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About the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)

International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 and owns a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, as well as four one-make series: Ferrari Challenge North America, Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and Porsche Carrera Cup North America. IMSA – a company within the NASCAR family – is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as a part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The partnership enables selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Big Day for GM as Cadillac, Corvette Claim Detroit Poles

Bamber, Deletraz Sweep GTP Front Row at Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic

May 29, 2026

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

Qualifying Results

DETROIT – General Motors basked in the Motor City sunshine Friday as its entries earned the Motul Pole Award for both IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes competing at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic.

Earl Bamber was fastest in both practice sessions in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, and he converted that speed into the overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class pole. Meanwhile, Alexander Sims sped to the top starting spot for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class.

Bamber was delighted with the balance in his Cadillac after no less than three and half hours of practice time. The 35-year-old New Zealander was correct in his confidence that he could break Nick Tandy’s two-year old track-record for the tricky 1.645-mile street course along the Detroit Riverwalk in the shadow of the Renaissance Center, GM’s former corporate headquarters.

Bamber was one of five drivers who lapped under one minute, 6 seconds, finally lowering the benchmark to 1:05.313 with four and a half minutes remaining in the 15-minute session, for an average speed of 90.670 miles per hour. That was quick enough to top Tandy's previous track record of 1:05.390.

Bamber and his competitors might have gone even faster, before the session met a premature end. Felipe Nasr ran wide at Turn 1 in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 and his teammate Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche slapped the wall in avoidance.

Louis Deletraz secured the outside front row staring berth in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R (1:05.635/90.226 mph), ahead of Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 and Marco Wittmann in the No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 fielded by BMW M Team WRT.

This is Bamber’s third pole position in IMSA competition, but first in GTP or any prototype class. His last start from the top spot came in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) class at the 2015 Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

“It’s been a great weekend so far,” Bamber said. “I loved the old Belle Isle track, but as soon as I drove here, I really clicked with this place and we decided to shake it up a bit this weekend and have myself run the qualifying, and it’s really nice to get my first GTP pole.

“The car has been fantastic all weekend, and obviously it’s really cool for Cadillac to get pole position at our home race – and Corvette too, with ‘Simmsy,’” he added. “Hopefully we can just run away and hide and stay out of trouble. But we know this race has brought a lot of surprises over the years.”

The difficulty of the “concrete canyon” street course in the heart of downtown Detroit was on display during practice, when no fewer than 40 reports of spins or runs down escape roads were reported. But qualifying was clean until the Porsche Penske drivers experienced the double disaster that will leave them starting eighth and 10th in the 11-car GTP field.

The No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 qualified by Tijmen van der Helm and co-driver Laurin Heinrich may look to pull a strategic gamble to leapfrog from P11 and repeat its last-to-first win achieved last time out at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca; Heinrich enters this race at Detroit atop the GTP points.

But Bamber and his co-driver Jack Aitken are on a hot streak, starting the 2026 season with four consecutive podiums after wrapping up ’25 with a pair of wins. Detroit would be the ideal venue to find their way back to the top step of the podium. Aitken entered the weekend second in points, 21 behind Heinrich, and with Friday’s qualifying result is unofficially only six back to start Saturday’s 100-minute race.

“We’ve sort of got a motto in the team that if we keep knocking on the door, if we’re in that top two or three all the time, then eventually it opens,” Bamber said. “We’re racing against some great teams. It’s never easy to win one of these things, but we’re staring up front and hopefully we can lead and execute.

“We just have to our thing the best we can,” he smiled. “Today we converted it; we’ll see if we can do the same thing tomorrow.”

The Chevrolet Detroit SportsCar Classic will be broadcast live on NBC and streamed domestically on Peacock, with the green flag set for 4:10 p.m. ET Saturday, May 30. International streaming options include the official IMSA YouTube Channel and IMSA.TV.

What to Watch For: Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic

IMSA’s Motown Manufacturer Showdown; WTR’s Rebound Potential; MSR’s Big “Mo”

May 28, 2026

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic presents a fifth variation of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in as many events with just the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) categories sharing the track. The 1.645-mile downtown Detroit street course, the shortest circuit on the schedule, may see limited courtesy, traded paint and flaring tempers on display (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, IMSA YouTube). These two classes may have championship shakeups too prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans break and the all-class resumption at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June.

Motown Manufacturer Showdown

One of motorsports’ most intense rivalries is the iconic Chevrolet vs. Ford battle. For a third consecutive year, the pair of Motown heavyweights square off with their now further developed GT3 specification challengers: the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ No. 3 and No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs and Ford Racing’s No. 64 and 65 Ford Mustang GT3s.

“Of course, you have Ford against Corvettes,” said Frederic Vervisch, who partnered with Christopher Mies to take the GTD PRO win in the No. 65 Mustang at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca earlier this month. “I think it's nice. It's cool for the sport . . . On track, we are the blues, they are the yellows, and we want to be in front of them. And I think that's really cool.”

While it’s easy to assume the presence of the corporate heavyweights in the pits and paddock means the pressure is “on,” Corvette’s Antonio Garcia says the desire to make the folks who work behind the scenes proud more than racing under the gaze of the suits is what motivates him in Detroit.

“For sure you can see some other people that usually don’t come to the races,” he said. “For instance, all the Pratt Miller personnel usually come here, and they set up a big tent to invite most of their workers. It’s nice to see them, it’s nice to get them to see what they built. And for sure, it doesn’t bring any more pressure. For me it’s just that Detroit is somewhere that I’ve never won at, and I want to take that away.”

Nor will Chevrolet and Ford be alone in battling for Motown bragging rights. Rest assured Stuttgart-based Porsche, Maranello’s Ferrari, Woking’s McLaren, Shimoyama’s Lexus and Sant’Agata Bolognese’s Lamborghini would like nothing more than to come out on top in Detroit in the seven-manufacturer GTD PRO field (along with five in GTP). That’s a dynamic that works both ways.

“If you come up with a win, that means you won against everyone,” Garcia said. “So, for sure it is important to beat everybody out there. Obviously, every manufacturer wants theirs to be up front. It probably feels more like a good football match where you have the biggest teams out there competing against each other. Let’s put it that way. It feels more like a big match or Super Bowl… big teams fighting against each other, so it is important for sure.”

WTR’s Rebound Potential

The Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac reunion in 2025 harbored hopes of a natural return to their race- and championship-winning form in the mid-2010s. But curiously, heading back to Detroit, WTR seeks its first win since reuniting with Cadillac in GTP.

“I think we should not undervalue a team completely switching to a new manufacturer when all the other teams are with the same manufacturer from year one,” explained Filipe Albuquerque, who pilots WTR’s No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R with Ricky Taylor. “But for us, it's learning to deal with Cadillac people, learning about the car and the drivers adapting to the systems. I think more races is better. And I think this year we are more prepared and everything is just flowing more.”

The pace is there. Taylor led last year before Renger van der Zande’s bold, winning move. And last time out in Monterey, Louis Deletraz put the sister No. 40 Cadillac on pole but without strategy falling their way, the result didn’t match the pace.

The fact that WTR has been a strong force on the downtown Detroit circuit in both previous years gives the team good reason to believe they’ll be in the hunt with Cadillac this weekend.

“There is great confidence coming into Detroit knowing our Cadillac V-Series.R was fast last year,” says Deletraz, who co-drives the No. 40 WTR entry with Jordan Taylor. “Since the start of the year our pace has been strong, but success hasn’t come in the races. It’s time to turn that around.”

The Cadillacs are split in the championship standings. Jack Aitken sits second in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen entry while the pair of WTR cars sit further back. Albuquerque says they can now go into every event focused on winning the race rather than managing their championship aspirations.

“The 10 car had never been in such a situation like this before in my career,” he surmised. “We are dead last because of different circumstances, and that's painful. But again, we have nothing to fight for. It's just single wins, to be honest, and to respect our teammates of the 31 that is fighting for the championship. And we can go for the glory.”

MSR’s Big “Mo” Amidst a Flurry of Sports Car Variety

The two longest IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races at Daytona and Sebring kick off the season at 24 and 12 hours, respectively. Come mid-May, the rest of the global sports car calendar gets endurance racing heavy with the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring earlier this month and the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month, sandwiched by the joint shortest race on the IMSA calendar – the 100-minute Detroit race.

More than have a dozen WeatherTech Championship regulars competed at the Nürburgring. From Detroit, 15 of 22 GTP full-season drivers and three additional GTD PRO drivers will head off to Le Mans to fly the IMSA flag there as part of a significant IMSA contingent that also includes teams and drivers from Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD).

Many of those drivers and teams will run the WeatherTech Raceway rollercoaster, the ‘Ring’s “Green Hell,” the streets of Motown and the iconic Circuit de la Sarthe, in a span of seven weeks.

Van der Zande, who shares the No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with Nick Yelloly, hailed the variety of events he’s getting to drive in at the moment.

“Yeah, I think (the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring) was an amazing event,” says van der Zande, who raced an HWA Evo.R along with Wright Motorsports’ team owner/driver Adam Adelson against a field of more than 120 GT cars, including a Mercedes-AMG GT3 piloted by four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen. “That was very, very special to see him and what he was doing. I've seen him do things that I've never seen a race car driver do before on that track.

“But, yeah, I can't wait to go competing again because that's what I live for. That's why I’m in IMSA, because it's so much competition, and so much fun to go race each other. The Nürburgring was, I would say, a challenge to get to the finish, but an especially enjoyable weekend.

“I think Detroit is fun; it's all downtown now. It's around the (Renaissance Center). It's pretty epic and special, too. When I was racing for Cadillac, I was able to win there (at old Belle Isle circuit) for Cadillac, and when I raced with Acura, I was able to beat Cadillac, which was fun in a way because of that. And we're gonna try to do the same thing now.”

Van der Zande has won six of IMSA’s last 10 street races. He and Nick Yelloly have won two straight street races with Acura at Detroit last year and Long Beach this year.

