The 2021 IMSA Monterey Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dir ...

(IMSA). The race was held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna in

Monterey, California Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a popu ...

on September 12, 2021. The race was the ninth round of the

2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) was the 51st racing season sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) which traces its lineage back to ...

and the sixth round of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Background

Originally scheduled to run on April 25, 2021, the race was set to wrap up the two "West Coast Swing" rounds also consisting of

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, however the event was postponed to September 12, 2021, due to the ongoing

COVID-19 Pandemic in California The COVID-19 pandemic in California began earlier than in some other parts of the United States. Ten of the first 20 confirmed COVID-19 infections in the United States were detected in California, and the first infection was confirmed on Janua ...

. On September 10, 2021, IMSA and

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Laguna Seca Raceway (branded as WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and previously Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for sponsorship reasons) is a paved road racing track in central California used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, built in 1957 ...

announced a three-year contract extension that would keep the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the calendar through to the end of 2024. Before the race,

Filipe Albuquerque Filipe Miguel Delgadinho Albuquerque (born 13 June 1985) is a Portuguese people, Portuguese professional racing driver, currently driving an Acura ARX-06 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing, and an Oreca 07 in the Europea ...

and

Ricky Taylor Ricky Scott Taylor (born August 3, 1989) is an American professional racing driver, most notably in the International Motor Sports Association, IMSA IMSA SportsCar Championship, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. His career highlights include an ...

led the DPi Drivers' Championship with 2380 points, ahead of

Pipo Derani Luís Felipe "Pipo" Derani (born 12 October 1993) is a Brazilian race car driver who is currently a factory driver for the Genesis Magma Racing program. He is an overall winner of the 2016 24 Hours of Daytona and the 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2023 ...

and

Felipe Nasr Luiz Felipe de Oliveira Nasr (born 21 August 1992) is a Brazilian racing driver, who competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Porsche. Nasr competed in Formula One from to . In endurance racing, Nasr has won three IMSA SportsCar Cham ...

in second with 2339 points, and

Oliver Jarvis Oliver Richard Benjamin Jarvis (born 9 January 1984) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, 2023 European Le Mans Series, European Le Mans Series an ...

and

Harry Tincknell Harry William Tincknell (born 29 October 1991 in Exeter, Devon) is a British professional racing driver currently racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Aston Martin THOR Team. He won the LMP2 class on his Le Mans 24 Hour race debu ...

with 2337 points. In LMP2, Mikkel Jensen and

Ben Keating Benjamin Edward Keating (born August 18, 1971) is an American racing driver and business owner operating out of Victoria, Texas. Keating is the owner of 30 car auto dealerships across Texas, The Keating Auto Group. Since starting auto racing in ...

led the Drivers' Championship with 1442 points, ahead of

Tristan Nunez Tristan Nunez (born October 31, 1995 in Boynton Beach, Florida) is an American racing driver from Boca Raton, Florida. He is the son of Juan Nunez, a former professional tennis player and coach. Nunez has a fraternal twin brother, Dylan, who was ...

and Steven Thomas. Antonio García and Jordan Taylor led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 2207 points, 214 points ahead of

Tommy Milner Thomas Milner (born January 28, 1986) is an American GM factory racing and test driver, also currently employed full-time in Corvette Racing. He is also the co-owner of PRIVATE LABEL Team Hype E-Sports team on iRacing. He was featured in 2011 ...

and

Nick Tandy Nicholas Tandy (born 5 November 1984) is a professional British racing driver currently racing for Porsche Motorsport as a factory driver in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. Tandy is the only person to have completed the Grand Slam of overal ...

followed by

Cooper MacNeil Cooper Ian MacNeil (born September 7, 1992 in Hinsdale, Illinois) is a retired professional American racecar driver. He most recently competed in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driving the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3 ...

in third. With 1930 points, the GTD Drivers' Championship was led by

Bill Auberlen William Anthony Auberlen (born October 12, 1968) is an American factory race car driver known for his affiliation with BMW, driving cars made and run by the famous German marque for a number of years. Auberlen currently competes for Turner Mot ...

and

Robby Foley Robby Foley (born July 20, 1996) is an American racing driver who currently competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Career Raised in Randolph, New Jersey, Foley's motorsports career was kickstarted in 2010 by a severe injury sustain ...

