the scramble, then took the lead from Eversley when Ryan attempted to redress the move.
From there, Dupont was able to hold on to take the victory. It is the second win of the year for himself and teammate Preston Brown.
Brown and Dupont’s margin of victory was .325 seconds over teammates Gottsacker and Mason Filippi. Morris and Wilkins ended up third to complete a BHA podium sweep. Baker Racing’s Dean Baker and James Vance were fourth, while the fourth BHA Hyundai of Maddie Aust and Suellio Almeida was fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Unofficial Results
Next up for Michelin Pilot Challenge teams is Mid-Ohio for the series’ lone standalone event of the season, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio. Coverage of the race will stream live June 8 at 11:55 a.m. ET on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and on Peacock. Frontstretch will be on-site at Mid-Ohio to provide additional coverage.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.