And the MSR team is riding some good “mo” as last week, nearly 300 miles south of Detroit in Indianapolis, Felix Rosenqvist denied David Malukas in the closest finish in the 110-year history of the Indianapolis 500. MSR looks to repeat that success with its own “Detroit double” in play this weekend with its two GTP cars racing on Saturday and two IndyCars on Sunday; might either or both entries keep the team’s winning momentum and vibes alive?

Tandy Can Complete a Full Set of IMSA Current-Track Wins in Detroit

AO Racing Has Successful “New” Detroit Pedigree; Tandy Has Past

Street Course Success

May 27, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – One driver set to compete at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented by Lear has a chance to complete a full set of victories at every current track the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races.

That’d be Nick Tandy, who’s shifted back into GT this year as part of the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) in Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO).

Tandy’s endurance race accolades generated headlines in early 2025, as his overall win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona launched the “Tandy Slam” as he became the first driver to claim four major overall 24-hour race wins (Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps).

But what may have been overlooked is his full IMSA career in totality. It dates back more than a decade to the early 2010s, and he has achieved 25 career IMSA wins (23 in the WeatherTech Championship, two in the American Le Mans Series, and one non-points event that doesn’t count towards official records).

The new 1.645-mile Detroit Street Circuit is the last track he needs to conquer, and he’ll be the first driver on the grid to complete the current set.

Jordan Taylor or Colin Braun can do so too if either driver wins both at Detroit and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway later this year, but Tandy is the first to have this attempt.

The 100-minute race takes place Saturday, May 30, live at 4 p.m. ET on network NBC, also streaming on Peacock and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.

Tandy’s won overall and/or in class at the following:

Daytona International Speedway
Sebring International Raceway
Streets of Long Beach
WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
Watkins Glen International
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
Road America
VIRginia International Raceway
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta

That aforementioned caveat of one non-points win for Tandy came in Detroit. He shared the winning GT Le Mans Corvette entry at The Raceway on Belle Isle Park in 2021 with Tommy Milner, but the race was considered non-points for the class and thus doesn’t count officially towards the record books.

Having only made the two starts at “new” Detroit, with fewer opportunities to conquer the shortest track on the calendar, Tandy is yet to break through. But there’s good potential he could do so this week based on both his own and AO Racing’s street course record.

Tandy scored the first pole at the track in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and currently holds the track record, with a lap of 1 minute, 5.390 seconds (90.564 mph) set in 2024 aboard the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963.

That same year, AO Racing won its first street course race with Laurin Heinrich and Seb Priaulx sharing the No. 77 Porsche in GTD PRO.

Tandy’s most recent IMSA win also came on the streets, the streets of Long Beach in 2025 overall – a race AO also won with Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar sharing the renumbered No. 177 AO Porsche in GTD.

The new-look AO lineup is rounding into form early in 2026, too, as Tandy and IMSA rookie Harry King have scored back-to-back podiums in second and third at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship, respectively.

That puts them third in GTD PRO points, 63 behind the leading entry of Milner and Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

AO’s livery has been on rotation through the first three races, with its primary green “Rexy” colors at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the pink “Roxy” filling in at Sebring after front end damage in Daytona, and the creative “Sketchy” – the pencil-drawn green and white sketch of “Rexy’s” origins – utilized in Monterey. “Rexy” is set to return this week in Detroit.

Whatever the livery and whatever the lineup, both AO and Tandy are off to a solid 2026 start. It could be a fitting result if they score their first win together in Detroit and Tandy adds a new record to his resume.

A Different Detroit Double on Tap for Both Johnson, RLL Team McLaren

Johnson to Run Both IMSA, Indy NXT Races; RLL Team Returns to Dual Series Weekend

May 27, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Compared to most of their peers in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class, RLL Team McLaren is all-in on all-new for 2026.

In Nikita Johnson and Max Esterson, they have one of only two all-American lineups in the class. They have a pair of sports car full-season rookies. And they have a new McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that sees the team return to its successful GT roots after a three-year sojourn into Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).

But what faces Johnson, RLL and McLaren in particular at the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic (Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, NBC) will be one of the more daunting events of the year.

The Tampa teenager, Johnson, is set to pull a unique double duty event. He’ll run both in the WeatherTech Championship 100-minute race and the Indy NXT race on the same weekend.

Additionally, the RLL team will return to something it’s done quite often throughout its history but hasn’t yet in 2026: run both its IMSA and IndyCar programs on the same weekend. The RLL Team McLaren GT car will join its three Honda-powered IndyCars in the joint series paddock.

Johnson has fared decently well in two street course appearances this year. He won the season-opening Indy NXT round in his home city of St. Petersburg and also finished sixth at Arlington.

But the 1.645-mile Detroit track is known for its tight angles and treacherous surface, and that’ll make for an interesting juxtaposition between vehicles during the weekend.

“It’s a very busy schedule coming up,” Johnson said heading into the most recent WeatherTech Championship round at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey.

“I’ve been managing well so far, but it’ll get difficult over the summer. It’s Laguna, then Indy NXT at IMS road course, so there’s no breaks there.

“And then we get to Detroit. I’ll do double duty, which will be interesting. I haven’t (run at Detroit) in either class, Indy NXT and GT. You have to take it one weekend at a time. I’m having good success in NXT and the GT program, learning quite a bit. I think Max and I are getting there. Just need a bit of time.”

Indeed, the Johnson/Esterson pairing has methodically improved to start the 2026 season and shown flashes of pace and promise against their competitors. In the hands of third driver Dean MacDonald, the RLL Team McLaren No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo qualified second on debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. The team has finished better in each race – from 12th at Daytona to ninth at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and seventh in Monterey.

That’s ensured Johnson has had three different time lengths and wildly disparate types of racing to open his sports car career, with a 24-hour race followed by a 12-hour and a two-hour, 40-minute race.

The 100-minute Detroit sprint, where the GTD PRO minimum drive time is just five minutes, opens strategic options where he may actually drive less in the IMSA race than the 45-to-55-minute Indy NXT race.

“It’s completely different,” Johnson noted. “You get Daytona in a 24, Sebring in a 12, while Indy NXT is 45-55-minute races. They’re polar opposites, but it’s so good to get into the sprint IMSA races now. That’s more what I’m used to. I’m learning a lot and getting a handle on the whole sports car world.”

He’s been impressed with the racing in IMSA, too.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “The racing is so hard in IMSA. It’s different than open wheel. You can rub on them. In open wheel, you can’t.

“I didn’t expect sports cars to be like this. I’ve always watched, but it’s surreal to be racing in it.”

His Friday includes two IMSA practice sessions and qualifying, a single Indy NXT practice after its morning driver meeting, and debriefs anticipated with both teams.

Saturday includes the IMSA warm-up and 100-minute race, along with Indy NXT practice and qualifying and both series’ autograph sessions.

With IMSA’s race complete Saturday, he has just the Indy NXT race on Sunday – where he enters as that series’ points leader by 11 points.

Motivated in Motor City: Albuquerque, Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing Look Ahead to Detroit

Important June Beckons for No. 10 Cadillac V-Series.R Team in IMSA and

at Le Mans

May 26, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – There’s no questioning the motivation and desire for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing and, in particular, its long-tenured No. 10 car to resume its usual place at or near the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship podium in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP).

Luckily, a trip to General Motors’ headquarters in Detroit (Saturday, May 30, 4 p.m. ET, NBC) has historically been ripe for some home cooking.

Each of the last two years, the No. 10 car has arrived in Detroit after a tricky start to the new season. In both 2024 and 2025, the No. 10 car of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor failed to finish better than fifth in the first four races. In 2024, the team entered Detroit eighth in GTP points (305 points off the lead) and in 2025, seventh (412 back).

Somehow the luck has taken a further hit in 2026 because this year the No. 10 car hasn’t finished better than 10th, and the Taylor/Albuquerque pair rank 14th in driver points with the No. 10 car 11th in the GTP standings, 485 off leader Laurin Heinrich. The sister No. 40 car of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor sits ninth in points, 343 in arrears.

Befitting of the city itself, “new Detroit” – the 1.645-mile, nine-turn street circuit – has served as the home of the start of WTR’s comeback with the No. 10 car and served as a catalyst for a second half surge in the remaining five rounds of the GTP season.

Ricky Taylor’s pass for the win on Mathieu Jaminet’s Porsche 963 in 2024 marked the No. 10 car’s return to victory lane in an Acura ARX-06, while last year they nearly won aboard the team’s now-Cadillac V-Series.R before Renger van der Zande made a late-race win pass.

“I'm not ashamed of finishing second when it was such a cool fight for the for the win on the last moment,” Albuquerque said on a pre-Detroit, IMSA-hosted media Zoom. “Renger did an amazing move on Ricky, which you need to recognize when it's a good move.”

In both years, the No. 10 car finished the final five races of the year with three top-fives apiece and leapt to sixth in points. That’s certainly not the standard the team expects, but it at least serves proof positive of how Detroit has been where the season has turned the corner.

Albuquerque didn’t mince words about the struggles but was also bullish on history repeating itself for a third year in a row.

“The new Detroit has been kind to the 10 car,” he said. “Two years ago, we won not with true pace, but on strategy. Last year, we did well with a good comeback from starting from P4.

“We want to catch a break, to be honest, in this season, and hopefully in Detroit again. In 2024, what we did was a good ‘break point.’ Let's hope that it is again. So, we are working together to understand the car and to be better and come back on top.”

Working together to understand the car is a key point. Though this is Wayne Taylor Racing’s second year back with Cadillac, the team is five races into understanding a raft of aerodynamic upgrades and Michelin’s new-for-2026 GTP tire.

It’s worth noting the No. 10 car finished third on the road in Sebring before the car was found to have camber in excess of the permitted tire pressure limit during post-race technical inspection. Additionally, Deletraz in the No. 40 car won the Motul Pole Award last time out at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. So flashes of WTR brilliance have certainly emerged in the opening rounds.

“We are way better this year on pace,” he said, “but we see sometimes the 10, sometimes the 40, be good in alternating on pace. We’re trying to lock that down to both be consistent on the front row. We have not achieved that yet.

“Last year, I remember qualifying was tricky to get the tires working. But this is a completely different environment and there’s a new aero package as well.”

