Breaking news
IMSA
Starworks wins at Laguna Seca
Starworks was best in the split class two hour race.
Edited: May 4, 2014, 9:29 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Sunday’s opening race in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship doubleheader at the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix presented by Mazda featured a dominating victory in the Prototype Challenge (PC) class by Starworks Motorsport.
In the race combining the PC and GT Daytona (GTD) classes at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Renger van der Zande brought Starworks’ No. 8 ORECA FLM09 home 12.234 seconds in front of the second-place No. 25 8Star Motorsports ORECA FLM09 of Sean Rayhall.
Rayhall had gotten reasonably close to van der Zande, but spun in Turn 10 with 11 minutes remaining.
“To get close is one thing … to get past is another thing,” said van der Zande, who co-drove with German Mirco Schultis. “If you know that you can control the race. Leading the race is the best thing you can have [going for you]. Take the risk and control the traffic.”
Van der Zande, from the Netherlands, actually downplayed Rayhall’s late-race charge that cut a sizable advantage to merely a few seconds, saying, “I was just conserving on everything at that point … early lifting ... taking it easy on the tires. I knew I had [only] two [fresh] and he had four tires.
#09 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09: Duncan Ende, Bruno Junqueira, David Heinemeier Hansson
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
Schultis started the No. 8 and ran 41 minutes, remarkably surviving an early-race incident in Turn 8 with the No. 54 CORE autosport entry of Jon Bennett, who co-leads the championship standings with co-drive Colin Braun.
“I thought that was the end,” Schultis said, “Somehow I got out of the dirt and on the track and somehow it was still running.”
Was it ever. Van der Zande would grab the lead with 23 minutes remaining, when the pole-sitting No. 09 entry driven by Bruno Junqueira of RSR Racing pitted for tires and fuel. Aside from Rayhall’s temporary challenge, it was routine from there.
Junqueira and co-driver Duncan Ende finished third.
“Getting the win is always nice, huh?,” said van der Zande. “At Daytona and Sebring we had some troubles with the cars and here it was just a flawless weekend.
“Mirco did a good job by keeping it on the lead lap and avoiding some crashing people into him. And when he went into the pits [for the driver change], the guys did a really good pit stop. I was not even finished with my seat belts when I had to go already; that means they are really fast. We came into the track and already on the restart I overtook one car, then another, on the same lap. It was a lot of risk, but that's what you have to take."
“And our team had a really good strategy. When they called me in fuel, I was one of the earliest [to do so] and it was a bit of a surprise for me. So I went in the box and they started to change the right-front and then they ended up changing the right side completely. It was hard work at the office today, but good to take the win at the end.”
IMSA
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Vipers start today's TUDOR Championship race from sixth and ninth
Next article Extreme Speed Motorsports claims overall victory at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Sean Rayhall
Portimao ELMS: G-Drive Racing secures 2017 title
European Le Mans
European Le Mans
Portimao
Portimao ELMS: G-Drive Racing secures 2017 title
Final european Le Mans Series for United Autosports at Portimão
European Le Mans
European Le Mans
Portimao
Final european Le Mans Series for United Autosports at Portimão
Pelfrey calls up Rayhall for Lights finale
Indy NXT
Indy NXT
Laguna Seca
Pelfrey calls up Rayhall for Lights finale
More from
RSR Racing
Lexus GT3 program to enter IMSA in 2016 with Gentilozzi and Pruett
IMSA Others
IMSA Others
Lexus GT3 program to enter IMSA in 2016 with Gentilozzi and Pruett
Rain slows final day of Roar Before the Daytona 24H testing
IMSA
IMSA
Daytona January testing
Rain slows final day of Roar Before the Daytona 24H testing
Prototype Challenge added to 2015 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix
IMSA
IMSA
Prototype Challenge added to 2015 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix
Latest news
Frankie Muniz transported to hospital after Daytona practice crash
General
Misc General 42 min
Frankie Muniz transported to hospital after Daytona practice crash
Ford unveils new Mustang body for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 53 min
Ford unveils new Mustang body for 2027 NASCAR Cup season
IndyCar 2026 season review: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 4 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Kyle Larson admits he didn't think Cup title was possible in NASCAR champion's speech
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 4 h
Kyle Larson admits he didn't think Cup title was possible in NASCAR champion's speech
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe