America’s Tire 250 – Entry List Notebook

By IMSA Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to picturesque Monterey, California and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the penultimate round of the season, the America’s Tire 250, on Sunday, Sept. 9.

The America’s Tire 250 is the headline event of the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix weekend that also includes a two-hour IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race on Saturday, Sept. 8.

The WeatherTech Championship entry list features 35 cars. There will be 13 entries in the Prototype class – making its return to competition for the first time since the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase at Road America on Aug. 5 – with eight GT Le Mans (GTLM) and 14 GT Daytona (GTD) entries.

The two-hour, 40-minute race will be televised live on Sunday, Sept. 9 beginning at 5 p.m. EDT on FS1. Live IMSA Radio coverage also will be available on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and SiriusXM Radio (Sirius 119/XM 202/App 972). Tickets are available now at WeatherTechRaceway.com.

The provisional WeatherTech Championship entry list can be accessed here.

Notes:
– Of the 68 drivers on the provisional pre-event entry list (drivers for the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 are listed as TBA), 27 have at least one previous IMSA victory at the 2.238-mile, 11-turn permanent road course since 1999.

– Patrick Long and Joerg Bergmeister are tied for most IMSA victories at WeatherTech Raceway with five, all of which came with the duo as co-drivers. They won the American Le Mans Series GT2 class together in 2005 and 2009, have ALMS GT wins in 2010 and 2011 and overall and Daytona Prototype class wins in GRAND-AM in 2007. This year they’re driving separately, each with co-drivers with one previous WeatherTech Raceway victory.

o Long is entered in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with Christina Nielsen, who won the GTD race there last year with Scuderia Corsa.

o Bergmeister is sharing the No. 73 Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with Patrick Lindsey, who started from the GTD class pole and went on to win the race in 2015.

– Ten additional drivers have multiple victories at WeatherTech Raceway.
o Corvette Racing drivers Oliver Gavin (No. 4 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) and Jan Magnussen (No. 3 Corvette C7.R) each have four previous victories at the venue.

o Antonio Garcia (No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R) and Richard Westbrook (No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT) have three wins apiece at WeatherTech Raceway, including one as co-drivers, the 2012 GRAND-AM DP and overall win with Spirit of Daytona Racing.

o Two-time winners in the field include Tommy Milner (No. 4 Corvette C7.R), Andy Lally (No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 LMS), Jeroen Bleekemolen (No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3), Dane Cameron (No. 6 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi), Renger van der Zande (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) and John Edwards (No. 24 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE).

– Magnussen leads all drivers in the field with five career pole positions at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, scoring his first pole for the ALMS GTS race in 2003 and his most recent for the ALMS GT race in 2009.

– Corvette Racing is the winningest team in the field at WeatherTech Raceway with seven victories since its maiden triumph in the ALMS GTS race in 2004. The team’s most recent win at the track came in the WeatherTech Championship GTLM class in 2014.

– With 18 victories, Porsche is the winningest active manufacturer at WeatherTech Raceway. Chevrolet is second with 11 wins and Audi and BMW are tied for third with eight.

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Race-Winning Drivers (Since 1999) in 2018 Field (27)
Patrick Long (5) – ALMS GT2 – 2005, 2009; GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2007; ALMS GT – 2010, 2011
Joerg Bergmeister (5) – ALMS GT2 – 2005, 2009; GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2007; ALMS GT – 2010, 2011
Jan Magnussen (4) – ALMS GTS – 2003, GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2006, ALMS GT – 2013, GTLM – 2014
Oliver Gavin (4) – ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007, 2008; ALMS GT – 2012
Antonio Garcia (3) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2012, ALMS GT – 2013, GTLM – 2014
Richard Westbrook (3) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2012, P/Overall – 2015, GTLM – 2016
Tommy Milner (2) – GRAND-AM GT – 2005, ALMS GT – 2012
Andy Lally (2) – GRAND-AM GT – 2007, 2013
Jeroen Bleekemolen (2) – ALMS GTC – 2010, 2012
Dane Cameron (2) – GRAND-AM GT – 2012, GTD – 2014
Renger van der Zande (2) – PC/Overall – 2014, P/Overall – 2017
John Edwards (2) – GTLM – 2015, 2017
Justin Marks (1) – GRAND-AM GT – 2005
Bill Auberlen (1) – GRAND-AM GT – 2005
Ryan Dalziel (1) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2008
Dirk Mueller (1) ALMS GT2 2008
Jon Bennett (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Colin Braun (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Jordan Taylor (1) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2013
John Potter (1) – GRAND-AM GT – 2013
Nick Tandy (1) – ALMS GTC – 2013
Johannes van Overbeek (1) – P/Overall – 2014
Patrick Lindsey (1) – GTD – 2015
Ozz Negri (1) – P/Overall – 2016
Robert Alon (1) – PC/Overall 2016
Ryan Briscoe (1) – GTLM – 2016
Christina Nielsen (1) – GTD – 2017

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Pole Winners (Since 1999) in 2018 Field (18)
Jan Magnussen (4) – ALMS GTS – 2003; ALMS GT1 – 2007, 2008; ALMS GT2 – 2009
Jeroen Bleekemolen (3) – ALMS GTC – 2010, 2011, 2013
Ricky Taylor (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2011, P/Overall – 2017
Richard Westbrook (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2012, 2013
Tristan Nunez (2) – GRAND-AM GX – 2013, P/Overall – 2016
Dirk Mueller (1) – ALMS GT – 1999
Ozz Negri (1) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2005
Patrick Long (1) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2006
Kyle Marcelli (1) – ALMS PC – 2011
Joey Hand (1) – ALMS GT – 2011
Colin Braun (1) – ALMS PC – 2013
John Edwards (1) – GRAND-AM GT – 2013
Johannes van Overbeek (1) – P/Overall – 2014
Antonio Garcia (1) – GTLM – 2014
Jordan Taylor (1) – P/Overall – 2015
Patrick Lindsey (1) – GTD – 2015
Robert Alon (1) – PC/Overall – 2016
Madison Snow (1) – GTD – 2017

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Race-Winning Teams (Since 1999) in 2018 Field (14)
Corvette Racing (7) – ALMS GTS – 2004; ALMS GT1 – 2005, 2007, 2008; ALMS GT – 2012, 2013; GTLM – 2014
Acura Team Penske (3) – ALMS P2 – 2005, 2006, 2007
Ford Chip Ganassi Racing (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2005, GTLM – 2016
Wayne Taylor Racing (2) – GRAND-AM DP/Overall – 2006, 2013
AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports (2) – ALMS PC – 2013, PC/Overall – 2016
BMW Team RLL (2) – GTLM – 2015, 2017
Mazda Team Joest (1) – ALMS LMP900/Overall – 2003
CORE autosport (1) – ALMS PC – 2012
Magnus Racing (1) – GRAND-AM GT – 2013
Tequila Patrón ESM (1) – P/Overall – 2014
Turner Motorsport (1) – GTD – 2014
Park Place Motorsports (1) – GTD – 2015
Meyer Shank Racing (1) – P/Overall – 2016
Scuderia Corsa (1) – GTD – 2017

Previous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Race-Winning Manufacturers (Since 2002) in 2018 Field (9)
Porsche – 18
Chevrolet – 11
Audi – 8
BMW – 8
Ferrari – 6
Acura – 3
Mazda – 3
Ford – 2
Lexus – 1