June, of course, is a busy month for Albuquerque, the Taylor family and the Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing organization as a whole. The team returns to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with its No. 101 Cadillac V-Series.R chassis before coming back to the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at the end of the month. At the latter venue, WTR scored its first GTP double podium in 2025.

“The biggest was last year because everything was new,” Albuquerque explained. “When you have two cars, you take half the crews of each team and fly there and go. I think in the end it’s just a learning process.

“I think doing Le Mans makes us better because we’re learning more about everything. There's a test day, which we have time to do stuff on the car, and we learn about the tires there in Le Mans, we will drive with both compounds as well. We get to play with (Cadillac Hertz Team) JOTA together on the same weekend. They’re supportive. So it's a learning process. So I think of it as a positive.”

But first comes Detroit and all that comes with it. It’s a city where Wayne Taylor Racing as an organization has won five times – four of five years on the old Raceway on Belle Isle Park from 2013 to 2017, with Ricky Taylor part of three of those wins. Removing the pressure and treating it as another race, however, helps.

“I think we just feel prouder if we win in front of the home race and the bosses are there,” Albuquerque said. “I think winning is winning. It doesn't matter where you are winning.

“It’s cool to tell them in person what we are planning to do and how it happens. Because sometimes there is a story to it. It’s better than reading because when you read a report, it may sound like excuses. When they’re there, and you’re explaining, they have the full picture of it.”

Welcome to Downtown Detroit, Where IMSA Delivers Fun, Frenetic Action

The 100-Minute “Street Fight” Term is Quite Applicable at Newer Track

May 21, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The first attempt at a new venue rarely provides enough data to deliver meaningful metrics for what an IMSA race will, in fact, be like. But after two years, a clearer picture starts to emerge.

For the new downtown Detroit Street Circuit, it’s fair to say that what the track lacks in length it more than makes up for in fun, frenzied and frenetic action in the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic (Saturday, May 30, 4 p.m. ET, NBC).

The 1.645-mile, nine-turn course is the shortest on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar, and a far cry in layout from the former Raceway on Belle Isle Park where IMSA competed through 2022.

Compared to the flowing, elevation-change, switchback-heavy Belle Isle track that was more than 2.3 miles on an island with a picturesque backdrop, the new layout which runs along the Detroit Riverwalk is raw, visceral and gritty; just like the city where it resides.

One long straight anchors the track on Jefferson Ave., linked together by a series of predominately 90-degree left-hand turns (there’s only three right-handers – Turns 4, 6 and 9), with space at a premium and cars needing to pick the key moments where and when to go side-by-side.

After a one-off run of IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Grand Sport (GS) cars in 2023, the WeatherTech Championship arrived in 2024 and has delivered a pair of barnburners in the 100-minute race. Both WeatherTech Championship races have featured late-race, dynamic passes for the lead.

Wayne Taylor Racing pulled it off in 2024 as Ricky Taylor maneuvered his then-Acura ARX-06 past Mathieu Jaminet’s Porsche 963 at the Turn 3 hairpin for the lead. Then last year, Taylor was on the receiving end of a winning pass battle as Renger van der Zande took his No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura past Taylor’s now-Cadillac V-Series.R deep into Turn 1 for the ultimate win. Van der Zande won with Nick Yelloly; Taylor with Filipe Albuquerque.

“I know Ricky – Ricky goes for it, right?” van der Zande said in last year’s postrace media availability. “He’s the nicest guy out of the car, but in the car, you need to watch out for the guy. He was going for it, and I was like, ‘Game on. Let’s see.’”

Taylor added, “Renger being Renger, he makes it happen.”

The win passes have come in addition to a trio of viral moments caused by passing attempts and action that haven’t gone entirely to plan.

In the standalone Michelin Pilot Challenge race, Robert Megennis’ No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4 (G82) rode over the top of Rory van der Steur’s luckless van der Steur Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT4 at the hairpin. A bad-looking incident at the time at least had a happy follow-up story as the van der Steur crew rebuilt the chassis to make the next round at Watkins Glen International and finished an impressive fifth.

Inadvertent contact between Jack Aitken and Richard Westbrook at Turn 1 a year later in the first WeatherTech Championship race essentially blocked the track as Westbrook’s yellow “banana boat” livery No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 needed an oar to get dislodged.

Then last year, there was the definition of “argy bargy” – a ubiquitous turn-of-phrase popularized by veteran racer and NBC Sports’ sports car analyst Calvin Fish. In Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), a late-race battle between the “Roxy” No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) of Laurin Heinrich and No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Nicky Catsburg ended when both received postrace time penalties following a last-lap collision at Turn 3.

“At Detroit, we had some ‘argy bargy’ last year with my friends over at Porsche,” Catsburg laughed, reflecting on last year’s contretemps.

“You always go for the victory if you have a chance, but you have to avoid the risks. You have to avoid those type situations.”

Catsburg’s teammate Alexander Sims noted how authentic “new Detroit” is.

“The street track here in Detroit is awesome to drive,” said the Englishman and defending GTD PRO champion, who co-drives the No. 3 Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Antonio Garcia.

“The first time we came here doing laps in practice, we were getting the Corvette as close to walls as possible and chipping away at the lap time. They’re genuine streets. It’s not like some streets that are paved and smooth. These are properly bumpy, and when you’re rolling down the backstraight at 150 mph, it’s pretty amazing.”

Then, of course, there’s the home city factor. Regardless of the year, GM drivers always feel that extra importance to deliver heading to Detroit.

Aitken has finished sixth and 10th in two prior starts and will need to improve upon that to keep the momentum he’s had rolling in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R with six straight podiums since Indianapolis last year.

“I’m always excited to go back to Detroit for our home race,” said Aitken, who along with Sims also made a quick pit stop to Detroit in January to promote the Grand Prix at the Auto Show’s “Racing Day” event. It also included a trip to a Detroit Pistons vs. Boston Celtics NBA game on NBC at Little Caesars Arena.

“What makes home races special for me is the people; you get a lot of family and friends. Whether for me in the UK or the team in Detroit, with the faces in the crowd and pits, that’s where the work and effort put in all makes it a lot more special.”

Detroit either the last weekend of May or first weekend of June has become a tradition since its first weekend on that date in 2012. IMSA has been a big part of that across both venues.

“It’s been a staple of the summer ever since that point,” said Jim Campbell, Vice President, Performance and Motorsports Commercial Operations, General Motors. “We’re so proud to feature both our products with Corvette and Cadillac here as well.”

Entry List Notebook – Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic

IMSA GTP, GTD PRO Classes Head to Downtown Detroit

May 20, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to the streets of downtown Detroit for the third event on the shortest track and equal shortest race of the season. The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic has served up two spicy 100-minute sprints in 2024 and 2025, which have both featured impressive late race passes for the lead and overall win.

The race airs against the backdrop of the Renaissance Center, live on network NBC from 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 30 with additional streaming via Peacock and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel.

A field of 21 cars, split 11 Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and 10 Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), take to the track and its signature split pit lane. As they have the last two years, Vasser Sullivan Racing has added a second GTD PRO entry – this time Aaron Telitz will share the No. 15 Lexus RC F GT3 with team newcomer Chaz Mostert, a Toyota racer in the Australian Supercars series, where he won the 2025 championship. Mostert is a past Rolex 24 At Daytona class winner (2020 in GT Le Mans with BMW) and finished second in his first IMSA start of 2026, sharing the 75 Express Mercedes-AMG GT3 in GTD PRO.

Additional race fast facts are below:

Fast Facts

Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic

Detroit Street Course – Detroit, Michigan

May 29-30, 2026

Race Day/Time: Saturday, May 30 – 4:10 p.m. ET

NBC Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 4 p.m. (streaming domestically on Peacock, internationally via IMSA.TV and IMSA Official YouTube channel)

Live Qualifying Stream: Friday, May 29 – 4:45 p.m. (Peacock in the U.S., globally via IMSA.TV and IMSA Official YouTube channel)

IMSA Radio: Selected sessions live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; XM live race coverage on XM 206, Web/App 996

Circuit Type: 1.654-mile, nine-turn temporary street course

Classes Competing: Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO)

Race Length: 100 minutes

Event Social Media:

X/Twitter: @detroitgp
Instagram: @detroitgp
Facebook: @detroitgp

Event Hashtags: #IMSA, #DetroitGP

WeatherTech Championship Track Records

GTP: Nick Tandy, Porsche 963, 1:05.390 / 90.564 mph, May 2024

GTD PRO: Antonio Garcia, Corvette Z06 GT3.R, 1:09.092 / 85.711 mph, May 2024

2025 Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Winners

GTP: Nick Yelloly/Renger van der Zande, No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06

GTD PRO: Mike Rockenfeller/Seb Priaulx, No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3

2025 Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Motul Pole Award Winners

GTP: Nick Yelloly, No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06

GTD PRO: Seb Priaulx, No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3

Storylines

Manufacturer Rivalries: In 2025, Acura beat Cadillac in GTP and Ford beat Chevrolet in GTD PRO. That left General Motors wanting for success after hard-luck runners-up results at the track that has encircled the Renaissance Center.
GTD PRO Variety: Through two street races at new Detroit, six different brands have finished on the podium in GTD PRO. It was Ford, Chevrolet and Lamborghini last year and Porsche, Lexus and Aston Martin in 2024. BMW and/or McLaren can add their names to the GTD PRO podium record this year.

4, 3, 2…1 for No. 4 Corvette? The GTD PRO-leading No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R is off to a strong start with finishes of fourth, third and second to start the year. Could first be next in Chevrolet’s home race?
Tandy Tries to Complete a Set: Nick Tandy has won at every current track on the IMSA calendar but one: the streets of Detroit. Together with AO Racing, he’ll look to complete that this race.
Street Race Sweeps? Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian’s No. 93 Acura ARX-06 and Vasser Sullivan Racing’s No. 12 Lexus RC F GT3 won the first of two 100-minute street course races in Long Beach. Both teams have two cars entered and will try to double up on the street course races this year.

Who’s Hot?

Laurin Heinrich: With three wins from four races, Heinrich has been in the best position to start the GTP season.
No. 31 Cadillac Whelen: Four podiums in four races for the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, all with Jack Aitken and three apiece with Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti. The team has six straight dating to 2025.

