| Annual IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Trip to California Has Produced a Run of Eclectic Results May 5, 2025By Tony DiZinnoIMSA Wire Service |
Entry List (Click Here) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes curious trends emerge at a venue, and the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) class at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California has one of the quirkiest ones on the schedule as it prepares to be part of IMSA’s TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship weekend. None of the last four GS teams that have won at WeatherTech Raceway are entered in GS in 2025. Two GS teams, Winward Racing and RS1, have captured a combined seven of the last 12 GS podiums in Monterey, but not won. Wright Motorsports won the 2021 race with a Porsche, with Jan Heylen and Max Root driving. The team won again in 2022, entered instead as VOLT Racing, with an Aston Martin and drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Trent Hindman. Both Heylen (2021) and Brynjolfsson and Hindman (2022) went on to secure the GS class title at year’s end. Murillo Racing’s Kenny Murillo and Christian Szymczak won with Mercedes-AMG in 2023, and Motorsports In Action’s Michael de Quesada and Jesse Lazare won with McLaren in 2024. Neither team returned to the series the following year. It leaves the GS class in a peculiar spot heading into WeatherTech Raceway for Round 3 of the 2025 season. The last team to win a GS race at the venue entered this year is CarBahn with Peregrine Racing, which won the October 2020 Monterey race, and which conveniently won the most recent Michelin Pilot Challenge race at Sebring in March with Jeff Westphal and Sean McAlister sharing the No. 39 BMW M4 GT4 EVO. RS1 enters WeatherTech Raceway on the doorstep of breaking through, as the Porsche team has three straight Monterey runner-up finishes at the venue (Stevan McAleer and Alexandre Premat in 2022, McAleer and Eric Filgueiras in 2023, McAleer and Hindman in 2024). Its new pairing of Heylen and Luca Mars have delivered two straight runner-up finishes to start 2025 in their No. 28 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS. Winward Racing, the 2019 GS winners, has scored four podiums in the last four years at this track. The team banked a second-and-third in 2021, and successive third places for Bryce Ward and Daniel Morad in 2023 and 2024 in its No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4. Leaving Sebring, the RS1 Heylen/Mars pairing holds a 50-point lead on Daytona winners Michael Cooper and Moisey Uretsky, who share the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsports McLaren Artura GT4, the 2024 Monterey GS-winning manufacturer. The 24 GS cars include two new and one returning entries. CSM adds a third No. 3 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS for Nikita Lastochkin and Chase Jones, AR Motorsports debuts its No. 14 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS of David Hampton and Salinas native Thomas Merrill, a WeatherTech Raceway track veteran who has a Rolex 24 At Daytona Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) class win on his resume, and Kingpin Racing’s No. 53 Toyota GR Supra EVO2 of Rob Walker and Satakal Khalsa returns for the first time since the BMW M Endurance Challenge in Daytona. BGB Motorsports’ No. 38 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS and KohR Motorsports’ No. 60 Ford Mustang GT4 drop off for this race. Touring Car (TCR) is a little more straightforward, with Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian having won both races to start the year and three of the last five at WeatherTech Raceway (2020, 2021, 2023) in a resurgent start to the team’s renewed championship push. Daytona winners Denis Dupont and Preston Brown (No. 76 Hyundai Elantra N TCR) lead Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker (No. 98 Hyundai Elantra N TCR) by just 10 points. With third-placed HART Honda (Chad Gilsinger and Ryan Chambers) absent this race, fourth-placed Precision Racing LA Audi (IMSA 3D Scholarship recipient Celso Neto and multi-time Pilot Challenge race winner Ryan Eversley) is poised to move up. Among the 16 TCR entries, two Audi RS3 LMS TCR cars return. WeatherTech