2021 IMSA Monterey Grand Prix

The 2021 IMSA Monterey Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). The race was held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna in Monterey, California on September 12, 2021. The race was the ninth round of the 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the sixth round of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Track map of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

Background

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WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, where the race was held.

Originally scheduled to run on April 25, 2021, the race was set to wrap up the two "West Coast Swing" rounds also consisting of Long Beach, however the event was postponed to September 12, 2021, due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic in California.[1]

On September 10, 2021, IMSA and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca announced a three-year contract extension that would keep the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the calendar through to the end of 2024.[2]

Before the race, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 2380 points, ahead of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr in second with 2339 points, and Oliver Jarvis and Harry Tincknell with 2337 points.[3] In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating led the Drivers' Championship with 1442 points, ahead of Tristan Nunez and Steven Thomas.[3] Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 2207 points, 214 points ahead of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy followed by Cooper MacNeil in third.[3] With 1930 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn.[3] Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Aston Martin were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Corvette Racing, Turner Motorsport and each led their own Teams' Championships.[3]

Entries

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A total of 26 cars took part in the event, split across 4 classes. 6 cars were entered in DPi, 4 in LMP2, 3 in GTLM, and 13 in GTD.[4] In GTD, NTE Sport didn't return after their outing at Road America. Heart of Racing added a second entry alongside its own full time entry.[5] Grasser Racing Team was absent from the event due to a clash with the ADAC GT Masters round at Lausitzring.[6] Jacob Abel subbed for Jeff Kingsley in the Compass Racing Acura.[7][8]

Practice

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There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.[9]

Practice 1

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The first practice session took place at 4:30 pm PT on Friday and ended with Filipe Albuquerque topping the charts for WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, with a lap time of 1:14.880, ahead of Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Cadillac.[10] Mikkel Jensen set the fastest time in LMP2.[11] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy with a time of 1:22.081, ahead of Matt Campbell in the No. 79 Porsche.[11] Bill Auberlen's No. 96 BMW was fastest in GTD, with a lap time of 1:24.630. Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 9 Porsche was second fastest followed by Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Lamborghini.[12]

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap
1 DPi 10 WTR-Konica Minolta Acura Filipe Albuquerque 1:14.880 _
2 DPi 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Pipo Derani 1:14.974 +0.094
3 DPi 55 Mazda Motorsports Harry Tincknell 1:15.215 +0.335
Sources:[13][14]

Practice 2

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The second and final practice session took place at 8:45 am PT on Saturday and ended with Harry Tincknell topping the charts for Mazda Motorsports, with a lap time of 1:14.552. Pipo Derani's No. 31 Cadillac was second fastest followed by Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Acura.[15] Ryan Dalziel set the fastest time in LMP2.[16] The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner with a time of 1:21.680, ahead of Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette.[16][17] The GTD class was topped by the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of Madison Snow, with a lap time of 1:24.237. Trent Hindman was second fastest in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche followed by Zacharie Robichon in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.[16]

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap
1 DPi 55 Mazda Motorsports Harry Tincknell 1:14.552 _
2 DPi 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Pipo Derani 1:14.554 +0.002
3 DPi 10 WTR-Konica Minolta Acura Filipe Albuquerque 1:14.680 +0.218
Sources:[18][19]

Qualifying

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Filipe Albuquerque (pictured in 2016) helped take the No. 10 Acura's third pole position of 2021.

Qualifying was broken into three sessions.[9] The first was for cars in GTD class. Trent Hindman qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 16 car for Wright Motorsports, beating Robby Foley in the No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW by less than one-tenth of a second. Roman De Angelis in the No. 23 heart of Racing Team Aston Martin was third followed by The No. 1 Lamborghini of Madison Snow, and Richard Heistand's No. 39 Audi rounded out the top five.[20]

The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 3 car for Corvette Racing, besting teammate Tommy Milner in the sister No. 4 Corvette Racing entry.[21] Ross Gunn set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session driving the No. 23 car for Heart of Racing Team. However, the team were sent to the back of the GTD grid after Gunn exited the car before the session ended. As a result, Laurens Vanthoor was promoted to first and earned 35 championship points.[22] Bill Auberlen was second in the No. 96 BMW followed by Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Lamborghini.[21]