Who’s Good Here?

Acura: Two GTP races, two different teams, two Acura ARX-06 GTP winners at the new Detroit street circuit. Wayne Taylor Racing got it done in 2024, while Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian followed it up in 2025.
No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing: The Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor No. 10 car has finished first and second in two races on the new Detroit layout, first as an Acura and then as a Cadillac.

Previous Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Winners in 2026 Field (11)

Jordan Taylor (5): GT – 2012; DP – 2013; P – 2014, 2016, 2017
Renger van der Zande (5): PC – 2015, 2016; DPi – 2021, 2022, GTP – 2025
Ricky Taylor (4): P – 2014, 2016, 2017; GTP – 2024
Filipe Albuquerque (1): GTP – 2024
Ben Barnicoat (1): GTD – 2022
Roman De Angelis (1): GTD – 2021
Ross Gunn (1): GTD – 2021
Jack Hawksworth (1): GTD – 2019
Laurin Heinrich (1): GTD PRO – 2024
Felipe Nasr (1): P – 2018
Nick Yelloly (1): GTP – 2025

Previous Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Pole Winners in 2026 Field (4)

Antonio Garcia (1): GTD PRO – 2024
Jordan Taylor (1): DP – 2013
Nick Tandy (1): GTP – 2024
Nick Yelloly (1): GTP – 2025

Previous Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Winning Teams in 2026 Field (9)

Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing (5): DP –2013; P – 2014, 2016, 2017; GTP – 2024
Action Express Racing (3): DP – 2012; P – 2015, 2018
Acura Meyer Shank Racing (3): GTD – 2017, 2018, GTP – 2025
Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports (2): GT1 – 2007, 2008
Team Penske (2): P2 – 2007; DPi – 2019
Vasser Sullivan Racing (2): GTD – 2019, 2022
AO Racing (1): GTD PRO – 2024
Ford Racing (as Ford Multimatic Motorsports, 1): GTD PRO – 2025
Heart of Racing Team (1): GTD – 2021

Previous Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic Winning Manufacturers in 2026 Field (8)

Chevrolet – 9
Acura – 6
Cadillac – 4
Porsche – 4
Ferrari – 2
Lexus – 2
Aston Martin – 1
Ford – 1

IMSA’s GTD PRO Championship Chase Is Tight and Unpredictable

Corvette, BMW, Porsche and Ford All Figuring Early Heading to Motor City in Detroit

May 19, 2026

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A quartet of full-season driver pairings are clustered within just 74 points at the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class. That margin is the closest among the top four in any of IMSA’s four classes through the first four race weekends of 2026.

The battle is even closer among manufacturers, with Chevrolet, Porsche, BMW, and Ford covered by just 67 points heading into Detroit - arguably IMSA’s most important race market for the seven automakers competing in the factory-supported GTD PRO class.

If anything, the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic with its deceptively challenging downtown street course is a high-profile venue for a good old-fashioned Chevy vs. Ford duel.

Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ duo of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg in their No. 4 Corvette Z06 GT3.R lead the 2026 GTD PRO manufacturer and driver points, but arch-rival Ford claimed victory in Detroit one year ago. Not only that, Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch are coming off a win in the most recent WeatherTech Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in the No. 65 Ford Racing Mustang GT3 with new-for-’26 Evo upgrades.

That win lifted Vervisch and Mies up to fourth in the championship chase for drivers, the aforementioned 74 points adrift of Catsburg and Milner. In between are Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi in Paul Miller Racing’s No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO (-51 points), and Harry King and Nick Tandy in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (992), who trail the No. 4 Corvette duo by 63 markers.

Ford is determined to again deny Corvette the victory laurels in a race run in the shadow of the General Motors Renaissance Center, GM’s former corporate headquarters.

“GM and Ford are both there in Detroit,” Vervisch observed. “I think it’s nice for the fans and it’s also nice for the people who work there. We have a lot of attention there for both brands and I think it’s cool if you can win that one.”

“Obviously that’s home turf for Ford and we have a lot of fans there and employees who come over to see the race,” added Mies. “Last year, the win with Mike (Rockenfeller) and Seb (Priaulx) and the double pole position in qualifying was great. Obviously, we’ll be trying to repeat that.”

When was the last time Chevrolet won an IMSA race in Detroit? The answer is complicated, and it was all done on the former Raceway on Belle Isle Park.

The most recent Corvette win came in a non-points GT Le Mans race in 2021, when Milner and Tandy shared a Corvette C8.R prior to the Corvette by Pratt Miller team moving into GTD PRO. A Corvette Daytona Prototype won five straight overall from 2012 to 2016 with either Wayne Taylor Racing or Action Express Racing fielding the winning entry.

But you’d have to go back nearly 20 years to see a GT-class Corvette victory in Detroit, as Corvette Racing triumphed in the GT1 class in 2008 with the C6.R. A GT class Camaro GT.R won in both 2012 and 2013.

The WeatherTech Championship has competed only twice on the current 1.645-mile, 9-corner street circuit, with Mustang winning last year and the AO Porsche taking the glory in 2024 in the hands of Priaulx (a two-time Detroit winner) and Laurin Heinrich, who now competes in IMSA’s Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class. Corvette won the 2024 pole, while Ford won the pole in 2025.

The Corvette drivers are still smarting from the Monterey race, where fuel strategy was the key factor that kept Catsburg and Milner in the No. 4 and Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Corvette by Pratt Miller Z06 GT3.R from vying for victory.

“We could have won, I think, but still P2 is super nice and very good to put us in first for the championship,” noted Catsburg.

“Starting the race fifth and eighth, we would have been very happy to settle for second and fourth,” Sims added. “A little frustrated that we weren’t first in our respective battles - me with the 77 and Nicky with the 65 - but nevertheless a decent result and the manufacturers championship lead.”

The No. 4 Corvette has used consistency as its biggest weapon in building its small early points cushion. Catsburg and Milner have finished fourth, third, and second in this year’s three GTD PRO races; Verhagen and De Phillippi have twice started from the front row, and they won the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona International Speedway. Like the No. 4 duo, King and Tandy have finished on the podium in two of three races.

Catsburg and Milner’s 323.7 points-per-race clip stacks up well with the average number of points scored per race by the champions in the four-year existence of the GTD PRO class. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet set the benchmark of 349.7 points/race in 2022 when Pfaff Motorsports was campaigning a Porsche 911 GT3 R; Jack Hawksworth and Ben Barnicoat averaged 341.8 points/race in 2023 in the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3. Heinrich claimed the ’24 GTD PRO crown in the No. 77 AO Porsche while collecting 312.2 points per race before Garcia and Sims notched a 326.5-point average last year en route to the class title.

A maximum of 385 points are available on a race weekend.

Hawksworth and Barnicoat have claimed the Motul Pole Award at two of three races this year, but finishes of 10th, 11th, and ninth have dropped the No. 14 duo to ninth in the standings, averaging just 240 points per race. They’re 251 points off the GTD PRO drivers pace set by Milner and Catsburg, while Lexus sits in seventh place in manufacturer competition.

The good news is that the difference between a really bad weekend and a really good one can be up to 170 points. Lexus will attempt to claw back some of its deficit by having Vasser Sullivan field two GTD PRO entries at Detroit, with Aaron Telitz and Chaz Mostert in the No. 15 RC F GT3 joining the regular No. 14 duo. Vasser Sullivan generally splits its two WeatherTech Championship entries between GTD and GTD PRO, with the No. 12 RC F GT3 running full-time in the GTD class. But due to limited pit and paddock space, GTD is not part of the slate at Detroit.

At Long Beach, where the WeatherTech Championship race features only two classes (GTP and GTD) for similar logistical reasons, Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen took the GTD class victory in Vasser Sullivan’s season-long No. 12 Lexus, while Frankie Montecalvo earned the Motul Pole Award and teamed with Hawksworth to finish fifth in the ‘guest’ No. 89 entry.

The Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is an abbreviated two-day event for IMSA GTP and GTD PRO competitors. Three hours of practice and Motul Pole qualifying are packed into the schedule on Friday, May 29; the 100-minute sprint race will be broadcast live on NBC from 4-6 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 30.

Updated Ford Drives into Victory Lane Sooner Than Expected

Mies, Vervisch Capitalize on Strategy, “Evo” Update for First Win of 2026

May 12, 2026

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – “Pessimistic” would be too strong of a word. But Christopher Mies wasn’t brimming with confidence about his prospects in the No. 65 Ford Racing Ford Mustang GT3 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca heading into the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship, the third round of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class competitors.

“Sebring and Daytona were a bit difficult for us, so we’re looking forward to the first sprint race of the year and hopefully from now on it’s going to be better,” Mies said in a Friday media availability prior to on-track activity in Monterey. “We had decent results, but obviously we are looking for more. A podium here would be nice, maybe a win.

“But I would say this is the most complicated track for us on the calendar, just between the nature of the track and the car and what we’ve done in the past,” he cautioned. “Maybe the Evo helps get us closer to the front, and with a bit of luck and strategy, hopefully we will be right there in the end.”

Mies couldn’t have been more prescient. The “Evo” upgrades introduced this year for the third year of the Mustang GT3 program that focused on aerodynamics, suspension, and brakes appeared to pay off when Mies qualified third fastest on Saturday at a track where the Mustangs were lapped on pure pace in the 2025 race.

Things got even better Sunday, when the updated Mustang GT3’s inherent speed and smart strategy from Ford Racing and technical partner Multimatic Motorsports put Mies and co-driver Frederic Vervisch in position to claim the Laguna Seca win over Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg in the rival No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Mustang scored three wins in 2025, with Mies and Vervisch sharing the Rolex 24 At Daytona-winning entry with Dennis Olsen, then Seb Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller won at both Detroit and Indianapolis.

The “luck” line for Mies, in particular, stood out. The German’s year started inauspiciously when he struck a kangaroo during the Bathurst 12 Hour, ending the Mustang’s chances on the Australian mountain. And the luck appeared suboptimal early when Mies was assessed a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, which caused a puncture to the No. 65 car and forced it onto an alternate strategy.

