MONTEREY, Calif. — Probably the most fashionable and technically superior automobiles racing in North America rolled out in evocative throwback liveries as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship apply started for the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 1980-inspired Apple Laptop livery dominated the headlines within the lead-up to the weekend, however Cadillac swept the highest three locations total and within the Grand Touring Prototype class Friday afternoon within the opening 90-minute session.
The pair of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entries led the best way forward of the Cadillac Whelen entry, after a flurry of late exercise. Louis Deletraz took the No. 40 Cadillac V-Collection.R to the highest forward of Filipe Albuquerque within the No. 10 automotive and Jack Aitken within the No. 31 automotive.
Aitken set the early tempo within the No. 31 Cadillac solely to be eclipsed within the last quarter-hour by each of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s entries. Aitken’s fifth tour across the 2.238-mile, 11-turn course in 1 minute, 15.026 seconds (107.386 mph) set the early benchmark that stood for greater than an hour earlier than Albuquerque slipped below the 1:15 mark with a lap of 1:14.893 (107.577 mph) with 12 minutes to go in WTR’s No. 10 machine.
5 minutes later, Deletraz uncorked a 1:14.333 (108.387 mph) flyer within the No. 40 Cadillac that was a full 0.560 seconds faster than the opposite Wayne Taylor Racing staff automotive and 0.697 seconds below the quickest non-Cadillac – the fourth-placed No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 at 1:15.030 (107.380 mph) pushed by Kevin Estre.
“It was a fantastic session,” reported Deletraz. “The automotive feels good and it was a fantastic begin – we’re P1. Despite the fact that we’re simply beginning the weekend, it’s superb.
“We’re going to investigate the information and ensure we’re even sooner tomorrow,” he added. “However we’re very proud of the automotive. The Cadillac did a fantastic job, and we’re excited for the weekend.”
A pair years after a full repave, the WeatherTech Raceway circuit is shedding grip, and whereas a number of drivers skilled dusty off-course moments, the session ran uninterrupted by a crimson flag.
Julien Andlauer within the championship-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche ran large on the Andretti Hairpin, as did Marco Wittmann within the No. 25 BMW M Group WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. In the meantime, Tijmen van der Helm in JDC-Miller MotorSports’ No. 5 Porsche 963 experimented with the “Alex Zanardi line” whereas exiting the observe’s well-known Corkscrew sequence of turns.
Like Aitken, Alexander Sims was on the fuel from the very begin of the 90-minute apply to tempo the Grand Touring Daytona Professional (GTD PRO) class with a 1 minute, 22.113-second (98.118 mph) lap within the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
That outpaced GTD class chief Frederik Schandorff in Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO by simply 0.043 seconds. Schandorff additionally posted his 1:22.156 (98.066 mph) effort within the first quarter-hour of motion.
“One in every of our engineers was saying he thought the floor was beginning to get into the next tire degradation attribute right here once more, and truthfully, the laps I did right this moment type of backed that up,” Sims remarked, crediting in depth work in Corvette Racing’s simulator for his early pace. “The automotive felt fairly good straight out of the field.”
Nicky Catsburg ran second in GTD PRO within the No. 4 Pratt Miller automotive at 1:22.255 (97.948 mph) to safe a Corvette 1-2, whereas Ferrari ran first and second in GTD courtesy of Albert Costa’s 1:22.165 (98.056 mph) lap within the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari.
The Pratt Miller Corvettes are wrapped this weekend in a white and yellow livery paying homage to Corvette Racing’s early 2000 paint scheme that adorned the C5-R chassis.
“This can be a shorter observe, so observe place is necessary,” Catsburg stated. “I’d say qualifying is necessary, however it’s not the top of the world if we’re not on the entrance row.”
The StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship options the primary 2-hour, 40-minute dash race on the 2026 WeatherTech Championship schedule.