The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi and LMP2 classes. Filipe Albuquerque took overall pole for the event driving the No. 10 car for WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, besting Dane Cameron in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura by 0.023 seconds. Following in third was the No. 01 Cadillac of Kevin Magnussen, with the No. 55 Mazda of Harry Tincknell in fourth. Tincknell's No. 55 Mazda was demoted to the rear of the DPi field for the camber of the car exceeding the maximum permitted a post-qualifying technical inspection. Pipo Derani's No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R started fourth with Tristan Vautier's No. 5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac starting in fifth.[23] Ben Keating qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the No. 52 car for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Keating was more than two seconds clear of Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry followed by Steven Thomas in the WIN Autosport car.[24][20]

Qualifying results

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Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.

Pos. Class No. Team Driver Time Gap Grid
1 DPi 10   WTR-Konica Minolta Acura   Filipe Albuquerque 1:14.441 _ 1
2 DPi 60   Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian   Dane Cameron 1:14.464 +0.023 2
3 DPi 01   Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing   Kevin Magnussen 1:15.026 +0.585 3
4 DPi 55   Mazda Motorsports   Harry Tincknell 1:15.052 +0.611 61
5 DPi 31   Whelen Engineering Racing   Pipo Derani 1:15.384 +0.943 5
6 DPi 5   JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing   Tristan Vautier 1:15.451 +1.010 6
7 LMP2 52   PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports   Ben Keating 1:17.227 +2.786 7
8 LMP2 18   Era Motorsport   Dwight Merriman 1:19.873 +5.432 8
9 LMP2 11   WIN Autosport   Steven Thomas 1:19.894 +5.453 9
10 GTLM 3   Corvette Racing   Jordan Taylor 1:21.151 +6.710 11
11 GTLM 4   Corvette Racing   Tommy Milner 1:21.267 +6.826 12
12 LMP2 8   Tower Motorsport By Starworks   John Farano 1:21.563 +7.122 102
13 GTLM 79   WeatherTech Racing   Cooper MacNeil 1:21.931 +7.490 13
14 GTD 16   Wright Motorsports   Trent Hindman 1:24.505 +10.064 14‡
15 GTD 96   Turner Motorsport   Robby Foley 1:24.568 +10.127 15
16 GTD 23   Heart Of Racing Team   Roman De Angelis 1:24.591 +10.150 263
17 GTD 1   Paul Miller Racing   Madison Snow 1:24.711 +10.270 16
18 GTD 39   CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing   Richard Heistand 1:24.751 +10.310 17
19 GTD 9   Pfaff Motorsports   Zacharie Robichon 1:24.754 +10.313 18
20 GTD 14   Vasser Sullivan Racing   Zach Veach 1:24.802 +10.361 19
21 GTD 27   Heart Of Racing Team   Ian James 1:25.385 +10.944 20
22 GTD 12   Vasser Sullivan Racing   Frankie Montecalvo 1:25.600 +11.159 21
23 GTD 88   Team Hardpoint EBM   Rob Ferriol 1:25.813 +11.372 22
24 GTD 76   Compass Racing   Jacob Abel 1:25.875 +11.434 23
25 GTD 44   Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports   John Potter 1:26.613 +12.172 254
26 GTD 66   Gradient Racing Did Not Participate 24
Sources:[25][26][27][28]
  • 1 The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the DPi classification for violating competition rules regarding the car's camber.[29]
  • 2 The No. 8 Tower Motorsport By Starworks entry was moved to the back of the LMP2 classification as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).[30]
  • 3 The No. 23 Heart of Racing Team entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification as per Article 40.2.9. of the Sporting regulations (Gunn exited the car during the second GTD qualifying segment before the session ended).[30]
  • 4 The No. 44 Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).[30]

Race

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Post-race

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With a total of 2765 points, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Derani and Nasr in the DPi Drivers' Championship to 98 points.[31] With a total of 1807 points, Keating and Jensen's victory allowed them to increase over Nunez and Thomas in the LMP2 Drivers' Championship to 113 points.[31] The result kept Antonio García and Jordan Taylor atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship.[31] As a result of winning the race, Robichon and Vanthoor advanced from third to second in the GTD Drivers' Championship.[31] Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Porsche took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship.[31] WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Turner Motorsport kept their respective advantages in the their respective of Teams' Championships with three rounds remaining in the season.[31]