But that wound up ultimately paying dividends. The No. 65 Mustang was the first contender to make its last pit stop with just over an hour to go. Vervisch watched in the closing laps as the four cars ahead of him peeled into the pits for energy replenishment, leaving him out front to win by 1.277 seconds.

Like Mies, Vervisch was looking past WeatherTech Raceway in his anticipation of tracks that would suit the Mustang’s Evo upgrades. The California race win was not totally unexpected, but certainly welcome.

“We were very excited for the Evo; one of our weak points was the fast corners in this car, so we worked a lot on it and did a big update,” Vervisch said at the Friday media scrum. “We expected quite a lot and unfortunately, we started the year with really good races but without the results that we wanted. Laguna has always been a difficult track for us so we still think it will not be easy. But from then on, we hope to be really competitive and fight for wins. I think Ford deserves it. They put a lot of effort in.”

Ben Barker, who shares the No. 64 Mustang this year with Dennis Olsen, is also bullish on Ford’s chances in the upcoming races on the GTD PRO schedule, starting with the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix May 29-30. Barker is contesting his first full WeatherTech Championship season although he’s raced intermittently since 2014.

“This is where the Evo will hopefully come into our hands a little bit because it strengthens some of the weaker parts of the car we had,” Barker said. “I don’t think it fully maybe flourished with the uniqueness of Daytona and Sebring. We’re coming to more standard tracks with flowing bends like Watkins Glen and Road America and hopefully we can see the benefits of the Evo a bit more and put it to show with some good pace.”

As far as Mies is concerned, the upgrades are already showing their merit.

“It’s paying off,” he said with a grin after the Laguna Seca victory. “The Evo package did its job. I’m so happy for everyone at Ford and Multimatic for that win and hopefully now we can fight for the championship.”

It promises to be an entertaining scrap, because after three of 10 races, Mies and Vervisch are just 74 points behind GTD PRO class leaders Milner and Catsburg in the driver’s standings. The manufacturer points are even closer, with four marques clustered within 67 points of top-ranked Chevrolet.

The perennial Ford vs. Chevy battle in Detroit promises to be a cracker.

“We have a lot of attention there for both brands and I think it’s cool if you can win that one,” Vervisch said. “But we want to win the championship – that’s what’s most important for us. Last year we won that race, which was great. But we don’t necessarily need to win it. We want to focus on the championship.”

IMSA Points Battles Shift after WeatherTech Raceway

New WeatherTech Championship Leaders in GTP, GTD PRO Leaving Monterey

May 11, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Official Points

Trueman-Akin Points

VP Fuels Front Runner

Michelin Sustainability in Racing

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Both the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) classes see new points leaders after the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship, as the calendar has shifted to May in the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

GTP: Last Lap Laurin now Leads Championship

What could be termed “the Heinrich maneuver” – Laurin Heinrich’s daring last-lap pass of Earl Bamber to win at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 – has netted the German the GTP points lead for the first time.

Heinrich has three GTP wins in four races across two cars, the first two as part of the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and now in the JDC-Miller Porsche in Monterey.

He’s 21 points ahead of Jack Aitken, Bamber’s full-season teammate in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. Aitken has four podiums in four races but no wins.

Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer, the prior championship leaders, now sit third in the No. 7 Porsche at 73 behind. All others from fourth on back are more than 140 points behind.

Porsche and Cadillac are similarly close in the manufacturer’s championship, with Porsche 52 points ahead of Cadillac. Long Beach winners Acura are third, 120 back, ahead of BMW and Aston Martin.

GTD PRO: Consistency Netting Corvette’s Milner, Catsburg Top Spot

Like their Cadillac General Motors brethren in GTP, Chevrolet has been consistent in terms of podiums but no wins – yet – in GTD PRO. Nonetheless three top-fives and two podiums in three races have placed Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg atop GTD PRO in their No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The pairing holds a 51-point lead over Rolex 24 winners Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen, the all-American lineup in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVO. AO Racing sits third with Harry King and Nick Tandy in their No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) 63 back, and Monterey winners Ford Racing up to fourth with Frederic Vervisch and Christopher Mies in their No. 65 Ford Mustang GT3 74 points back.

Chevrolet leads Porsche by 16, BMW by 41 and Ford by 67 in the manufacturer’s championship.

GTD: Barrichello Back on Podium, Expands Lead

After a tough Long Beach, Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello expanded his lead in Monterey with his third podium in four races aboard the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Barrichello and Tom Gamble finished second in Monterey and coupled with some of the other rivals having issues, Barrichello now leads by 140 points.

Turner Motorsport is second with Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley in their No. 96 BMW M4 GT3 EVO and Long Beach winners Aaron Telitz and Benjamin Pedersen are third in their No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. Two-time defending GTD champions Winward Racing sit fourth with Russell Ward and Philip Ellis exactly 200 points off the lead in their No. 57 Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Ferrari, by dint of its Sebring win with Af Corse USA and podiums from Conquest Racing and Inception Racing the last two races, has ascended to the lead of the GTD manufacturer’s championship by three points over Aston Martin. Mercedes-AMG is third, 93 behind.

The GTP and GTD PRO classes head to Detroit for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic on Saturday, May 30, airing live on network NBC at 4 p.m. ET.

The GTD and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) classes resume as part of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen weekend, with the race Sunday, June 28, at noon on Peacock.

IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge Heads to Austin

Second Circuit of The Americas Visit of 2026 for LMP3 Competitors

May 5, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge Le Mans Prototype 3 (P3) competitors, both the Circuit of The Americas racetrack in Austin, Texas and the race length will be bigger than the last time they were there at the end of February.

As part of the full IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge season, LMP3 ran alongside Grand Sport X (GSX) competitors at COTA during the series’ most recent sprint weekend featuring two 45-minute races. That took place at the COTA National Course, a 2.4-mile, 20-turn circuit with a cut-through near the end of the Esses and going onto the backstraight.

In the Airbnb Endurance Challenge event this weekend, they get the full COTA experience: all 3.4 miles of the Grand Prix track and the two-hour race length for the single Saturday race.

That makes what was gained at the end of February useful for the majority of the circuit, with still a fair bit to learn for the rest of the track. Additionally, warmer mid-May temperatures both ambient and track should greet the field as the end of February temps ranged from high 70s to low 80s degrees Fahrenheit. Austin should be in the high 80s/low 90s ambient with track temperatures well north of 100.

There is also a new regulatory update where two timed pit stops will be required. The window opens for the first stop after the first 15 minutes and concludes 15 minutes before the checkered flag.

Whatever the weather, and whatever the format, Toney Driver Development will look to complete its Texas two-step in style in P3 with either of its two entries.

Wyatt Brichacek was added aboard Toney’s No. 30 Ligier JS P325 in February and proceeded to take like a duck to water, posting a doubleheader sweep of the two sprint races. Brichacek was poised to extend that win streak in the Airbnb Endurance Challenge opener at Sebring in March, before a fuel mileage issue dropped him and Lincoln Day to an unrepresentative sixth place finish in their No. 95 Ligier JS P325.

Either way, Brichacek is the only driver who could win IMSA races at COTA in 2026 driving two different car numbers, in two different race lengths and two different circuit configurations. Toney’s other car, featuring IMSA veterans Ari Balogh and Garett Grist, will look to keep the No. 30 car in top form after finishing third at Sebring.

Overall and Airbnb Endurance Challenge points leader Oscar Tunjo has a third chance to finally get a COTA win on his resume after heartbreak in 2025 and a pair of third place finishes in the two COTA sprint races earlier this year. Together with teammate Valentino Catalano, they’ll look to win their second straight endurance race aboard the No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport USA Duqueine D08.

Forte Racing’s Brian Thienes ranks second in both championships after a runner-up result with Patrick Kujala at Sebring in the team’s new No. 77 Ligier JS P325; he also leads the Bronze Cup. The team made an in-weekend switch from the previous generation Ligier JS P320 at COTA in February, following an incident, to move to the new model.

Three other lineup or entry changes occur within the 10-car entry, up two from Sebring.

Forbush Performance welcomes French driver Jules Caranta alongside Matt Forbush in its No. 18 Duqueine D09, a new third generation chassis.

Longtime IMSA competitors Performance Tech Motorsports, past winners in multiple IMSA series including in Prototype Challenge (PC) at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, make an LMP3 return with their traditional No. 38 Ligier JS P320 and drivers Daniel Oliver and Martin Bruhat.

Newcomers Crown Racing also bring in a Ligier JS P320, with another IMSA veteran in Chris McMurry – driver and father of two-time WeatherTech Championship champion Matt McMurry – sharing the No. 17 car with Canadian Brady Clapham.

Clapham is one of four Canadians in an international field that also includes drivers from Colombia, Germany, France and Finland beyond the U.S.

Competitors have three practices, one 50-minute session on Thursday and two on Friday – a 50-minute session in the morning and a 15-minute session directly before qualifying that afternoon – with the race on Saturday at 11:05 a.m. CT and local time. The race streams live on the IMSA Official YouTube channel.

BMW M Team WRT’s Sustainability Stars in IMSA GTP at Monterey

The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 Wins IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award at WeatherTech Raceway

May 4, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

MONTEREY, Calif. – The new-for-2026 IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award had its first test in a standard-length two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

BMW M Team WRT proved that you don’t need to win the race to prove your success in other key elements of the race.

BMW and WRT’s Monterey Sustainability Success

The No. 25 BMW M Hybrid V8 was the first Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) winner of the IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award that did not also win the race outright.

This No. 25 BMW had the lowest race score in Monterey, having emerged ahead versus several other competitors in a race that had several peaks and valleys in these standings.

Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann finished third for their first podium of the year, having been equal with the winning No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 on the ultimate winning strategy.

BMW M Team WRT was smart with its strategy throughout the race. The team ran both its cars longest in the first stint, well over an hour into the race, pitted again during the race’s only full-course caution, and then brought the No. 25 car in with 37 minutes remaining for its third and final stop in the race. The sister No. 24 car finished ninth.

“We struggled with the car’s balance all weekend, but in the race we did a perfect job,” Eng explained. “Marco drove fantastically, and I was able to save a lot of energy in my first stint, which helped us in the end.”

