It’s a new twist on a classic tale in the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: Porsche Penske Motorsport took a 1-2 finish at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but this time, the No. 6 Porsche 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell took the victory in Sunday’s Monterey SportsCar Championship.
The No. 6 crew came in for an early first stop and undercut both the polesitting No. 24 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 and the No. 7 Penske Porsche who ran first and second during the opening stanza.
Once Jaminet relieved Campbell, he had a 7s advantage over his old co-driver Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche, though the gap got much closer after the final round of pit stops. Tandy closed to within touching distance of the lead as the Porsches fought through traffic, and with Dries Vanthoor’s BMW approaching quickly from third place, the three leaders ran nose-to-tail on the final lap.
Jaminet held firm and took the win, while Tandy was held up by GT traffic and allowed Vanthoor to get a crack at a high-risk move into turn 11. They made contact and Vanthoor was sent off into the sand trap.
Although their winning streak came to an end, Tandy and Felipe Nasr’s second-place finish keeps them in the lead of the GTP Championship after four races, with the Detroit Grand Prix up next on May 31st.
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: Sunday, May 11 | 3:15PM ET
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The No. 24 BMW of Vanthoor and Philipp Eng salvaged third despite the final lap incident. Vanthoor led the opening hour of the race until polesitter he got held up in traffic near the end of his first stint. Into Turn 5, the No. 7 Porsche of Nasr swooped around the outside of Vanthoor to drop the BMW down to second.
It was the No. 24 team’s second podium of the season, but another missed opportunity for BMW M Team RLL to claim victory in GTP.
The No. 25 RLL BMW of Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van der Linde finished a distant fourth behind them.
Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly put Acura in the top five, the No. 93 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06 was fifth, just ahead of the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen V-Series.R of Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti which fought hard to finish sixth.
Completing the top ten in GTP were the two Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillacs, the No. 40 ahead of the No. 10, then the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche, and the No. 23 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie.
Speaking of Porsche winning streaks, AO Racing won its third straight race across both GT classes.
Back in GTD PRO after a victorious GTD cameo in Long Beach, AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich and Klaus Bachler drove the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R to the top step of the podium. It was the first win for AO’s pink “Roxy” livery in IMSA.
Bachler ran second behind polesitter Giacomo Altoe in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 but an effective undercut allowed Heinrich and the No. 77 Porsche to grab the lead after the first round of pit stops.
Altoe’s co-driver Albert Costa spent the middle stage behind his countryman Antonio Garcia and lost significant time to Heinrich. While the No. 81 Ferrari got past the No. 3 Corvette later on, the 10s gap to the in-form Heinrich was too much for Costa to overcome.
The No. 77 Porsche coasted to victory, ahead of the No. 81 Ferrari, and the No. 3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Garcia and Alexander Sims, on the podium in third.
Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli finished fourth in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, and the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO finished fifth, salvaging a solid result after Dan Harper took an early drive-through penalty for a false start.
Winward Racing, Russell Ward, and Philip Ellis took their second GTD win of the season in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3, in a race where three different teams had their turn at the front.
Ellis emerged in the lead after the final round of pit stops after running third behind the leading No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 and the second-placed No. 32 Korthoff Competition Motors Mercedes-AMG.
The No. 57 Mercedes-AMG finished 5.5s ahead of the No. 12 Lexus of Parker Thompson, who made a brilliant sprint from sixth to second on the opening lap, and co-driver Jack Hawksworth.
On the final lap, the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari of Manny Franco and Daniel Serra swiped the final GTD podium place from the No. 32 Korthoff Mercedes-AMG. Serra got by Seth Lucas, who tried his best to hold onto third after co-driver Kenton Koch led the opening stint of the race from pole.
Forte Racing’s No. 78 Lamborghini driven by Misha Goikhberg and Mario Farnbacher drove quietly to fifth place, followed by the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer, in sixth after coming back from a drive-through penalty due to Skeer’s collision with Casper Stevenson’s No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin.
RESULTS