Race results

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Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Pos Class No. Team Drivers Chassis Laps Time/Retired
Engine
1 DPi 10   Konica Minolta Acura   Filipe Albuquerque
  Ricky Taylor
Acura ARX-05 118 2:40:49.456‡
Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
2 DPi 01   Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing   Renger van der Zande
  Kevin Magnussen
Cadillac DPi-V.R 118 +14.875
Cadillac 5.5L V8
3 DPi 31   Whelen Engineering Racing   Felipe Nasr
  Pipo Derani
Cadillac DPi-V.R 118 +15.392
Cadillac 5.5L V8
4 DPi 60   Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian   Dane Cameron
  Olivier Pla
Acura ARX-05 118 +25.529
Acura AR35TT 3.5L Turbo V6
5 DPi 55   Mazda Motorsports   Oliver Jarvis
  Harry Tincknell
Mazda RT24-P 118 +28.503
Mazda MZ-2.0T 2.0L Turbo I4
6 DPi 5   JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing   Tristan Vautier
  Loïc Duval
Cadillac DPi-V.R 116 +2 Laps
Cadillac 5.5L V8
7 LMP2 52   PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports   Mikkel Jensen
  Ben Keating
Oreca 07 116 +2 Laps‡
Gibson Technology GK428 V8
8 LMP2 8   Tower Motorsport By Starworks   Gabriel Aubry
  John Farano
Oreca 07 115 +3 Laps
Gibson Technology GK428 V8
9 LMP2 11   WIN Autosport   Tristan Nunez
  Steven Thomas
Oreca 07 115 +3 Laps
Gibson Technology GK428 V8
10 LMP2 18   Era Motorsport   Ryan Dalziel
  Dwight Merriman
Oreca 07 115 +3 Laps
Gibson Technology GK428 V8
11 GTLM 4   Corvette Racing   Tommy Milner
  Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 112 +6 Laps‡
Chevrolet 5.5L V8
12 GTLM 3   Corvette Racing   Antonio García
  Jordan Taylor
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 111 +7 Laps
Chevrolet 5.5L V8
13 GTLM 79   WeatherTech Racing   Cooper MacNeil
  Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR-19 111 +7 Laps
Porsche 4.2L Flat-6
14 GTD 9   Pfaff Motorsports   Zacharie Robichon

  Laurens Vanthoor

Porsche 911 GT3 R 107 +11 Laps‡
Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
15 GTD 1   Paul Miller Racing   Bryan Sellers

  Madison Snow

Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 107 +11 Laps
Lamborghini 5.2L V10
16 GTD 16   Wright Motorsports   Trent Hindman

  Patrick Long

Porsche 911 GT3 R 107 +11 Laps
Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
17 GTD 96   Turner Motorsport   Bill Auberlen
  Robby Foley
BMW M6 GT3 107 +11 Laps
BMW 4.4L Turbo V8
18 GTD 23   Heart of Racing Team   Roman De Angelis
  Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 107 +11 Laps
Mercedes-Benz M177 4.0 L Turbo V8
19 GTD 14   Vasser-Sullivan Racing   Jack Hawksworth
  Aaron Telitz
Lexus RC F GT3 106 +12 Laps
Lexus 5.0L V8
20 GTD 39   CarBahn Motorsports with Peregrine Racing   Richard Heistand

  Jeff Westphal

Audi R8 LMS Evo 106 +12 Laps
Audi 5.2L V10
21 GTD 88   Team Hardpoint EBM   Rob Ferriol
  Katherine Legge
Porsche 911 GT3 R 106 +12 Laps
Porsche 4.0L Flat-6
22 GTD 44   Magnus Racing with Archangel Motorsports   John Potter
  Andy Lally
Acura NSX GT3 Evo 106 +12 Laps
Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
23 GTD 12   Vasser-Sullivan Racing   Frankie Montecalvo
  Zach Veach
Lexus RC F GT3 105 +13 Laps
Lexus 5.0L V8
24 GTD 66   Gradient Racing   Till Bechtolsheimer
  Marc Miller
Acura NSX GT3 Evo 103 +15 Laps
Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
25

