The 2018 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 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 ...

Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county (United States), county located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The count ...

, on held on September 9, 2018, at

in Monterey, California, United States. The race was eleventh the round of the

2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship The 2018 IMSA SportsCar Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship) was the 48th motor racing championship sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) (which traces its li ...

Background

's (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the

(IMSA SCC) in August 2017. It was the fifth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2018 Monterey Grand Prix was the eleventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2018 by IMSA, and was the eighth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn

on September 9, 2018. After the Oak Tree Grand Prix three weeks earlier,

Eric Curran Eric Curran (born June 8, 1975) is an American race car driver who competes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Action Express Racing with co-driver Felipe Nasr. Curran and previous co-driver Dane Cameron won their first race together, ...

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 ...

led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 228 points, ahead of

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 ...

with 221 points, and Jon Bennett and

Colin Braun Colin James Braun ( "brown"; born September 22, 1988) is an American auto racing, racing driver. He is the 2014 and 2015 IMSA SportsCar Championship, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype Challenge Champion and currently drives the No. 60 M ...

with 218 points. With 269 points, the GTLM Drivers' Championship was led by Antonio García and

Jan Magnussen Jan Ellegaard Magnussen (born 4 July 1973) is a Danish professional racing driver and was a factory driver for General Motors until the end of the 2020 season. He has competed in Champ Car, Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), NASCAR, the FIA ...

with a four-point advantage over

Ryan Briscoe Ryan John Briscoe (born 24 September 1981) is an Australian–American professional racing driver from Sydney who has predominantly raced open-wheel and sports cars in Europe and America. In IndyCar he collected 8 wins and 28 podiums, finishin ...

and

Richard Westbrook Richard Westbrook (born 10 July 1975) is a British professional racing driver noted for his success in racing Porsche and International sports cars. As a junior, he attended St Joseph's College, Ipswich. He has won both the Porsche Supercup in ...

. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led 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 ...

and

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 thirteen-point advantage over

Katherine Legge Katherine Anne Legge ( ; born 12 July 1980) is a British professional auto racing driver who competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, IndyCar Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship. She holds the record for the fastest qu ...

with 262 points. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Whelen Engineering Racing,

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 ...

, and

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 ...

each led their own Teams' Championships. IMSA released two separate technical bulletins regarding the

Balance of Performance In sports car racing, balance of performance (BoP) is a regulation and mechanism that maintains parity between competing vehicles by adjusting the limits and parameters of a vehicle such as horsepower, weight, engine management, and aerodynamics ...

for the event. The first one was released on August 30, 2018, for the Prototype (P) class. The

Oreca 07 The Oreca 07 is a Le Mans Prototype built by French manufacturer Oreca to meet the 2017 FIA and ACO LMP2 regulations. It made its official race debut in the opening round of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 24 Hours of Dayt ...

Ligier JS P217 The Ligier JS P217 is a Le Mans Prototype built by Onroak Automotive and named in a partnership with French racing driver Guy Ligier. The Ligier JS P217 was built to meet the 2017 FIA and ACO regulations for 2017 for the LMP2 category in the FIA ...

Dallara P217 The Dallara P217 is a sportscar prototype built by Dallara, Dallara Automobili to the 2017 FIA/ACO regulations for the Le Mans Prototype, Le Mans Prototype LMP2 class. The car also meets the regulations for the Le Mans Prototype 2 Class of the IM ...

, and

Riley-Multimatic MkXXX The Riley-Multimatic MkXXX, also known as the Riley-Multimatic Mk.30, or simply the Riley Mk.30, is a Le Mans Prototype 2 built to the 2017 FIA/ ACO regulations. This car can be raced globally in the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Serie ...

were given a 10 kilogram weight increase and a fuel capacity reduction of 3 liters. The

Mazda RT24-P The Mazda RT24-P, also known as the Mazda Road to 24 – Prototype, is a Daytona Prototype International built to the 2017 IMSA DPi regulations. The car is designed and built by Mazda Motorsports, in collaboration with Multimatic Motorsports, and ...

was given a 10 kilogram weight reduction and a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters. The

Acura ARX-05 The Acura ARX-05 is a sports prototype racing car built to Daytona Prototype International regulations. It was developed in partnership by Honda Performance Development and Oreca, and is based on the Oreca 07 chassis and powered by the Acura ...

