Motorsports In Action’s Jesse Lazare took advantage of lapped traffic Saturday (May 11) to make up a five-second deficit and take the lead with 28 minutes to go from Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman. From there, Lazare held on to win the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 with teammate Michael de Quesada. For de Quesada, it is his first career victory in Pilot Challenge, while it is Lazare’s third career win.
“I knew that I was fortunate that [Hindman] got caught up in traffic because I was pretty far behind,” Lazare told NBC Sports’ Brian Till after the race. “Once I got past him, I knew that I had to hit my marks and not make any mistakes because I know that [Hindman] is an incredible driver and very aggressive, so I knew he was going to be there at the end.”
De Quesada and Lazare’s margin of victory was .691 seconds over Hindman and Stevan McAleer. Winward Racing’s Daniel Morad and Bryce Ward were third, then Hattori Motorsports’ Jaden Conwright and Jack Hawksworth. Van der Steur Racing’s Alex Premat and Rory van der Steur were fifth in their Aston Martin.
De Quesada started from pole in his McLaren and managed to get a big jump on the rest of the pack. JMF Motorsports’ Jesse Webb, who started alongside, ended up getting spun out in the Andretti Hairpin on the first lap by McCumbee-McAleer Racing’s Jenson Altzman, stacking up the field.
For Altzman, his race only got worse from there. At the end of the first lap, he was spun out in turn 11 by Archangel Motorsports’ Todd Coleman. That led to an unscheduled pit stop. Altzman and Chad McCumbee eventually finished 32nd overall, 21st in Grand Sport.
The race was neutralized early on when BGB Motorsports’ Thomas Collingwood dropped a wheel off the track and spun into the wall exiting turn 4. Collingwood walked away from the crash uninjured, but was done for the day.
Shortly after the restart, Victor Gonzalez Racing Team’s Chase Jones suffered a significant mechanical failure in his Hyundai. The car burst into flames exiting turn 6, forcing Jones to pull off. Putting out the fire resulted in another caution.
After the restart, de Quesada was able to slowly pull away from McAleer. The lead first grew to two seconds, then three, then five seconds.
The early cautions allowed everyone to save a significant amount of fuel. Normally, a two-hour race would require two pit stops for Grand Sport teams. However, having a good…
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