IMSA: Big Monterey wins for Shank, Ford GT

An emotional return to Victory Lane and a legendary manufactuter's first win highlighted the Continental Monterey Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Sunday.

After dominating the weekend's practices and qualifying, it appeared Mazda would finally break through with its first series win in Prototype. Instead, a savvy drive by Oswaldo Negri and John Pew in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 sent them to the checkered flag a whopping 30.099 seconds over the second-place car, the No. 90 Visit Florida Chevrolet Daytona Prototype of Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens, the defending race winners.

Third was Eric Curran in the No. 31 Whelen Action Express Corvette DP he shares with Dane Cameron. Curran was just 0.855 seconds behind the No. 90.

It was the first win for the No. 60 car since the 2012 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

"It's been a long time," Pew said. "I feel like a curse has been lifted."

It was supposed to be Mazda's day at its home track. The two Mazda Prototypes qualified on the front row and led easily early in the race, with the No. 55 of Tristian Nunez and Jonathan Bomarito staying just ahead of the No. 70 of Tom Long and Joel Miller. The two Mazdas stretched out a full-straightaway lead over third place several times, but it all went wrong when the Prototypes made their first pit stop.

The stop for the 70 was slow, and for the 55 even worse, as the fuel nozzle wouldn't seat properly. After that, everything went wrong – the No. 70 stopped on track with oil pressure problems, and Bomarito spun the No. 55 while trying to make a pass. The No. 70 ended up 18th and last, while the No. 55 was fourth.

In the GT Le Mans class, the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT took the win with drivers Ryan Briscoe and at the end, Richard Westbrook.

Westbrook made it a stunning 52 laps on his last tank of fuel, nursing the car to the checkered flag on fumes. But saying it was entirely a fuel mileage victory isn't fair – Ryan Briscoe's best lap was only a split-second behind the fastest car, the second-place No. 68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Daniel Serra and Alessandro Pier Guidi, which qualified on the pole, and the No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. That Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner finished fourth, just behind the No. 912 Porsche North America Porsche 911 RSR of Earl Bamber and Frederic Makowiecki.

Westbrook was as surprised as anyone that he was able to squeeze that much out of his car.

"They tell you a [lap] number and you think, 'You're kidding, you've been drinking too much,'" but then Westbrook went out and did it.

"It just seemed to be our day," Westbrook said, but they still had to overcome a problem: The car was stuck in first gear during a pit stop "and that cost us five or six seconds, which is five or six places."

His sister car, the No. 66 Ford GT of Joey Hand and Dirk Mueller, came in for a quick splash of fuel at the end, dropping them to sixth in class, 12th overall. They had no choice, said Ford chief engineer Mark Rushbrook; the No. 66 was on a different pit strategy, and didn't have quite enough fuel at the end to stretch it like the No. 67 did.

The hardest-working car and drivers were Dalziel and Goossens, whose cr ran poorly all weekend and started the race last due to being too late to the starting grid, meaning they had to start from pit lane and also come in for a drive-through penalty.

"We're glad we got back on the podium," Dalziel said, "but this car won here last year and we have some work to do on this package."

"It was quite an eventful race," Goossens said. "I kept an eye on the mirror" for the fast-approaching No. 31 at the end, but Goosens concentrated on making no mistakes, and that was the key for the strong finish.

Due to track space, the Prototypes and GTLM cars were split into one race, the Prototype Challenge and GT Daytonas into another.

Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship: The Chevrolet Sports Car Classic Presented by the Metro Chevrolet Dealers in Detroit on June 3-4.

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