, ahead of Roman De Angelis and

Ross Gunn Ross Gunn (May 12, 1897 – October 15, 1966) was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. The New York Times described him as "one of the true fathers of the nuclear submarine program". From 1927 to 1947, ...

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

, and

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while WTR-Konica Minolta Acura,

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is an American sports car racing team that currently competes in the LMP2 class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. History American Le Mans Series PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports began e ...

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing was an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing was originally the official racing program for General M ...

Turner Motorsport Turner Motorsport (Also known as TMS Racing, Turner motorsport(s) or Turner racing) is a professional sports car racing team located in Newton, NH, and is the most prolific BMW race team in the world. As of May 2024 Turner motorsport has compet ...

and each led their own Teams' Championships.

Entries

A total of 26 cars took part in the event, split across 4 classes. 6 cars were entered in DPi, 4 in LMP2, 3 in GTLM, and 13 in GTD. In GTD, NTE Sport didn't return after their outing at Road America. Heart of Racing added a second entry alongside its own full time entry.

Grasser Racing Team Gottfried Grasser Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH racing as GRT Grasser Racing Team is an Austrian racing team. The team, based only 10 kilometers away from the Red Bull Ring, has raced in various Group GT3 based racing series with su ...

was absent from the event due to a clash with the

ADAC GT Masters The ADAC GT Masters is a grand tourer-based auto racing series founded by the international Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and supported by the German ADAC automotive club. Similar to an earlier ADAC GT Cup series in the 1990s, the new GT ...

round at

Lausitzring The Lausitzring (formally known as the Dekra Lausitzring for ownership reasons) is a race track located near Klettwitz (a civil parish of Schipkau, Oberspreewald-Lausitz district) in the state of Brandenburg in northeast Germany, near the bord ...

. Jacob Abel subbed for Jeff Kingsley in the Compass Racing Acura.

Practice

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted one hour on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 75 minutes.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 4:30 pm PT on Friday and ended with

topping the charts for WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, with a lap time of 1:14.880, ahead of

in the No. 31 Cadillac. Mikkel Jensen set the fastest time in LMP2. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4

Chevrolet Corvette C8.R The Chevrolet Corvette C8.R is a grand tourer#grand tourers in racing, grand tourer racing car built by Pratt Miller and Chevrolet for competition in endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing. It serves as the replacement for the Chevrolet C ...

with a time of 1:22.081, ahead of Matt Campbell in the No. 79 Porsche.

's No. 96 BMW was fastest in GTD, with a lap time of 1:24.630.

Laurens Vanthoor Laurens Vanthoor (; born 8 May 1991) is a Belgium, Belgian professional racing driver currently racing for Porsche in motorsport, Porsche Motorsport as a Factory-backed, factory driver in the FIA World Endurance Championship. He currently reside ...

in the No. 9 Porsche was second fastest followed by

Bryan Sellers Bryan Sellers (born August 19, 1982 in Dayton, Ohio) is an American racing driver. Sellers won the title in the U.S. F2000 in 2002 and later competed in the Atlantic Championship and in racing sports cars. Racing career Bryan Sellers first co ...

in the No. 1 Lamborghini.

Practice 2

The second and final practice session took place at 8:45 am PT on Saturday and ended with

topping the charts for Mazda Motorsports, with a lap time of 1:14.552.

's No. 31 Cadillac was second fastest followed by

in the No. 10 Acura.

Ryan Dalziel Ryan Dalziel ( ; born 12 April 1982) is a Scottish professional racing driver. Dalziel has seen the most success in his career in the United States, racing in the American Le Mans Series GT1 class and the Champ Car World Series, and winning t ...

set the fastest time in LMP2. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 4

with a time of 1:21.680, ahead of Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette. The GTD class was topped by the No. 1

Paul Miller Racing Paul Miller Racing is an American auto racing team that is part of Paul Miller Auto Group and associated with former racing driver . The team has operations that are headquartered in Buford, Georgia; the Racing team also has operations in Pars ...

Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo of

Madison Snow Madison Snow (born December 26, 1995) is an American race car driver who currently competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. In 2018 he became the only second driver in IMSA history to win two championships in the same year, winning both the W ...

, with a lap time of 1:24.237. Trent Hindman was second fastest in the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche followed by Zacharie Robichon in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche.

