Porsche gets 600th IMSA win at Laguna Seca, 100th sportscar victory for Team Penske

Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy took their first IMSA SportsCar Championship victory of the season in the 2 hour 43 minute race for the #6 team.

In a spectacular and dramatic finish to the event, with 12 minutes to go Tandy made an opportunistic move as the #31 Cadillac went off track trying to pass traffic on the outside of Turn 4.

Tandy chose the inside line and it paid dividends as he inherited the lead and a five-second gap which he managed to maintain until the finish in style.

A long second stint and late pitstop gave Tandy clean air to pump in fast laps while the drivers who had already pitted were in traffic, which ultimately put him in a position to fight for the win with a strategy gamble to forego fresh tyres for the last stint.

Cameron and Nasr had started sixth and fell to ninth by a mid-race caution caused by Cameron losing rear bodywork on the car.

A double pitstop under the caution for repairs dropped the car back - in the second stop the Porsche Penske Motorsport pit crew replaced the whole rear end in a matter of seconds - and Nasr drove all the way through to third from the back of the GTP pack in an incredible drive.

"In qualifying we maybe didn’t have the speed but it looked like we had long run speed [in the race] all day long,” team owner Roger Penske told IMSA TV.

"Great pitstops, great strategy and fantastic driving by the guys in car #6. For the Porsche programme to come here and win is a big deal for me. I won here back in the 1960s, if you can believe that!"

Drivers’ comments after the race

Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #6): “Our team did a tremendous job. Keep in mind, first, the crew clinches the 100th pole position for Penske in sports car racing, and then a day later the IMSA team scores their 100th victory. The results on both sides of the Atlantic clearly show how much we’ve improved in all areas over the past few months. That’s exactly what we needed. I’m so proud to be a part of it!”

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 963 #6): “Luck eluded us in the first three races of the year, but now the tables have finally turned. The team did a perfect job, from preparing the cars to pit stops and strategy. Our Porsche 963 was a dream to drive today. Nick delivered a thrilling and ultimately successful fight for victory. Let’s continue like this.”

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “Congratulations to our colleagues in the sister car. It was a fantastic day of racing in California for our team. We crossed the finish line in third place with our number 7 car – that earned us a lot of points in our bid for the championship. We’ve extended our lead in the drivers’ standings, which was our goal. During my stints, I came from seventh on the grid and reached the podium. That was great fun.”

Story of the race

Jaminet qualified and started the #6 Porsche fourth, made up one spot at the start, and then took another spot at the mid-race caution jumping to second with Tandy now in the car after the stop under that caution.

He ran an extremely long second stint, not pitting until lap 82 with 45 minutes to go and not changing tyres to save time under the final stop.

The gap to the leader ebbed and flowed in traffic from tenths to over four seconds as the 963 came alive late on despite no fresh tyres for Tandy to fight with.

But the backmarker incident late on was the decisive moment of the race and gave the team its second win of the year after the 24 Hours of Daytona triumph for the #7 car. Tandy delivered in the key moment of the race and earned the victory.

The #7 Porsche had a rollercoaster day, dropped spots in the first stint and then caused the aforementioned caution when rear-end bodywork fell off the car on track.

An incredible pitstop to change the rear assembly - which includes the diffuser and the full rear spoiler in one rectangular piece - took mere seconds.

Nasr fell to ninth but scythed through the pack, completing his final overtake on the #01 Cadillac (which led the race by 18s at one point) after 92 laps of 119. That overtake was crucial to boosting the car’s championship lead as the #01 is the team’s closest rival through the first four races.

After Laguna Seca, the #7 car has a 50-point lead in the championship after four of 11 races, while the #6 car is fifth, 126 points behind.

Customer racing

It was a tough day for the customer Porsche teams with the JDC-Miller #85 car finishing eighth as the final car on the lead lap, with the #5 Proton Competition car last of the GTP entries in 10th.

The shining light was a strong debut in the #5 by Bent Viscaal who held the car’s fastest lap long after swapping with Gianmaria Bruni, and had run as high as sixth early on.

The race fell apart for this pairing when Bruni was given a drive-through penalty for contact with the #27 Aston Martin GT car.

Westbrook took over the #85 from Tijmen van der Helm and fell back shortly after, having to fight from ninth back to eighth by the finish.

The #5 car is ninth in the GTP standings, one spot ahead of the #85.

GTD Pro & GTD

The AO Racing team and the car painted like a dinosaur nicknamed Rexy took a thoroughly dominant victory in the GTD Pro category with Laurin Heinrich twice extending a gap of over 10 seconds in what is supposed to be an ultra-close category.

It is the team’s first win in GTD Pro, and the car’s first since last year’s 12 Hours of Sebring.

Seb Priaulx started the #77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) and moved from sixth to fifth in class before the pitstops began and the first caution helped after Heinrich took over, and he made a beautiful move on the #9 McLaren around halfway up the inside at Turn 6.

The car now takes the lead in the GTD Pro IMSA championship standings, with Porsche ahead in the GTD Pro manufacturers' points as well.

The #120 Wright Motorsports car finished third in the GTD Pro class with Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer at the wheel, while the number 43 Andretti Motorsports car was 10th in GTD Pro, three spots ahead of the MDK Motorsports car.

The next WeatherTech Championship race is the Detroit Grand Prix, featuring the GTP and GTD PRO classes. The 100-minute race airs live at 3 p.m. ET Saturday, June 1 on USA Network and Peacock.

The IMSA championship will return to action on the short and tricky Detroit street course next, on June 1.

That's just before many of the full-time IMSA Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers head to the next World Endurance Championship race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 15-16.