Cadillac DPi-V.R The Cadillac DPi-V.R is a sports prototype racing car which started competing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America in 2017. It is the manufacturer variation of Dallara P217 base, and replaces the Corvette DP. It marke ...

, and Nissan Onroak DPi were also given a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters. The second technical bulletin was released on September 5, 2018, which regarded the Balance of Performance in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes for the event. In GTD, The Ferrari 488 GT3 received an increase in turbo boost as well as a fuel capacity increase of 2 liters. No changes were made in GTLM.

Entries

A total of 34 cars took part in the event. 13 cars were entered in P, 8 in GTLM, and 13 in GTD. In P, AFS/PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports switched from the

to the

. In GTD, Park Place Motorsports and Squadra Corse Garage Italia returned after skipping the

Virginia International Raceway Virginia International Raceway (VIR) is a race track located in Alton, Virginia, near Danville. It is less than a half-mile from the North Carolina/Virginia border just outside Milton, North Carolina, on the banks of the Dan River. VIR hosts ...

event. Scuderia Corsa added a second entry.

SunEnergy1 Racing Kenny Charles Edward Habul (born 24 May 1973 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian racing driver and a businessman. CEO of solar energy provider SunEnergy1, Habul is a two-time winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour and the inaugural Intercontinental ...

withdrew from the event due to

Kenny Habul Kenny Charles Edward Habul (born 24 May 1973 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian racing driver and a businessman. CEO of solar energy provider SunEnergy1, Habul is a two-time winner of the Bathurst 12 Hour and the inaugural Intercontinental ...

having an illness.

Practice

There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1

The first practice session took place at 10:55 am PT on Friday and ended with

Renger van der Zande Renger is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Annemarie Renger (1919–2008), German politician * Thomas Renger (born 1972), German sitting volleyball player * Renger van der Zande (born 1986), Dutch racing driv ...

topping the charts for

Wayne Taylor Racing Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) is a sports car racing team that was founded in 2004 by racing driver Wayne Taylor. From 2023 to 2025, the team had a partnership with Andretti Global, Andretti Autosport that also saw them rebrand as Wayne Taylor Raci ...

, with a lap time of 1:16.832.

Practice 2

The second practice session took place at 3:15 pm PT on Friday and ended with

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 ...

topping the charts for

Acura Acura is the luxury and performance division of Japanese automaker Honda, based primarily in North America. The brand was launched on March 27, 1986, marketing luxury and performance automobiles. Acura sells cars in the United States, Canada, M ...

Team Penske Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Day ...

, with a lap time of 1:16.865.

Practice 3

The third and final practice session took place at 8:30 am PT on Saturday and ended with

topping the charts for

, with a lap time of 1:16.605.

Qualifying

Saturday afternoon's 65-minute qualifying session was divided into three groups. All three categories had 15-minute individual sessions, and regulations stipulated teams to nominate a single driver to qualify their cars. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order with the grid arranged to put the Prototype and GTLM cars ahead of all GTD entries.

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. 22 Tequila Patrón ESM entry was moved to the back of the P field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified. * The No. 54 CORE Autosport entry was moved to the back of the P field for starting the race with a different driver than who qualified. * The No. 44 Magnus Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field after the team elected to change tires after qualifying.

Race

Post-race

The result kept Curran and Nasr atop the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 299 points. Bennett and Braun advanced from third to second while Cameron and Montoya jumped from sixth to fourth. The result kept García and Magnussen atop the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 299 points, 9 points ahead of Briscoe and Westbrook. The result kept Sellers and Snow atop the GTD Drivers' Championship with 303 points, 6 points ahead of Legge. Cadillac, Ford, and Lamborghini continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships while Whelen Engineering Racing, Corvette Racing, and Paul Miller Racing kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships with one round left in the season.

Results

Class winners are denoted in bold and .

Notes

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

External links

{{Monterey Sports Car Championships

Monterey Grand Prix The Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey is an IndyCar Series race held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, California, United States. The event dates back to 1960, and became an American open-wheel car racing, American open wheel race ...