Vincent Vosse, Team Principal of BMW M Team WRT, expanded on the race:

“First podium of the season for Philipp and Marco - it was a good, strong race for them both,” Vosse said. “Congratulations to the entire crew! We brought the number 24 car into the lead with a shorter first pit stop, but the yellow flag that followed shortly afterward meant our strategy didn’t work out. That’s very unfortunate, but it’s something we have to take away as a lesson from this weekend.”

Tire strategy was pivotal in a race where double stinting either some or all four of Michelin’s new-for-2026 Pilot Sport Endurance tires, made with 50 percent sustainable materials, got extended run on a track notorious for high degradation, even after a recent repave.

The Sustainability Award Standings Battle So Far

The IMSA Michelin Sustainability in Racing Award covers three in-race metrics: Tire Use Rank, Energy Use Rank and Current Running Order/Finish Position, all ranked equally by tracking real-time data. The lowest score achieved in GTP wins for that race.

To expand further on what each means:

Tire use is simply the number of tires used throughout the race, a key strategy decision as teams often double stint tires to gain positions on the track, especially during the five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup rounds.
Energy use covers both the use of 80-percent renewable biofuel, and in the case of LMDh cars, regenerative electric power.
Running position / Finish position is self-explanatory, covering where each car stands during the race and ultimately finishes.

Through the first three races in Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach, the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 led these standings with a total score of 6.30, ahead of the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R (9.98) and No. 93 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 (10.31).

Once all sustainability scores are factored in from Monterey, the updated standings will come later this week. As the No. 25 BMW entered the weekend ninth in points, they’ll move up.

There are four of nine GTP races now complete in 2026 across four different race lengths, featuring four different strategic options.

Now that a team has won this award without winning the race to prove the importance of efficiency, it’ll be fascinating to see if anyone else can achieve the feat in the remaining five GTP rounds.

Three Takeaways: StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship

JDC-Miller’s Giant Slaying; Milner’s Wisdom; GTP’s Points Anomaly

May 4, 2026

By David Phillips

IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca likes to throw up some of racing’s most unforgettable surprises. So, on the weekend the world bid farewell to Alex Zanardi, it was impossible not to hearken back to “The Pass” he executed on an unsuspecting Bryan Herta in the 1996 IndyCar season finale. And long before that, John Cannon pulled off one of motorsports’ greatest upsets when he upstaged the Bruce (McLaren) & Denny (Hulme) Show to win the 1968 Can-Am race at Laguna Seca in a vintage McLaren M6B.

Thus does Sunday’s StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship join the list of Laguna Seca surprises, as the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 came from last on the Grand Touring Prototype grid to claim the class and overall win. The team became the first “privateer” organization to mount the top step of the podium in the modern era of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GTP era since the current rules package was introduced in 2023. But there were plenty more twists and turns throughout the course of the weekend.

Giant Slayers

Minnesota-based JDC-Miller has a decorated winning history across multiple IMSA-sanctioned championships, including taking titles in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Touring Car (TCR) and the forerunner to IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, IMSA Prototype Challenge (with 32 race wins in a row at one point).

At the top-level of the WeatherTech Championship, it now adds an improbable and remarkable overall win to its ledger, joining other marquee overall wins at Sebring (2021) and Watkins Glen (2018) and a class win at the Rolex 24 At Daytona (2016).

The team that started off with John and Katie Church fielding Formula Fords in the mid-1990s and continued on the junior open-wheel path before shifting to sports cars slayed the full factory-backed efforts from Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche Sunday along with the factory-supported Heart of Racing Aston Martin.

Thanks to a combination of perfect strategy, a flawless opening stint by Tijmen van der Helm and a storming finish by Laurin Heinrich, the JDC-Miller Porsche took the win on the track where they debuted their Porsche 963 in 2023. While Heinrich justifiably received the lion’s share of the accolades in just his second start with the team on the heels of his debut at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, John Church was quick to spread the praise.

“This is an incredible day for the whole team,” Church said. “All the effort that’s gone into this over the last four years. We started here four years ago and didn’t have any idea what we were doing with this car and have been slowly building and picking up the pace. It’s been great to have Laurin come along and help guide us and give us some direction and provide some pace as well. What a day. It’s incredible.”

All the more remarkable is the fact that the JDC-Miller entry is the closest thing to a “throwback” entry in current GTP on IMSA’s “Throwback” weekend: it’s a privateer entry running in 2025 specification rather than the new-for-2026 evolutionary spec seen on the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries. JDC-Miller has focused on exploiting and executing what it has.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of help from (Porsche),” Church explained. “They have been stepping up each year. I think that this year being the only privateer running, that’s been a game changer as well. There’s been more support than there has been in the past, but it’s a big team effort and we’ve had a lot of help in the past six months. From our standpoint it’s finally come together; getting all the pieces right.

“It’s hard to figure out exactly what’s different (from the newer 963s), but (when) we unloaded for practice one on Friday the guys were happy with the car. We tweaked it a little bit, but it really comes back to the engineering group and putting all the pieces together; we unloaded well, developed a little bit and here we are.”

Church and Heinrich both gave a nod too to Richard Westbrook, a quietly key cog in the JDC-Miller chain and a three-time Monterey winner in his own career before he retired from full-time competition at the end of 2024. The Englishman serves with the team as a liaison between the drivers and engineers, among other things.

“He’s been a huge impact; a huge help to myself,” Church says. “He’s being able to liase between the drivers and the engineers and help the guys focus on the things that matter and forget about the things that don’t. From my standpoint he’s a pleasure to having him around. And he also makes a good beer!”

Heinrich added, “He knows exactly what it feels like in this car. I'm amazed when he sees the live data, he knows exactly what's going on in terms of the car. He has a ton of experience, and two days ago, he told me something about the last corner, and it has helped me today to set up the move for the pass.”

Milner’s Soothsaying

At the tender age of 40, there’s a lot of racing left in Tommy Milner’s career. But if and when he does hang up his driving shoes for good, perhaps he can have a successful second career as a soothsayer.

“Oftentimes if you’re trying too hard to make something happen, then you’re not achieving what you’re setting out to do,” he said pre-race on an IMSA-hosted media Zoom. “We’re not getting frustrated with that; we’re just leaning on the fact that we have good race cars and we’ve had good races. One of these times, it’ll turn around.”

It nearly did Sunday, as Milner almost broke a five-year winless IMSA dry spell at the track – Laguna Seca – that literally translates to “dry lake.” While that win remains elusive, a second-place finish after starting eighth has now put Milner, Nicky Catsburg and the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R into the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) points lead.

The winning No. 65 Ford Racing Ford Mustang GT3 turned a negative – a left-rear puncture and a drive-through assessed for incident responsibility – into a positive to go off sequence and ultimately play the best fuel game to the end. The No. 4 Corvette wasn’t far off after an eventful day of fluctuating throughout the standings itself.

“You plan for lots of different options and opportunities … starting where we started and with the start of the race I had, it was pretty clear we were going to go pretty far off-strategy,” Milner said. “If you’re not up front, you try something different to see if it’s going to work out for you. Today it worked out very well for us.

“Nicky drove an absolutely amazing race. To have the race that we had at the start and then to claw it all back at the end really feels good.”

GTP Points Anomalies

IMSA features multi-driver racing in each car. But due to two entry and schedule quirks, the top-level GTP class has two drivers alone atop the GTP standings.

Heinrich’s win now places him in the GTP lead after running all four races in two different Porsches (two apiece in the No. 7 Penske Porsche and No. 5 JDC-Miller Porsche).

Jack Aitken is second while driving all four races with three different co-drivers (Earl Bamber and Frederik Vesti in three of the four apiece, plus Connor Zilisch at the Rolex 24) in his No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.

The German holds a 21-point lead over the Englishman, courtesy of the three wins cast against four non-win podiums. Aitken even joked he’s running out of ways to say “hot streak of podiums but can we win now, please.”

The big question lingering after the next round in Detroit is whether Heinrich – currently slated to miss Watkins Glen due to a schedule conflict of his own – will be reassigned back to the third IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup round of the season in his pursuit of a GTP title.

Whether he runs the full season or not, or misses the race as currently scheduled, the 2024 GTD PRO champion is taking his incredible IMSA GTP start in stride.

“Leading IMSA is something very special,” Heinrich said. “We’ve only done four races and it’s early to think about a championship even if you are leading at the moment. Missing a race puts us in a weird spot and we are leading the championship but there are some smart people over there (at Porsche) who will figure it out, I’m sure.”

Zanardi's Loss Felt in IMSA Paddock

Many Within Paddock Competed Against or Raced With the Italian Legend

May 2, 2026

By John Oreovicz

IMSA Wire Service

MONTEREY, Calif. – Alex Zanardi competed in only one IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, but the charismatic Italian left an impression on nearly everyone in the IMSA paddock.

Zanardi, who died at the age of 59 Friday, May 1, earned his notoriety by winning 15 races and two CART-sanctioned IndyCar championships in a three-year period from 1996-98. He dominated the ’97 and ’98 seasons in swashbuckling style and created the memorable tradition of celebrating race wins by spinning smoky donuts in the iconic Target-sponsored Reynard/Hondas fielded by Chip Ganassi Racing.

Zanardi lost his legs in a CART race at EuroSpeedway Lausitz in 2001 just four days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Twenty months later in May 2003, he made an emotional return to the Lausitzring and drove 13 laps at speed in a Reynard Indy car fitted with hand controls to “finish the race.” The experience inspired Zanardi to return to auto racing full-time, where driving for BMW, he scored four sports car wins in the World Touring Car Championship between 2005-09.

He then took on the new challenge of hand cycling and won his division in the 2011 New York Marathon before earning four gold and two silver medals in the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games. His final car race came at IMSA’s 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona, where he shared a BMW M8 GTE with Jesse Krohn, John Edwards, and Chaz Mostert at the Daytona International Speedway.

Alex’s resilience was put to the ultimate test when he suffered a devastating hand bike crash in Italy in June 2020 that put him in an induced coma and led to his withdrawal from public life. He passed away peacefully at home the evening of May 1, in the company of his wife Daniella and son Niccolo.