DNF

GTD 27   Heart of Racing Team   Ian James
  Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage GT3 0 Collision
Mercedes-Benz M177 4.0 L Turbo V8
26

DNF

GTD 76   Compass Racing   Jacob Abel
  Mario Farnbacher
Acura NSX GT3 Evo 0 Collision
Acura 3.5L Turbo V6
Sources:[32][33]

Standings after the race

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  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.
  • Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


References

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  1. ^ "Long Beach, Laguna Seca Rounds Moved to September". sportscar365.com. December 17, 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  2. ^ Dagys, John (September 10, 2021). "IMSA, Laguna Seca Confirm Three-Year Contract Extension". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e "00_Championship Points - Official.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com. August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  4. ^ Dagys, John (September 1, 2021). "26 Entries for Laguna Seca". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  5. ^ Dagys, John (August 26, 2021). "Heart of Racing Expands into Two-Car Aston GTD Operation". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  6. ^ Dagys, John (September 10, 2021). "Laguna Seca Friday Notebook". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  7. ^ Dagys, John (September 8, 2021). "Abel to Sub for Kingsley in Compass Acura at Laguna Seca". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  8. ^ Pruett, Marshall (September 9, 2021). "Abel gets Acura Monterey call-up by Compass". racer.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  9. ^ a b "2021 IMSA Official Schedule and SR WRLS 090121 V1" (PDF). results.imsa.com/noticeBoard.php. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  10. ^ Barnes, Joey (September 10, 2021). "Albuquerque leads opening practice at Laguna Seca". racer.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Bradley, Charles (September 10, 2021). "Laguna Seca IMSA: Albuquerque tops practice in WTR Acura". motorsport.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  12. ^ Dagys, John (September 10, 2021). "Albuquerque Paces Friday Practice at Laguna". sportscar365.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  13. ^ "03_Results_Practice 1.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 10, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  14. ^ "06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 1.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 10, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  15. ^ Dagys, John (September 11, 2021). "Tincknell Tops Saturday Morning Session at Laguna". sportscar365.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  16. ^ a b c Bradley, Charles (September 11, 2021). "Laguna Seca IMSA: Tincknell beats Derani by 0.002s in second practice". motorsport.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  17. ^ Barnes, Joey (September 11, 2021). "Tincknell by a nose in second Laguna practice". racer.com. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
  18. ^ "03_Results_Practice 2.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 11, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  19. ^ "06_Fastest Lap By Driver_Practice 2.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 11, 2021. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  20. ^ a b Dagys, John (September 11, 2021). "Albuquerque Leads Acura Front Row Sweep at Laguna Seca". sportscar365.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  21. ^ a b O'Malley, J.J. (September 11, 2021). "Albuquerque storms to pole in record-setting qualifying at Laguna". racer.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  22. ^ Allaway, Phil (September 12, 2021). "Filipe Albuquerque Wins Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship Pole". frontstretch.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  23. ^ Bradley, Charles (September 11, 2023). "Laguna Seca IMSA: Albuquerque sets pole position in WTR Acura". motorsport.com. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  24. ^ "Albuquerque Scores First IMSA Pole Position At Laguna Seca". dailysportscar.com. September 12, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  25. ^ "IMSA-2021-Laguna-Seca-Proto-DPI-Qualifying.pdf" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  26. ^ "IMSA-2021-Laguna-Seca-GT-Qualifying.pdf" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  27. ^ "IMSA-2021-Laguna-Seca-GTD-Qualifying.pdf" (PDF). dailysportscar.com. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  28. ^ "01_Grid_Race _Official.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 12, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  29. ^ "TP - 21 - 19_Mazda Motorsports_penalty.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com/noticeBoard.php. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  30. ^ a b c "2021-IMSA-SPORTING-REGULATIONS-and-SSR-IWSC-Blackline-082621-V1.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  31. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "00_Championship Points - Official.pdf" (PDF). results.imsa.com. September 14, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  32. ^ "03_Results_Race_Unofficial.PDF" (PDF). results.imsa.com. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  33. ^ "2021 HYUNDAI MONTEREY SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIP". racing-reference.info. Retrieved August 28, 2023.


IMSA SportsCar Championship
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2021 Road Race Showcase at Road America
2021 season Next race:
2021 Grand Prix of Long Beach