Raceway 2019 TCR winners Roadshagger Racing are back for the first time in 2025 with the pair of Gavin Ernstone and Jon Morley in their No. 61 Audi, while Eric Rockwell and Bruno Colombo share the No. 10 Rockwell Autosport Development Audi for the first time since Daytona. Monterey native Nick Galante also returns, as part of the Racing to End Alzheimer’s supported-entry in the No. 31 RVA Graphics Motorsports by Speed Syndicate Audi. Pilot Challenge competitors have two one-hour practice sessions, Friday at 9:10 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. PT and local time and qualifying Friday evening at 5:40 p.m. The green flag of the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 flies on Saturday afternoon at 12:45 p.m PT/3:45 p.m. ET, streaming on Peacock in the U.S. and also IMSA’s Official YouTube channel globally, ad-free, courtesy of Michelin. Fast FactsWeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – Monterey, Calif. May 9-10, 2025 Race Day/Time: Saturday, May 10, 3:45 p.m. ETPeacock Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET (globally, ad-free, courtesy of Michelin via IMSA’s Official YouTube channel)Circuit Type: 2.238-mile, 11-turn road courseClasses Competing: Grand Sport (GS), Touring Car (TCR)Race Length: Two hours Michelin Pilot Challenge Track RecordsGS: Michael de Quesada, McLaren Artura GT4, 1:27.455 / 92.455 mph, May 2024 (Qualifying)TCR: Bryan Ortiz, Honda Civic FL5 TCR, 1:29.175 / 90.347 mph, May 2024 (Qualifying) 2024 WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 WinnersGS: Michael de Quesada/Jesse Lazare, No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren Artura GT4TCR: Mikey Taylor/Chris Miller, No. 17 UniTronic/JDC-Miller MotorSports Audi RS3 LMS TCR StorylinesCalifornia Ties: Nikita Lastochkin (Los Angeles), Thomas Merrill (Salinas), Sean Quinlan (Palo Alto), Greg Liefooghe (San Francisco), Sean McAlister (Beverly Hills), Rob Walker (San Diego), Satakal Khalsa (San Diego), Bob Michaelian (Seal Beach), Brian Lock (Santa Cruz), Jon Miller (Orange), Nick Galante (Monterey) and Jon Morley (San Francisco) live in California and get to race in their home state. IMPC Hits the Pacific Coast: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca marks the Michelin Pilot Challenge series’ lone annual trip out west to the Pacific Coast. The resurfaced WeatherTech Raceway produced record laps last year and also a pole-to-flag win for Motorsports In Action’s McLaren Artura GT4, the first for the new model in Pilot Challenge. Who’s Hot?RS1: Back-to-back runner-up finishes have positioned RS1 first in the GS championship standings. Bryan Herta Autosport: With two wins in TCR this year, Bryan Herta Autosport comes to WeatherTech Raceway in search of a three-peat this season and a fourth in six years at the track. Who’s Good Here?Harry Gottsacker and Mark Wilkins: Wilkins (No. 33) is a two-time TCR winner in Monterey; Gottsacker (No. 98) is the lone active polesitter racing here and a 2021 race winner. They split a pair of Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR cars. Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winners in 2025 Field (14)Mark Wilkins (2): TCR – 2021, 2023 Gavin Ernstone (1): TCR – 2019 Mason Filippi (1): TCR – 2023 Nick Galante (1): ST – 2018 Harry Gottsacker (1): TCR – 2021 Billy Johnson (1): ST – 2007 Jan Heylen (1): GS – 2021 Stevan McAleer (1): ST – 2016 Tim Lewis (1): TCR – 2022Robin Liddell (1): GS – 2015Chris Miller (1): TCR – 2024 Jon Morley (1): TCR – 2019 Mikey Taylor (1): TCR – 2024 Jeff Westphal (1): GS – 2020 Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Pole Winners in 2025 Field (1)Harry Gottsacker (2): TCR – 2020, 2022 Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winning Teams in 2025 Field (8)Bryan Herta Autosport (3): TCR – 2020, 2021, 2023CarBahn (1): GS – 2020 Turner Motorsport (1): ST – 2008 JDC-Miller MotorSports (1): TCR – 2024 KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering (1): TCR – 2022Roadshagger Racing (1): TCR – 2019 Team TGM (1): GS – 2018 Winward Racing (1): GS – 2019 Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winning Manufacturers in 2025 Field (8)Audi – 5Porsche – 5BMW – 3Hyundai – 3Mercedes-AMG – 3 Aston Martin – 2Ford – 2McLaren – 1 |