Qualifying

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. The first was for cars in GTD class. Trent Hindman qualified on pole for the class driving the No. 16 car for Wright Motorsports, beating

in the No. 96

BMW by less than one-tenth of a second. Roman De Angelis in the No. 23 heart of Racing Team Aston Martin was third followed by The No. 1 Lamborghini of

, and Richard Heistand's No. 39 Audi rounded out the top five. The second session was for cars in the GTLM and GTD classes. Jordan Taylor qualified on pole in GTLM driving the No. 3 car for

, besting teammate

in the sister No. 4 Corvette Racing entry.

set the fastest time in the GTD points paying session driving the No. 23 car for Heart of Racing Team. However, the team were sent to the back of the GTD grid after Gunn exited the car before the session ended. As a result,

was promoted to first and earned 35 championship points.

was second in the No. 96 BMW followed by

in the No. 1 Lamborghini. The final session of qualifying was for cars in the DPi and LMP2 classes.

took overall pole for the event driving the No. 10 car for WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, besting

Dane Cameron Dane Richard Cameron (born October 18, 1988) is an American racing driver from Glen Ellen, California. He won the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship overall in 2016 and 2019, and also in the GTD class in 2014. Early career After karting, Ca ...

in the No. 60

Meyer Shank Racing Meyer Shank Racing (MSR; formerly Michael Shank Racing) is an American motorsport organization that competes in the IndyCar Series and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. History Atlantic Championship Michael Shank, co-owner of Meyer Shank Racing ...

Acura by 0.023 seconds. Following in third was the No. 01 Cadillac of

Kevin Magnussen Kevin Jan Magnussen (; born 5 October 1992) is a Danish racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for W Racing Team, WRT and the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, RLL as a factory driver f ...

, with the No. 55 Mazda of

in fourth. Tincknell's No. 55 Mazda was demoted to the rear of the DPi field for the camber of the car exceeding the maximum permitted a post-qualifying technical inspection.

's No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPI-V.R started fourth with

Tristan Vautier Tristan Philippe Alain Vautier (born 22 August 1989) is a French professional racing driver who is currently competing in the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship for Proton Competition and in the 2025 European Le Mans Series for CLX Motorsport, CLX ...

's No. 5 JDC-Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac starting in fifth.

qualified on pole in LMP2 driving the No. 52 car for

. Keating was more than two seconds clear of

Dwight Merriman Dwight Merriman (born August 5, 1968) is an American Internet executive, racing driver, and entrepreneur in New York City's Silicon Alley. Best known for co-founding DoubleClick with Kevin O'Connor and serving as its CTO for 10 years, Merrima ...

in the No. 18 Era Motorsport entry followed by Steven Thomas in the WIN Autosport car.

Qualifying results

Pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the ra ...

s in each class are indicated in bold and by . * The No. 55 Mazda Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the DPi classification for violating competition rules regarding the car's camber. * The No. 8 Tower Motorsport By Starworks entry was moved to the back of the LMP2 classification as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires). * The No. 23 Heart of Racing Team entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification as per Article 40.2.9. of the Sporting regulations (Gunn exited the car during the second GTD qualifying segment before the session ended). * The No. 44

Magnus Racing Magnus Racing is an Auto racing, automobile racing team based in Tooele, Utah, USA. The team is competing in the 2025 International Motor Sports Association, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The team was established in 2010 by John Potte ...

with Archangel Motorsports entry was moved to the back of the GTD classification as per Article 40.1.4 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Race

Post-race

With a total of 2765 points, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor's victory allowed them to increase their advantage over Derani and Nasr in the DPi Drivers' Championship to 98 points. With a total of 1807 points, Keating and Jensen's victory allowed them to increase over Nunez and Thomas in the LMP2 Drivers' Championship to 113 points. The result kept Antonio García and Jordan Taylor atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship. As a result of winning the race, Robichon and Vanthoor advanced from third to second in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Porsche took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship. WTR-Konica Minolta Acura, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, Corvette Racing, and Turner Motorsport kept their respective advantages in their respective Teams' Championships with three rounds remaining in the season.

Race results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Standings after the race

* Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings. * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.

References

{{Monterey Sports Car Championships GT Challenge at VIR IMSA Monterey Grand Prix September 2021 sports events in the United States