ESM wins at Laguna Seca

ESM returned to victory by winning the Monterey GP in Laguna Seca (California). Luis Felipe Derani and Johannes van Overbeek signed their second success of the season after that obtained at the 12 Hours of Sebring (Florida) last March. The start of the race, however, got off to a bad start as the #22 Nissan DPi spun after contact with the #31 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi of Felipe Nasr.

The ESM crew notably took advantage of an error by Harry Tincknell who was on the verge of obtaining the first victory for Mazda before coming into contact with the Oreca 07 n°52 of AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports which was then led by Gustavo Yacaman. The RT24-P n°55 finally failed to reach the podium after the 2016 championELMS took over the No. 05 Team Penske Acura ARX-7 driven by Ricky Taylor.

The #07 Oreca 54 of Bennett-Braun took advantage of contact which damaged the suspension of the #7 to take 2nd place, finishing around ten seconds behind the winners. This result is a very good operation for the Core Autosport crew which is 4 points behind the championship leaders Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran who took 5th place. The top three was completed by the No. 6 Acura of Montoya-Cameron.

La voiture soeur d’Action Express Racing, la n°5 de Barbosa-Albuquerque, a en revanche connu un week-end difficile puisqu’elle a abandonné suite à un carambolage impliquant l’Oreca 07 n°99 du JDC-Miller Motorsports, la Ford GT n°67 et la Porsche 911 RSR n°911.

BMW scored its second consecutive victory after Virginia International Raceway with once again the #8 M25 GTE of Alexander Sims and Connor de Phillippi which won with a little more than 2 seconds ahead of the surviving Porsche by Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber. Jan's #7 Corvette C3R Magnussen and Antonio Garcia completed the category podium ahead of the second BMW led by Krohn-Edwards who preceded the second Corvette of Gavin-Milner. The No. 3 Acura NSX GT86 of Legge-Parente's Meyer Shank Racing on the GTD pole won the category.

Discover the report of the Monterey GP in issue 2182 of AUTOhebdo, available from this Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.