Porsche Penske Motorsports No 7 Loses Season-Long IMSA Win Streak, but Teammates Preserve Dominance

 

Words and photos by Rami Garcia

Finally Beaten; Still Undefeated: Porsche Penske Motorsports No 7 Win Streak Ends at Laguna Seca as No 6 Car Keeps Team’s Winning Momentum.

Under clear skies, The IMSA Monterey SportsCar Championship completed its final West Coast race at the historic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, featuring a packed field with three racing classes comprising 11 prototypes and 25 GT cars. BMW driver Dries Vanthoor led the GTP field away for the first of two starting groups. After four races, Vanthoor and his co-driver Philipp Eng remain the only GTP polesitters this season, outlining the raw pace of the BMW M Hybrid. The second starting group was comprised of 10 GTD Pro and 15 GTD cars, led by Giacomo Altoè in the Dragonspeed Ferrari 296.
 
The first lap came and went without incident, though the second-placed BMW M4 GTD Pro car of Dan Harper was immediately penalized for moving out of line before the start. A drive-through penalty promoted the crowd favorite No 77 Porsche of AO Racing to second in class. Of note, the AO Porsche has given their legendary Rexy livery a break for this race, opting to run the car in the pink hues of the green dino’s sister, Roxy.

Race Progress and Key Moments

For two hours and 40 minutes, the tirerack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship proceeded at a relentless pace, without any full-course caution periods to slow down the action. As is the norm in multiclass sportscar racing, the prototype field would begin lapping the GT field after a handful of laps (less than 10 minutes into this particular race) and the cycle constantly repeats itself until the checkered flag.

The first major development in the race unfolded while the leaders wound their way through slower traffic. While attempting to lap a GTD Lamborghini, third placed Matt Campbell in the No 6 Porsche Penske 963 made light contact at the entry to turn 9. Although he recovered from nearly being turned around, Campbell’s car seemed to lose all drive momentarily and would rejoin the race in fifth place. The team would opt for an early pit stop to change tires, refuel and switch drivers to Mathieu Jaminet.

Meanwhile, the leader Vanthoor in the No 24 BMW was hounded since the start of the race by the championship leading Porsche Penske Motorsports No 7 driver Felipe Nasr. 51 minutes into the race, Vanthoor found himself held up by a GTD car on the exit of turn 4 and Nasr found the opportunity to pounce. The Porsche driver took advantage of being faster down the short straightaway to turn 5 and forced the BMW into a defensive blocking maneuver on the inside of the corner. Having more momentum, Nasr swooped around the outside of the fast left-hand corner, decisively taking the lead.

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That lead would only last for a few minutes as Nasr inevitably took the No 7’s first stop, handing over to co-driver Nick Tandy. Vanthoor would be the last of the leaders to take his first pit stop, handing off to Philipp Eng. While the battle between first and second place raged, the No 6 car driven by Jaminet took full advantage of the early pit stop and the leaders slowing each other down with on-track combat to overhaul both the No 7 and the No 24 to take the point.

Final Stages and Closing Drama

The two Penske Porsches would lead the pole sitting BMW, maintaining position for the entirety of the middle part of the race. With 50 minutes left in the race, the No 7’s car would very nearly take the lead from its teammate at the end of the second and final pit stop, but after leaving pit lane with a clear advantage the car plowed wide of pit exit, sideways and almost completely off the road. The No 6 would retake the top spot.

The top three would stay close for the remainder of the race. On the final lap, the No 7 would make a halfhearted attempt at a pass for the lead at the turn 2 hairpin, but could not make it stick. That would leave Tandy on the defensive against the third placed Dries Vanthoor until the very last corner. Tandy would find himself boxed in by a lapped GT car and Vanthoor attempted to make a three-wide pass on the right hand side. Tandy, Vanthoor and the lapped GT car made contact before the turn, and Vanthoor’s BMW got shoved out to the gravel trap.

Jaminet/Campbell in the No 6 would win. Tandy and Nasr’s 2025 perfect win streak ends by finishing second. Vanthoor would drag the BMW he shared with Eng out of the gravel trap to still finish third. His teammates Marco Wittmann and Sheldon van Der Linde were one minute behind the top three in fourth place and the last car on the lead lap. The rest of the GTP field (fifth through eleventh places) finished at least one lap down on the winner.

GTD Pro and GTD Class Highlights

Twelve months ago AO Racing took its first ever IMSA win at Laguna Seca and for the second year running, the No 77 car would claim a commanding victory in the GTD Pro class. This is AO’s second straight GTD Pro victory of the season, and the organization’s third win of the year including its one-off appearance in the GTD class at Long Beach.

 
Last year they won wearing the popular green livery of Rexy the dinosaur, but this race was their first win using the sister Roxy design. Klaus Bachler and Laurin Heinrich would take the checkered flag in first. The pole sitting No 81 Dragonspeed Ferrari 296 of Giacomo Altoè and Albert Costa would finish second and the No 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia and Alexander Sims would finish third. In GTD, the No 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT of Philip Ellis and Roger Ward took the class victory.

Season Summary and Upcoming Race

While the No 7 may have lost its perfect win record, Porsche Penske Motorsports still retain a monopoly on overall wins so far this season. The next IMSA championship race takes place on the 31st of May on the streets of Detroit, with only the GTP and GTD Pro classes taking part.

photos by Michael Welly

Check out our 5 Questions With Motorsports Photographer Rami Garcia. For more of Rami’s work and insights as a motorsport photographer and journalist, follow him on Instagram at @Rambos5G and @OldSpeedisGoodSpeed.