IMSA Weekend at Laguna Seca: Photos, Race Results & More
Porsche scores fifth IMSA GTLM-class victory of the year, and photographer Keiron Berndt was there to capture the action for Rennlist.
Rennlist was in attendance at last weekend’s Laguna Seca alongside our trusty photographer Keiron BerndtΒ to capture all of the Porsche action as it happened. The Porsche contingent was out in full force with a pair of factory-backed mid-engine 911 RSRs in the GTLM category, a quartet of GTD-classed GT3 Rs, and a squad of Caymans running in the Sportscar Challenge race. The weather was gorgeous and the racing was captivating in every class. Porsche managed to score a couple podium positions, so read on to find out how it all played out.
Porsche in GTLM
IMSA’s top-flight GT category for factory-supported efforts has been a hotly contested category all season, and the Laguna Seca round proved no different. Porsche didn’t set their sights on a stellar qualifying, focusing instead on race setup, netting the team starting positions of 6th and 8th in class.
When the green flag fluttered against the Northern California sky, the GTLM class found itself in a jumble at the bottom of turn two where one of the BMWs got into the back of the other BMW and spun it around. Both Porsches managed to come out of the fracas in good standing, with Laurens Vanthoor in the #912 car gaining three positions, and Patrick Pilet in the #911 car gaining two.
The #912 car of Vanthoor and Gianmaria Bruni had their race scuppered with a couple of incidents. The first involved a careless prototype driver balking Laurens in traffic with a hip check, forcing him down the timing sheets. When the Belgian driver came in to swap seats with his teammate, the car was hit with a drive through penalty that basically pulled them out of contention.
In the #911 car, however, things were coming up roses for Pilet and teammate Dirk Werner. Following a good opening stint with Pilet at the wheel that saw him running as high as second in class, he handed off for Werner to close out the race. From the moment he got in the car, the team told Werner that his main concern was to save fuel, and he did just that. In the final half hour of racing, he was sitting second behind the eventual winning BMW — the same such BMW as spun at turn 2 on lap 1 — and they were both saving fuel.
‘We saved our fuels and tires for when it counted. All in all it was a good race.’
The Risi Competizione Ferrari had been running rings around everyone all race, and pitted for a top up on fuel with 20 minutes to go, rejoining in third far behind the two German branded leaders. Because the Ferrari didn’t need to save fuel, they were capable of running several seconds per lap faster than the Porsche and BMW at the head of the field. The Ferrari did ultimately catch and pass Werner, but couldn’t quite get by the Bimmer, Porsche settling for third in class and their fifth podium of the year.
Porsche in GTD
While a few different Porsche racers ran up front throughout the course of this two-hour and 40-minute race, the best finishing car was the Park Place Motorsport #73 of Patrick Lindsey and Joerg Bergmeister in third. Lindsey qualified the car in third on the grid and when his stint was over, that’s exactly where he was when he pitted to hand off to Bergmeister.
Unfortunately for Bergmeister, he was blocked from exiting his pit box by the Stevenson Motorsport Audi in the stall ahead and was forced to have the team pull him back in order to exit cleanly without penalty or danger. When he finally did get out of pit lane, he was sitting in 11th in class.Β Thanks to some stellar driving, excellent strategy, and good fuel saving techniques, Bergmeister managed to claw his way back up to third in class, and that’s where he finished. Just minutes from the end, he was sitting in fifth, but the two lead cars in class were forced to pit for fuel, elevating his position. The lanky German had this to say about his team’s podium finish: “We saved our fuels and tires for when it counted. All in all it was a good race.”
Photos for Rennlist byΒ Keiron Berndt
