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.

Background

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.

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.

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. In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen and Ben Keating led the Drivers' Championship with 1442 points, ahead of Tristan Nunez and Steven Thomas. 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. With 1930 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn. 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.

Entries

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. 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. Grasser Racing Team was absent from the event due to a clash with the ADAC GT Masters round at Lausitzring. Jacob Abel subbed for Jeff Kingsley in the Compass Racing Acura.

Practice

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.

Practice 1

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. Mikkel Jensen set the fastest time in LMP2. 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. 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.

Practice 2

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. Ryan Dalziel set the fastest time in LMP2. 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. 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.

Qualifying

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. 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.

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. 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. Bill Auberlen was second in the No. 96 BMW followed by Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Lamborghini.

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. 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.

Qualifying results

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

* The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the DPi classification for violating competition rules regarding the car's camber.
* 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).
* 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).
* 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).

Race

Post-race

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. 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. The result kept Antonio García and Jordan Taylor atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship. As a result of winning the race, Robichon and Vanthoor advanced from third to second in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Porsche took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship. 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.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Standings after the race

* 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

{{Monterey Sports Car Championships
GT Challenge at VIR
IMSA Monterey Grand Prix
September 2021 sports events in the United States