Michael Valiante and Richard Westbrook captured an overall win in the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the TUDOR United Sports Car Championship.
“It was a challenge, the brakes and tires were cold going into Turn 1,” stated Valiante. “I got a good start; I got on the inside of Jordan. We made a little unintentional contact slipping down the inside. It was clean for a while, but then we hit heavy, heavy traffic. I got frustrated, I was really boxed in. I got by one PC with a little contact, going into Turn 1 was a huge traffic jam. I made contact with a GTLM car, and I think it hit Jordan on the other side. We sort of forced him off the road and gave him a different line. But it was a good race.”
It marked the first win for the No. 90 VisitFlorida.com Racing Corvette DP since last June’s race at New York’s Watkins Glen International, a span of nine races. The finish was the pair’s fourth consecutive podium result in TUDOR Championship competition.
Valiante started the No. 90 Prototype on the inside of the second row in third place. Not content with the option of a conservative strategy, he dove to the inside of the leaders as the Prototype field entered the first corner of the 11-turn, 2.238-mile long circuit. The move stuck, and Valiante took the lead on the very first lap of the race. Between the first 15 laps of the race led by Valiante and the last 29 laps of the race led by co-driver Richard Westbrook, the No. 90 led 44 out of 112 laps in the two hour, 40 minute race on the way to victory.
With the win, Valiante and Westbrook have taken over the Prototype championship lead from Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa of the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP. Fittipaldi and Barbosa held on to second place in the standings with 125 points after a fourth-place run and trail Valiante and Westbrook by four points.
“It was a great race to be a part of, and fighting these guys,” Westbrook added. “It was a really interesting sports car race. …. Everyone at the team worked really hard, and it was about time to get better than 3rd and be where we deserved. Every lap I was worried, I never gapped him, he was always there. I know how quick Ricky is. We just had enough to keep him even at the end, but I was eating up tires pretty quick as well.”
The No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP driven by Jordan and Ricky Taylor finished second. The brothers led a combined 60 laps and the race came to a close with Ricky Taylor hot on the heels of Westbrook. He finished the race a mere 1.351 seconds behind.
“It’s definitely different to start, its aggressive in turn 1,” added Jordan Taylor. “I got hit a couple of times. It’s good racing I think. It must have been exciting from outside, it was crazy inside. You’re working on qualifying tires, so you’re struggling the whole time. Once I got fresh tires, it was night and day, I was able to drive a full stint, more of what I’m used to.”
Third place was claimed by Oswaldo Negri Jr. and John Pew, drivers of the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing with Curb/Agajanian Ligier JS P2/Honda HPD. The team led one lap and set the fastest lap of the race on Lap 84 at 1:19.303.
Cumming and Junqueira Team Up To Win In Prototype Challenge
Chris Cumming started the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 from the Prototype Challenge (PC) pole, and along with co-driver Bruno Junqueira, never looked back.
The duo overcame a drive-through penalty for a crew member over the wall too soon to lead 80 of 112 laps in the Prototype Challenge class and claimed its first win of the year. The win was the second in TUDOR Championship competition for Cumming and the first for Junqueira.
“I feel great getting a win here at Laguna Seca; it’s one of my favorite tracks in the US,” stated Junqueira. “I’ve had a lot of poles in Indy Cars, and in Sports Cars, I never got the win. To finally get the win was great. To finally get the win was so good, so strong. Chris drove so well, he is for sure the fastest Silver driver out there. Now I want to keep this up and go for some more wins.”
Second place went to 2014 PC champions Colin Braun and Jon Bennett. The pair led 13 laps and maintained their championship lead over the second place PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports. Drivers Tom Kimber-Smith and Mike Guasch, who won both of the first two PC races this season at Daytona and Sebring, suffered a mechanical issue in today’s race which forced them to limp their car to finish 16 laps down.
Finishing third in PC were Performance Tech Motorsports drivers Mike Hedlund and James French. Hedlund and French finished two laps behind the PC winners. Performance Tech also earned the same final position at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in mid-March. The team’s last podium finish at Mazda Raceway was another third-place result in 2013.
“It was a rough start, but the team came through perfectly,” Hedlund said. “They gave us a good car. James handed the car over to me in third place. and I just tried to bring it home. That’s all we had to do.”
A rough start to the weekend kept the team wondering if the No. 38 PC would run near the front of the field at all during the weekend. Through the first two practices Friday, Performance Tech was running near the bottom of the time charts, a steady sixth or seventh.
But the crew used hard work and determination to make all the right adjustments leading into qualifying Saturday. French was just one-tenth of a second away from the pole in qualifying.
“This feels excellent,” French said. “I think now that the team has had some time working together and having some of the same drivers, we’ve been able to find some consistency and repeat results. I think from where we started at the beginning of the weekend to where we ended up, we made a ton of improvement really fast. Everybody did a really great job to make us feel comfortable, give us a good car and finish the race in a good spot.”
Team Principal Brent O’Neill has been a team owner for more than 30 years, so wisdom and knowledge gained during those decades helped him realize all was not lost Friday.
“Today was a good day,” O’Neill said. “Mike and James did an awesome job. We didn’t start out doing so well this weekend. I can tell you Friday night was a little bit of a struggle trying to figure out how we were going to get this thing to the front.
“But with the help of Ryan (lead engineer, McCarthy) and all the strategy and engineering he did, we made it happen. All the guys did such an awesome job; our pit stops were flawless today. James and Mike brought it back without a scratch or nick on the car. So hopefully we can take it to Detroit.”
Lead engineer Ryan McCarthy is proving his worth at as he travels with the team to each race event. O’Neill and the crew at both Sebring International Raceway and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca have applauded his strategies.
“It was a big accomplishment for the whole team,” McCarthy said. “Everybody worked really hard. Looking back to the beginning of the week, I thought it would be pretty unrealistic to think we would end up on the podium. I’m really proud of everybody. It was good to have Mike onboard for this race. James did a great job. Thanks to them both for trying so hard. Thanks to the team for giving it their all.”
Performance Tech Motorsports hopes to continue its podium momentum at the next event, the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on May 29-30 on Belle Isle in Detroit. It’s Round 4 for the PC class in the 2015 TUDOR Untied SportsCar Championship. The race will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
- NHRA announces eight-race schedule for 2024 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series - January 17, 2024
- Forgeline and Pratt Miller Motorsports Announce New Multi-Year Partnership - January 17, 2024
- TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein converts narrow pole to commanding win in the Season 10 opener of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at the 2024 Hankook Mexico City E-Prix - January 16, 2024