Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken led most of the second half of the race Sunday (May 12) at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Then, while trying to get through lapped traffic, Aitken went wide in turn 4 and got in the dirt.
That was all Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Nick Tandy needed to take the lead. From there, he held on to win the Motul Course de Monterey with teammate Mathieu Jaminet.
“I can’t believe how many mistakes I made,” Tandy told NBC Sports’ Brian Till in victory lane. “I needed everyone else here to make up for it. We were not good on cold tires, but…on double stint tires, it was absolutely flawless.
“Not one of my finest races, but I’ll take it since we’ve done some awesome races and not had any results,” Tandy continued. “It’s about time we’ve had a result.”
The margin of victory was seconds over Aitken and Pipo Derani. The No. 7 Penske Porsche of Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr were third, followed by Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor. Chip Ganassi Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande ended up fifth.
Bourdais led the field to green in his Cadillac VSeries.R and managed to open up a decent lead in the opening laps. That lead only continued to expand once the leaders caught the back of the GTD class.
Bourdais’ lead expanded to over 10 seconds over Derani. Meanwhile, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global’s Ricky Taylor was forced to make an unscheduled pit stop to tire performance exceeding the limits. As a result of the unplanned pit stop, he ended up a lap down.
The race was clean and green until Conquest Racing’s Manny Franco spun into the dirt in turn 6 48 minutes into the race. Franco didn’t hit anything, but did scatter a bunch of dirt and gravel onto the track when he rejoined.
Later on, Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Dane Cameron was hit from behind. That resulted in one of the rear wing supports ending up on the track and bringing out the only full course caution just under an hour into the race.
Everyone came to pit road here, shaking up the field. Bourdais pitted from the lead, but had to take on more fuel. Action Express Racing’s Jack Aitken won the race off pit road and took the lead. WTRAndretti’s No. 10 was able to get back on the lead lap as well.
Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Nicky Catsburg started from pole in his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and joined with
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