MONTEREY, Calif. — The most modern and technically advanced cars racing in North America rolled out in evocative throwback liveries as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice began for the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s 1980-inspired Apple Computer livery dominated the headlines in the lead-up to the weekend, but Cadillac swept the top three places overall and in the Grand Touring Prototype class Friday afternoon in the opening 90-minute session.
The pair of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing entries led the way ahead of the Cadillac Whelen entry, after a flurry of late activity. Louis Deletraz took the No. 40 Cadillac V-Series.R to the top ahead of Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 car and Jack Aitken in the No. 31 car.
Aitken set the early pace in the No. 31 Cadillac only to be eclipsed in the final 15 minutes by both of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing’s entries. Aitken’s fifth tour around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn course in 1 minute, 15.026 seconds (107.386 mph) set the early benchmark that stood for more than an hour before Albuquerque slipped under the 1:15 mark with a lap of 1:14.893 (107.577 mph) with 12 minutes to go in WTR’s No. 10 machine.
Five minutes later, Deletraz uncorked a 1:14.333 (108.387 mph) flyer in the No. 40 Cadillac that was a full 0.560 seconds quicker than the other Wayne Taylor Racing team car and 0.697 seconds under the fastest non-Cadillac – the fourth-placed No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 at 1:15.030 (107.380 mph) driven by Kevin Estre.
“It was a great session,” reported Deletraz. “The car feels good and it was a great start – we are P1. Even though we are just starting the weekend, it’s very good.
“We’re going to analyze the data and make sure we are even faster tomorrow,” he added. “But we are very happy with the car. The Cadillac did a great job, and we are excited for the weekend.”
A couple years after a full repave, the WeatherTech Raceway circuit is losing grip, and while several drivers experienced dusty off-course moments, the session ran uninterrupted by a red flag.
Julien Andlauer in the championship-leading No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche ran wide at the Andretti Hairpin, as did Marco Wittmann in the No. 25 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8. Meanwhile, Tijmen van der Helm in JDC-Miller MotorSports’ No. 5 Porsche 963 experimented with the “Alex Zanardi line” while exiting the track’s famous Corkscrew sequence of turns.
Like Aitken, Alexander Sims was on the gas from the very start of the 90-minute practice to pace the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class with a 1 minute, 22.113-second (98.118 mph) lap in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
That outpaced GTD class leader Frederik Schandorff in Inception Racing’s No. 70 Ferrari 296 GT3 EVO by just 0.043 seconds. Schandorff also posted his 1:22.156 (98.066 mph) effort in the first 15 minutes of action.
“One of our engineers was saying he thought the surface was starting to get into a higher tire degradation characteristic here again, and honestly, the laps I did today sort of backed that up,” Sims remarked, crediting extensive work in Corvette Racing’s simulator for his early speed. “The car felt pretty nice straight out of the box.”
Nicky Catsburg ran second in GTD PRO in the No. 4 Pratt Miller car at 1:22.255 (97.948 mph) to secure a Corvette 1-2, while Ferrari ran first and second in GTD courtesy of Albert Costa’s 1:22.165 (98.056 mph) lap in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari.
The Pratt Miller Corvettes are wrapped this weekend in a white and yellow livery reminiscent of Corvette Racing’s early 2000 paint scheme that adorned the C5-R chassis.
“This is a shorter track, so track position is important,” Catsburg said. “I would say qualifying is important, but it’s not the end of the world if we’re not on the front row.”
The StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship features the first 2-hour, 40-minute sprint race on the 2026 WeatherTech Championship schedule.