Zanardi’s legend was sparked by ‘The Pass’ at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on September 8, 1996, when he made an audacious last lap move on Bryan Herta in the famous Corkscrew. He overcooked the entry, slid through the dirt, yet somehow maintained control and emerged ahead for the win.

Herta and Zanardi’s Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmy Vasser are both at Laguna Seca this weekend, as owners of teams that compete in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and the WeatherTech Championship.

Herta, who fields four Hyundai Elantra N TCR cars including the polesitting entry for today’s WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120, wrote on social media: “Respect and love Alex. For millions you were an inspiration and a doer of the impossible. My last and best memory is of us at Daytona Rolex, I appreciate your kindness for Colton (Herta) and everything you accomplished. Godspeed!”

Herta’s son Colton was a teammate to Zanardi with BMW M Team RLL in the 2019 Rolex 24; Colton was part of the winning GT Le Mans class entry with current BMW WeatherTech Championship drivers Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng and veteran Augusto Farfus.

Vasser, meanwhile, was a key part of Ganassi’s first era of open-wheel brilliance with Zanardi and is celebrating 30 years since his own Long Beach race win and the 1996 championship, achieved here in Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway. The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 won the most recent WeatherTech Championship Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) race at Long Beach.

“In 1998, we went 1-2 in the championship, and that for me, is the greatest year in my racing career as a driver, for sure,” Vasser said. “And Alex and I, over the course of the three years that we raced together, developed one of the best friendships of a lifetime. We had the most fun. It was competitive, but truly, I was happy for him when he did well and won, and I felt the same from him to me when I did well. He was truly happy for me.

“He was one of one.”

IMSA President John Doonan also paid tribute to Zanardi.

“He will forever be known for his accomplishments, not just on the racetrack, but as a one-of-a-kind and genuine personality,” Doonan stated. “From unforgettable moments on racetracks all over the world – including his last-lap pass for victory in The Corkscrew right here at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca where we are racing this weekend – to his remarkable achievements as a Paralympic gold-medal winner and IRONMAN record holder, Alex was an inspiration and exemplified the epitome of perseverance to anyone who had the good fortune to encounter him or learn his story.

“Having him join us for the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona as a competitor remains a cherished memory for our IMSA community and everybody who attended or viewed that event,” Doonan added. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his teammates, and his many friends all over the world.”

Lead Photo by Richard Dole; Vasser and Zanardi Photo by IMSA Archives

Statement from IMSA President John Doonan on Passing of Alex Zanardi

MONTEREY, Calif. (May 2, 2026) - “IMSA joins our global motorsports family in mourning the loss of Alex Zanardi," said IMSA President John Doonan.

"He will forever be known for his accomplishments, not just on the racetrack, but as a one-of-a-kind and genuine personality. From unforgettable moments on racetracks all over the world – including his last-lap pass for victory in The Corkscrew right here at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca where we are racing this weekend – to his remarkable achievements as a Paralympic gold-medal winner and IRONMAN record holder, Alex was an inspiration and exemplified the epitome of perseverance to anyone who had the good fortune to encounter him or learn his story.

"Having him join us for the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona as a competitor remains a cherished memory for our IMSA community and everybody who attended or viewed that event. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his teammates, and his many friends all over the world.”

Photo by Richard Dole

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Heads West to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

Pro Class Sees Several Changes for Rounds 3 and 4 of 2026 Season

April 28, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Year-to-year continuity won out over slightly revised lineups when it came to the overall and Pro class wins to start the 2026 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America season at Sebring International Raceway in March. But two key changes have emerged in the Pro lineups since Sebring ahead of the cross-country trip West to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in picturesque Monterey, California for Rounds 3 and 4.

The trip to WeatherTech Raceway also marks the last new North American venue for the new Hankook L63H tire, which debuted mid-year through 2025 at Watkins Glen International and has provided additional grip and durability to competitors. The WeatherTech Raceway track was repaved a couple years ago but is still an abrasive surface as sand and gravel often blows onto the track.

Pro

TR3 Racing started with a perfect Sebring weekend, as Will Bamber and Elias De La Torre IV in their No. 29 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo Evo2 secured two poles and two race wins for a maximum 32 points.

In the interim, Bamber has shifted to XONINE Racing’s No. 33 Lamborghini Chicago, Huracán alongside Darius Trinka while TR3 welcomes back Dennis Lind to share the No. 29 Huracán with De La Torre from Monterey onwards. The No. 33 XONINE entry finished fifth both races at Sebring.

That leaves the points leaders set to diverge on two different paths in Monterey and creates an opportunity for Wayne Taylor Racing’s entries – and the rest of the field – to close the gap or overtake.

Hampus Ericsson and Nick Persing in the No. 1 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán banked a pair of runner-up finishes at Sebring and enter eight points back. Persing has been the driver to beat at WeatherTech Raceway the last two years at his closest venue to home. The Morgan Hill, California resident and Boise State University student swept both Pro races in 2025, including in a photo finish over Ericsson and Danny Formal’s entry in Race 2. He also won in ProAm in 2024.

ANSA Motorsports may be poised to reach the top step this weekend for the first time in Pro since 2024, too. They’ll enter with a new lineup. In 2025, two Lamborghini Young Driver Program Shootout winners Enzo Geraci and Colin Queen shared a podium. Nico Jamin will fill in for Queen this weekend at Monterey alongside Tommi Gore, into his second weekend, aboard ANSA’s No. 4, Lamborghini Broward, Huracán.

Precision Performance Motorsports’ Brandon Gdovic, running a striking orange livery highlighting the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, had a quietly strong start in Sebring with fourth both races in his No. 46 PPM, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán.

ProAm

Danny Formal shifted into ProAm to start 2026 alongside Graham Doyle, but the change of class didn’t produce a change in result for the three-time Pro champion. Formal and Doyle swept the weekend at Sebring in their No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Palm Beach, Huracán. It’s rare to find a track on the schedule where Formal hasn’t won recently, and it’s been a “relative” dry spell going back to 2023 to find the last time Formal won in Monterey – he swept Pro that weekend with Kyle Marcelli.

Behind them, both Kaizen Autosport and Forty7 Motorsports started strong in Sebring. Both Seth Henry and Wyatt Foster (Kaizen) and Lindsay Brewer and Keawn Tandon (Forty7) got a second and third place apiece.

TR3’s Mateo Siderman and Martin Fuentes rebounded from last-place grid spots to fourth in both Sebring races, while TB Autosports’ Marcelli and Mathieu Boucher and Alliance’s Jack William Miller and Angelo Dinkov also scored top-fives in Sebring.

The Am battle at Sebring was eventful throughout the weekend with Nick Groat (No. 57 XONINE Racing, Lamborghini Chicago, Huracán) and Dean Neuls (No. 70 TR3 Racing, Lamborghini Miami, Huracán) splitting the wins and David Staab (PPM) and Johan Schwartz (89x Motorsports) scoring two podiums apiece. Groat, Staab and Schwartz are in a three-way tie for the lead with Neuls only two points behind. Both Staab and Groat won Monterey Race 1 last year, Staab in Am and Groat in LB Cup.

LB Cup

Just as Am was exciting to watch at Sebring, so too was LB Cup. Ray Shahi (No. 65 Taurino Racing, Lamborghini Newport Beach, Huracán) and Rocky T. Bolduc (No. 99 Topp Racing, Lamborghini Greenwich, Huracán) split the wins with Philippe Touchette (TB) and Clay Wilson (TR3) also scoring podiums.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo practices on Friday with qualifying Saturday morning and the two 50-minute races Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT) and Sunday at 1:35 p.m. ET (10:35 a.m. ET). Races stream via Peacock, IMSA’s YouTube channel and Lamborghini’s YouTube channel.

2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Monterey Race 1 Winners:

Pro: Nick Persing, No. 8 Wayne Taylor Racing
ProAm: Andy Lee/Slade Stewart, No. 14 Flying Lizard Motorsports
Am: David Staab, No. 48 Precision Performance Motorsports
LB Cup: Nick Groat, No. 57 ONE Motorsports

2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Monterey Race 2 Winners:

Pro: Nick Persing, No. 8 Wayne Taylor Racing

ProAm: Anthony McIntosh/Brendon Leitch, No. 69 Wayne Taylor Racing

Am: Graham Doyle/Glenn McGee, No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing

LB Cup: Adrian Kunzle, No. 42 MLT Motorsports

California Ties Mean More for IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge Competitors Racing at Monterey

Baker’s Dozen: 13 Californian Drivers in GS at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

April 27, 2026

By Tony DiZinno

IMSA Wire Service

Entry List (Click Here)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competitors, particularly those with California ties, this year’s trip to Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will mean more.

The series schedule will shift slightly in 2027, as a return to Lime Rock Park in September means WeatherTech Raceway – for now – will drop off the Michelin Pilot Challenge calendar after this season. That adds extra incentive for those California drivers and teams to make this year’s race in Monterey memorable.

There are 13 Californian drivers, all in GS, and three California-based teams among the 45 cars (split 31 in GS, 14 in TCR) on the Monterey entry list.

One entry off to a strong start in 2026 is the lone GS entry featuring two California residents on a California-based team, which features primarily California crewmembers. Sonoma, Calif.-based Stephen Cameron Racing’s No. 19 Ford Mustang GT4 of Palo Alto’s Sean Quinlan and San Francisco’s Gregory Liefooghe is keen to improve on some strong early-season results.

The No. 19 orange and purple Mustang survived the chaotic start to the last race at Sebring and banked its second top-10 finish in as many races to start the year. With finishes of eighth and seventh, Quinlan and Liefooghe enter Monterey sixth in points.

Two other teams that have won at Monterey are based in California, as well. Rohnert Park, Calif.’s Murillo Racing features Santa Rosa’s Kenny Murillo driving alongside wife Aurora Straus in the team’s No. 24 Mercedes-AMG GT GT4. Murillo won there in 2023 in GS.

San Francisco-based CarBahn by Peregrine Racing has multiple Californians in its two BMW M4 GT4 EVOs with Steve Wetterau (No. 37) from Newport Beach and Sean McAlister (No. 39) from Beverly Hills. CarBahn won at Monterey in 2020 with Jeff Westphal and Tyler McQuarrie.

There’s a bevy of other Californians in GS, too. Thomas Merrill (Salinas) is one of WeatherTech Raceway’s most experienced drivers and looks to add another podium to his Daytona opener in the No. 14 Circle H Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT4 Evo he shares with David Hampton. Jaxon Bell (son of past IMSA champion, Lexus veteran and NBC Sports commentator Townsend) of Pacific Palisades races here in his No. 23 Koch-Copeland Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 with Ford Koch.

Heart of Racing Team’s Hannah Grisham (No. 26 Aston Martin) hails from Glendora, LAP Motorsports’ Clayton Williams (No. 30 Ford) is from Oakley, Bob Michaelian is from Seal Beach in his No. 59 KohR Motorsports Ford, Allen Patten is from San Jose in his No. 66 van der Steur Racing Aston Martin, Lucas Weisenberg is from Orange in his No. 67 BSI Racing Toyota, and 2026-27 IMSA 3D Scholarship recipient Nicky Hays hails from Huntington Beach in his No. 92 Random Vandals Racing BMW.

It’s not a Californian leading the GS points after two races – it’s actually Texan Bryce Ward and Dutchman Daan Arrow – in the team’s No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT GT4 with two podiums in two starts. Winward is a past Monterey GS winner too, in 2019 with Russell Ward and Dominik Baumann.

The elder Ward and Arrow lead Turner Motorsport’s Dillon Machavern and Luca Mars by 40 points, AutoTechnic Racing’s Austin Krainz and Stevan McAleer by 100, Sebring winners Moisey Uretsky and Michael Cooper of Ibiza Farm Motorsport and McCumbee McAleer Racing’s Robert Noaker and Nate Cicero by 140, and the aforementioned Quinlan and Liefooghe by 150.

TCR sees Bryson Morris and Mason Filippi out front in their No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR by 40 points over three different pairings: Sebring winners Franco Girolami and Tyler Gonzalez (Victor Gonzalez Racing), Lance Bergstein and defending TCR champion Harry Gottsacker (BHA) and Madison Aust and past TCR champion Mark Wilkins (BHA).

Michelin Pilot Challenge teams will have a busy Friday with two practice sessions before qualifying. The WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 will go green on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. ET (12:45 p.m. PT) with live streaming flag-to-flag on Peacock and on IMSA’s Official YouTube channel, commercial free courtesy of Michelin.

Fast Facts

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca – Monterey, Calif.

May 1-2, 2026

Race Day/Time: Saturday, May 2, 3:45 p.m. ET

Peacock Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 3:40 p.m. ET (globally, ad-free, courtesy of Michelin via IMSA's Official YouTube channel)

Circuit Type: 2.238-mile, 11-turn road course

Classes Competing: Grand Sport (GS), Touring Car (TCR)

Race Length: Two hours

Michelin Pilot Challenge Track Records

GS: 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)

2025 WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winners

GS: Jan Heylen/Luca Mars, No. 28 RS1 Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS
TCR: Preston Brown/Denis Dupont, No. 76 Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian Hyundai Elantra N TCR

Storylines

California Ties: Thomas Merrill (Salinas), Sean Quinlan (Palo Alto), Greg Liefooghe (San Francisco), Jaxon Bell (Pacific Palisades), Kenny Murillo (Santa Rosa), Hannah Grisham (Glendora), Clayton Williams (Oakley), Steve Wetterau (Newport Beach), Sean McAlister (Beverly Hills), Bob Michaelian (Seal Beach), Allen Patten (San Jose), Lucas Weisenberg (Orange) and Nicky Hays (Huntington Beach) are from 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 trip out west to the Pacific Coast for 2026.

Who’s Hot?

Winward Racing: Back-to-back podium finishes have positioned Winward first in the GS championship standings.
Victor Gonzalez Racing: With three wins in the past four TCR races dating to the end of 2025, the No. 99 VGR Cupra Leon VZ TCR has been one to watch.

Who’s Good Here?

Mark Wilkins and Harry Gottsacker: Wilkins (No. 98) is the lone active two-time TCR winner in Monterey and Gottsacker (No. 18) the lone active two-time TCR pole winner.

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winners in 2026 Field (15)

Mark Wilkins (2): TCR – 2021, 2023
Preston Brown (1): TCR – 2025
Gabby Chaves (1): TCR – 2020
Denis Dupont (1): TCR – 2025
Mason Filippi (1): TCR – 2023
Harry Gottsacker (1): TCR – 2021
Billy Johnson (1): ST – 2007
Tim Lewis (1): TCR – 2022
Luca Mars (1): GS – 2025
Stevan McAleer (1): ST – 2016
Chris Miller (1): TCR – 2024
Kenny Murillo (1): GS – 2023
Mikey Taylor (1): TCR – 2024
Owen Trinkler (1): GS – 2018
Jeff Westphal (1): GS – 2020

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Pole Winners in 2026 Field (3)

Harry Gottsacker (2): TCR – 2020, 2022
Sean McAlister (1): GS – 2025
Mark Wilkins (1): TCR – 2025

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winning Teams in 2026 Field (8)

Bryan Herta Autosport (4): TCR – 2020, 2021, 2023, 2025
CarBahn (1): GS – 2020
JDC-Miller MotorSports (1): TCR – 2024
KMW Motorsports with TMR Engineering (1): TCR – 2022
Murillo Racing (1): GS – 2023
Team TGM (1): GS – 2018
Turner Motorsport (1): ST – 2009
Winward Racing (1): GS – 2019

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca 120 Winning Manufacturers in 2026 Field (8)

Porsche – 6
Audi – 5
Hyundai – 4
BMW – 3
Mercedes-AMG – 3
Aston Martin – 2
Ford – 2
McLaren – 1

IMSA and ASE Announce Multi-Faceted Partnership to Strengthen the Technician Pipeline and Elevate Consumer Confidence

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 28, 2026) – The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) today announced a multi-faceted partnership that will aim to combat some of the challenges within the industry for each of IMSA’s 18 participating manufacturers — while raising the standard of service the motoring public receives at every dealership service center those manufacturers stand behind.

Each manufacturer that races within IMSA operates its own dealer network, and most of those dealers feature service centers that care for millions of vehicle owners every year. However, there is a critical, persistent and ongoing staffing shortage of skilled technicians to support each dealer and service center — a gap the motoring public feels directly whenever a vehicle needs maintenance or repair. With IMSA and ASE working together, this partnership will provide an aligned and integrated pipeline of ASE Certified technicians prepared to work on the same sophisticated manufacturer vehicles customers drive every day.

The collaboration brings together two industry leaders who share a commitment to continuous learning, verified expertise, and sustained success. The layered approach will work with a three-pronged effort:

Expand awareness of ASE Certification as the trusted benchmark for service professionals
Identify career pathways in the transportation industry
Position ASE as a major driver in meeting manufacturer needs

“ASE is excited to partner with IMSA to highlight the critical role of ASE Certified technicians — the men and women who meet the highest independently verified standards in the industry, on and off the track,” said Dave Johnson, president and CEO of ASE. “Every time a driver hands over their keys at a dealership service center, they deserve the confidence of knowing an ASE Certified technician is working on their vehicle. IMSA’s commitment to innovation and STEM education aligns perfectly with ASE’s mission, and together we are elevating the visibility of technician careers and showing how advanced training is vital to the safe service and repair of today’s technically advanced vehicles.”

For the motoring public, ASE Certification is the clearest, most trusted signal that a technician has demonstrated the knowledge, training and hands-on skill to service today’s increasingly complex vehicles. Every ASE Certified technician has passed rigorous, independently developed exams and verified hands-on experience — giving vehicle owners peace of mind that their car, truck or SUV is in qualified hands. Because the 18 manufacturers competing in IMSA depend on their dealer service networks to deliver that same quality and trust long after the sale, the alignment between IMSA’s OEMs and ASE Certified service staff translates directly to safer vehicles, more reliable repairs, and confidence for vehicle owners nationwide.

The program also aligns ASE and IMSA STEM initiatives. IMSA STEM powered by Gainbridge and Konica Minolta is now in its second year operating at both IMSA race events and digitally. The aim is to shift the focus from simply advanced degrees to greater advanced training. Essentially, this will outline what a training/career technical education path will look like compared to a standard four-plus year college degree.

“Building the next generation of technicians to service the cars on the road is as important as developing the next generation of talented drivers, crew members and workers within the IMSA paddock as a whole,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “We’ve seen remarkable participation in our IMSA STEM events already, and with this new partnership between IMSA and ASE, we’re confident that the ASE Certified technicians emerging from this pipeline will be the trusted hands the motoring public relies on at our manufacturer partners’ service centers nationwide as they work toward their certifications.”

Beyond the career development opportunity, there will be promotional elements of the partnership. ASE’s alignment with IMSA provides a window to the 18 manufacturers as well as IMSA’s 10-plus million sports car enthusiast fans — reinforcing the message that when the motoring public brings a vehicle in for service, an ASE Certified technician is the standard they should expect and the assurance they deserve.

About the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE):

Established by the automotive industry in 1972 as a non-profit organization, the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) is a driving force in the transportation industry. As an independent third party, ASE upholds and promotes high standards of service and repair through the assessment, certification and credentialing of current and future industry professionals, and the prestigious ASE Blue Seal logo identifies professionals who possess the essential knowledge and skills to perform with excellence. Today, there are ASE Certified professionals at work in dealerships, independent shops, collision repair shops, auto parts stores, fleets, schools and colleges throughout the country. For more information about ASE, visit www.ase.com.

About the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA):

The International Motor Sports Association, LLC (IMSA) was originally founded in 1969 and owns a long and rich history in sports car racing. Today, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier sports car racing series in North America. IMSA also sanctions the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR), as well as five one-make series: Ferrari Challenge North America, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin, Mustang Challenge and Porsche Carrera Cup North America. IMSA – a company within the NASCAR family – is the exclusive strategic partner in North America with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), which operates the 24 Hours of Le Mans as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship. This partnership enables selected IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors to earn automatic entries into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. For more information, please visit IMSA.com, and follow IMSA on X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

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