Turner Motorsport was able to get Luca Mars out of the pits during the sole round of stops Saturday (May 2) first. From there, he was able to hold on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 with Dillon Machavern.
“Everyone killed it,” Mars told NBC Sports’ Matt Yocum in victory lane. “Dillon killed it [his] whole stint, got up to third. The crew…was unbelievable on the stop to get us the lead. There was no way we weren’t the fastest. From there, it was saving fuel and saving the tires to bring it home.”
Mars and Machavern’s margin of victory was 4.083 seconds over Czabok Simpson Racing’s Morgan Burkhard and Gordon Scully. McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero and Robert Noaker were third, while Winward Racing’s Daan Arrow and Bryce Ward were fourth. The second Turner BMW of Vin Barletta and Robby Foley were fifth.
McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Nate Cicero started from the overall pole in his Ford Mustang GT4. Meanwhile, CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing had some trouble on. The No. 37 of Steven Wetterau had door latch issues that forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop early on.
Teammate Sean McAlister found immediate trouble when he spun on the first lap in turn 3 after contact from Panam Motorsport’s Caio Chaves. Chaves was given a drive-through penalty for the contact. Later on, McAlister was penalized for spinning out Van der Steur Racing’s Christine Sloss. As a result, McAlister and Jeff Westphal would finish 13th.
The first yellow flew only a couple of laps into the race when BSI Racing’s Lucas Weisenberg went off at the Andretti Hairpin and went into the tires. The force and angel of the hit was enough to deposit the No. 67 Supra on its roof.
The AMR Safety Team slowly flipped the Supra back over. Once it was upright, Weisenberg stepped out of the car just fine. The crash ended his day and ruined a career-best qualifying effort of fourth.
Another team that ran into trouble was TeamTGM’s Paul Holton. A throttle issue put the No. 46 behind the wall right as the first caution ended.
The race eventually got back to green, but it wasn’t long before trouble broke out again. Contact between Victor Gonzalez Racing’s Dr. William Tally and Baker Racing’s Dean Baker in turn 1 saw Tally spin into the tires. The Cupra then rolled onto its roof before coming back on all fours.
Tally was able to walk away uninjured, but the caution was out. He was out on the spot.
The cautions meant that by the time racing resumed, the 40-minute minimum drive-time had nearly been satisfied. Many of the teams immediately planned on stopping.
Cicero’s early competition was outside pole sitter Ford Koch. Shortly after the second restart, Koch had contact with Van der Steur Racing’s Allen Patten, breaking the steering in the left front corner of his Supra. That ended Koch’s day.
With Koch eliminated, RAFA Racing Team’s Varun Choksey moved up into contention and put the pressure on Cicero for the lead. The battle was short-lived as the third caution of the race flew 52 minutes in.
This yellow was due to debris in the Andretti Hairpin from contact between Stallion Motorsports’ Raphael Reis and Baker Racing’s Sam Baker. The timing shook up the race since some of the GS teams had already pitted prior to the yellow.
In the pits, Turner Motorsport’s Luca Mars was able to beat the McCumbee-McAleer Mustang of Noaker out of the pits to take the lead.
Following the restart, it was a race at the front between Mars, Noaker and Michael Cooper in the Ibiza Farm McLaren in throwback Marlboro colors.
Kiko Porto in the RAFA Supra was eliminated from contention after being penalized for unattended equipment in the pit lane. The team argued against the penalty and left him out there too long. As a result, Porto had to serve an additional stop-and-60-second hold penalty for not serving the drive-through within four laps.
As the race continued on, Mars was able to open up a comfortable margin up front while Noaker and Cooper battled for second. Fuel mileage also came into play late in the race.
Cooper was forced to pit for a splash of fuel with two laps to go. Noaker also dropped back late, but Mars had no issues making it to the end of the win.
In TCR, Bryan Herta Autosport’s Mason Filippi started from pole in his Hyundai Elantra N TCR. He was able to hold on Louis-Philippe Montour in the early going.
In addition to the early wrecks, Filippi’s teammate Lance Bergstein was penalized after he had contact with Stallion Motorsports’ Raphael Reis, spinning the Cupra out. Another BHA driver, Preston Brown, had to make an unscheduled stop due to a cut tire.
Victor Gonzalez Racing’s Franco Girolami was able to get past Montour to get up to second after the second restart. With a little time to truly race, he was able to put the pressure on Filippi for the lead with the help of slower Grand Sport traffic.
However, once the slower GS traffic was cleared, Filippi was able to pull away a little. Meanwhile, Girolami fell back into Montour’s clutches.
When the pit stops occurred during the third caution, Bryson Morris was able to win the race off of pit road. Tyler Gonzalez gave chase.
Gonzalez was able to stay within a couple of seconds of Morris until he cut his left rear tire and was forced to pit. That moved Celso Neto up to second.
With an eight-second lead in the closing laps, Morris’ Elantra began to display some smoke out of the rear of the car. The team was able to manage these issues.
With two laps to go, Neto ran out of fuel heading towards the Corkscrew and ground to a halt short of the top of the hill. That ended his challenge.
From there, Morris stood pat and held on for a dominant victory with Filippi. The official margin of victory was a full lap over teammates Brown and Denis Dupont due to the positioning of the overall leaders. The real margin was around 13 seconds.
Brown and Dupont charged in the second half of the race after Brown’s flat tire. Montour and Karl Wittmer were third in their Honda, followed by Gou Racing’s Eddie and Eduardo Gou in their Audi. KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering’s Tim Lewis Jr. and Rocco Pasquarella were fifth.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Unofficial Results
Next up for Pilot Challenge teams is their only standalone event of the season, the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio. The race is scheduled to go green June 7 at 12:15 p.m. ET. Coverage will stream live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and Peacock starting at 12:10 p.m. ET.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.