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Triple Streaks, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Legacies and New Pairings
May 8, 2025
By David Phillips
IMSA Wire Service
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – This week’s TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship is the fourth race weekend of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Following 24-hour, 12-hour, and 100-minute races across a “roval,” rough-and-tumble former airfield and a “pure” street circuit, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca provides the first natural terrain road course on the IMSA calendar. Its unique combination of flowing turns and dramatic elevation changes has tested the world’s top sports car manufacturers, teams and drivers since 1957.
The 36 entries split among 11 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), 10 Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and 15 Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class cars and their inherent speed differentials will play a pivotal role in the two-hour, 40-minute proceedings.
Triple Plays
“Three” has thus far been the magic number for the two German GTP brands in 2025. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 Porsche 963 of Nick Tandy and Felipe Nasr arrives on the Monterey Peninsula having won the first three races of the year. Meanwhile, BMW M Team RLL’s Dries Vanthoor has won the first three Motul Pole Awards of the season in his No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8.
Porsche’s only “blot” so far in 2025 was… a third place at the Rolex 24 At Daytona with its No. 6 car. So far, the combination of the team’s speed and strategic execution has been unbeatable in races.
That’s where the question of “who will snap the streaks” comes in. Acura has nine Monterey wins and Cadillac is a recent Monterey winner, but BMW has appeared on the doorstep of breaking through given its early season pace.
Bobby Rahal celebrates 50 years of visits to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca this year since his 1976 debut in Formula Atlantic. He’ll serve as Grand Marshal and would like to add another track win to both his personal and team rolodex of victories. But more than anyone, he knows it will take more than turning fast qualifying laps to get there.
“We were pretty quick at Laguna last year, so I feel we have a reasonable chance. We just have to complete the job,” said the BMW M Team RLL co-owner.
Speaking of Streaks
Porsche has a remarkable sports car history at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. It’s scored at least one GT class victory there each of the last five years. The brand has celebrated its legacy with several Rennsport Reunions at the track. Just this week, it was announced as the official car of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
The two cars tasked with extending the GT streak are AO Racing’s No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (aka “Roxy,” who is standing in this weekend for “Rexy”) in GTD PRO and the similar No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche in GTD. Suffice to say they are in good hands.
AO Racing comes into Monterey with a two-race win streak split across both GT classes at Sebring and Long Beach and arrives one year on from its first GTD PRO win in 2024 with Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx. Wright, currently fourth in GTD points, also has a recent win last fall at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
Not that Porsche has a monopoly on GT success at WeatherTech Raceway, witness the fact that Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ lineup boasts seven wins. Antonio Garcia (three) leads the way over Tommy Milner (three, two with Corvette) and Alexander Sims (one) while Garcia and Nicky Catsburg each have a pole position to their credit. The team has eight class wins here as the first of three tracks in 2025 where they’ve competed annually since the program’s debut in 1999.
Catsburg and Garcia qualified first and second in GTD PRO last year at WeatherTech Raceway in the Corvette Z06 GT3.R’s first visit to the circuit and finished third and fifth. Corvette subsequently earned four more poles and a win last year but are seeking this year’s first GTD PRO victory.
“Last year the race went away from us pretty early,” said Sims. “But I think we showed good pace, which was encouraging given that this is a tough track to get right, especially with a new car. Hopefully we can put what we learned last year to good use.”
Both of Corvette Racing’s customer programs seek success in Monterey as well. AWA seeks to recapture its Rolex 24-winning ways in its final outing before heading to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“This is a track I really enjoy. It’s got so much character and it always makes for a good race,” said Orey Fidani, who earned the AWA squad’s Le Mans berth by winning the Bob Akin Award as GTD’s top points-scoring Bronze-rated driver last year.
“We’ve got a great car in the Corvette and I’m feeling more and more confident and comfortable with it after each session. We are ready to fight for a result that reflects the efforts everyone’s putting in.”
Additionally, Robert Wickens will make his second start in the No. 36 DXDT Corvette after teaming with Milner at Long Beach. Alec Udell will drive the DXDT entry for the remainder of the schedule, including the slate of sprint races in which Wickens is expected to compete.
New Pairings
There are four new pairings this week – one in GTP and three in the two GT classes. Frederik Vesti deputizes for Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R in GTP. The Whelen team was one of several IMSA teams that tested in Monterey.
“We had planned to go to Watkins Glen in May, but with our Le Mans invitation we had to move that around,” explained Peter Baron, race strategist for the Action Express Racing-prepared Cadillac. “Laguna Seca is a critical track for us with understanding the newer surface, so we’re curious what happens with the track with another year of seasoning on it.”
In GTD, the Wickens/Udell lineup is one of two new pairings. The other comes as three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans class winner and 2023 Rolex 24 At Daytona GTD winner Darren Turner rejoins the Heart of Racing Team, sharing the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo with Casper Stevenson.
“IMSA is a championship that I love, it’s super impressive and it will be my first time out with the GTD class,” Turner said. “I’ll be teamed up with Casper for the first time, he’s a super talented driver and it’s exciting to be teamed up with a youngster that’s already doing a great job in the championship.”
In GTD PRO meanwhile, Marvin Kirchhoefer will co-pilot Vasser Sullivan Racing’s No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 alongside full-time driver Aaron Telitz. Kirchhoefer, who teamed with Fidani, Matthew Bell and Lars Kern co-driving the No. 13 AWA Corvette to the GTD win in the Rolex 24, is the latest driver to fill in for Lexus factory driver Ben Barnicoat as he continues recovering from injuries sustained from a mountain biking accident.
How will the new pairings fare? Will Porsche’s GTP streak continue and, if not, who will break it? Will Porsche and/or Corvette add another GT win to their WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca legacies? Which other manufacturer could break through?
Be sure to follow all the action of the TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship live on NBC at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, May 11, as well as streaming domestically via Peacock and internationally on IMSA’s Official YouTube channel to find out.
