The lowdown from Laguna; IMSA's second Sprint round of 2023

Inception Racing claim a hard-fought fifth-place finish following opening lap drama at this year’s Motul Course de Monterey.

Racing in Northern California you’d expect clear skies and guaranteed sunshine especially in the summer months, right? Well, Sunday morning’s twenty-minute warm-up session had been hampered by heavy fog, causing not only a large delay in proceedings, but also for the session to be cut down to 10 minutes once it was deemed safe enough to head out.

Come the afternoon and the glorious sunshine that the Golden State is renowned for made an appearance for the race start. Brendan lined up tenth on the grid following Saturday afternoon’s qualifying however, quickly fell to the back of the grid after boxing on the opening lap due to issue with the right front tyre.

A big hit from the #94 Andretti Aston Martin Vantage into the tyre wall at pit entry saw the race fall under Yellow Flag conditions, and with the pit entry closed whilst barrier repairs were being made, once they’d opened all teams boxed. A quick stop from the crew saw Brendan re-enter the race up in eleventh before the Safety Car restart.

It was Fred in control of the #70 McLaren for just shy of two hours however, no sooner had he jumped in the race, once again, fell behind the Safety Car after the #8 LMP2 found itself in the wall at Turn 6.

A prolonged pause in the racing action allowed the GT field to bunch together before yet another Safety Car restart. It was a clean getaway from Schandorff as the clock began to tick down towards the final hour where teams began to gear up for yet another cycle of pitstops.

The #92 Porsche boxed from the GTD lead, seeing Fred move up into fourth before pitting a lap later. An issue during the stop meant a stop-go penalty had to be served by the Dane, seeing him drop down the field.

However, this didn’t stop him as the hunt for a big points scoring finish was on. He lunged down the inside of the #57 Mercedes-AMG at the Corkscrew, a bold and brave move that saw the Inception McLaren move back up into the top 10.

It was overtake after overtake for Fred, getting past not only rival GT competitors but also GTD Pro cars too. He took the chequered flag in fifth to conclude the Californian swing on the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech calendar. The Stateside action resumes next month with the third Endurance instalment, the Six Hours of The Glen on June 25.