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Cameron/Montoya victorious at Laguna Seca, put hands on IMSA trophy

  • IMSA Laguna Seca Cameron-Montoya

Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya are the winners of the Monterey SportsCar Championship (formerly known as Monterey Grand Prix) at Laguna Seca Raceway, the penultimate round of the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

For the duo in the #6 Acura ARX-05, it’s the third win of the season and they extended the lead in the championship with just one race to go, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on October 12.

Dane Cameron took the checkered flag 9.784 seconds ahead of teammate Helio Castroneves, who was sharing the #7 Acura with pole-sitter Ricky Taylor. It was the second 1-2 sweep of the season for Acura Team Penske. The victory also effectively clinched the 2019 WeatherTech Championship DPi manufacturer’s championship for Acura, which now has an eight-point lead over Cadillac (297-289). Acura only needs to score manufacturer points at Motul Petit Le Mans to officially take the title.

Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr rounded out the podium in the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. Derani grabbed the final podium spot from Renger van der Zande in the #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R within the last 15 minutes of the race.

Derani and Nasr are second in the championship, twelve points (274:262) behind Montoya and Cameron by a count of 274-262.

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller - the winners in GTLM categoory

Joey Hand and Dirk Muller – the winners in GTLM categoory

Matt McMurry and Dalton Kellett scored their fifth consecutive LMP2 class victory in the #52 PR1-Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca. It also was the fifth straight win for McMurry, the team’s full-season driver, and the second in as many LMP2 races for Kellett. They finished one lap ahead of the #38 Performance Tech Motorsports Oreca shared by Cameron Cassels and Kyle Masson. The win also expanded McMurry’s LMP2 points lead to eight over Cassels (235-227), meaning he only will need to score points at Motul Petit Le Mans to take the 2019 WeatherTech Championship title.

Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand scored their first victory of the season in the GTLM class in the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. They beat the closest rivals by twenty seconds. John Edwards and Jesse Krohn finished second in the #24 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen completed the GTLM podium in the #3 Chevrolet Corvette.

Check the results of the Monterey IMSA race

Photos: IMSA

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