The 2016 Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix were a pair of sports car races sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) held on the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, United States, on May 1, 2016. The events served as the fourth of twelve scheduled rounds of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship. Both races were contested over two hours. The race marked the third time that the course had been used for IMSA racing and the second time that the venue had featured a doubleheader weekend with two races.
During the first race, the No. 55 Mazda Prototype driven by of Tristan Nunez started in first position overall and held the lead until a slow pit stop during the second full course caution period.This handed the lead to Sean Rayhall in the No. 0 DeltaWing who held first position until Oswaldo Negri Jr. overtook Rayhall on the restart. Negri maintained the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier's advantage after the final pit stop cycle to secure the victory. VisitFlorida Racing's No. 90 car of Marc Goossens and Ryan Dalziel finished second and the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype of Eric Curran and Dane Cameron came in third. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won the Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) category with a Ford GT shared by Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook after Westbrook saved fuel in the closing minutes. Scuderia Corsa were second in class with Daniel Serra and Alessandro Pier Guidi. Porsche took third with Earl Bamber and Frédéric Makowiecki sharing a 911 RSR.
During the second race, Robert Alon started in first position overall, but was passed by James French on lap 4. After the pit stop cycle, Tom Kimber-Smith took the lead and maintained the PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' car advantage to secure victory in the Prototype Challenge (PC) category. Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande finished second, while Jon Bennett and Colin Braun was third. Mario Farnbacher and Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Alex Job Racing Porsche were unchallenged throughout the race and took the victory in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class. Christina Nielsen and Alessandro Balzan were second in class for Scuderia Corsa, and TRG's Brandon Davis and James Davison took third.
The result meant Cameron and Curran took over the lead of the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 121 points. Negri Jr. and Pew moved from seventh to fifth. Simpson and Goikhberg continued to top the Prototype Challenge Drivers' Championship with 128 points, but their advantage was reduced to zero points as Alon and Kimber-Smith took over second position. Gavin and Milner continued to the GTLM Drivers' Championship, but their advantage was reduced by six points as Bamber and Makowiecki took over second in the GTLM Drivers' Championship. Honda and Chevrolet left Laguna Seca as the respective Prototype and GTLM Manufactures' Championship leaders with eight races left in the season.
Background
Preview International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2015. It was the third consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2016 Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix was the fourth of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2016 by IMSA, and it was the second round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The events were held at the eleven-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey County, California on May 1, 2016. Due to the field size, IMSA would use a doubleheader race format where the Prototype and GTLM classes would participate in the first event while the Prototype Challenge and GTD classes would participate in the second event.
Before the race, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 93 points, ahead of Eric Curran and Dane Cameron with 90 points, and Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor in third with 89 points. With 101 points, PC was led by Misha Goikhberg and Stephen Simpson with an eight-point advantage over Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande. In GTLM, the Drivers' Championship was led by Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner with 105 points; the trio held an eighteen-point gap over Earl Bamber and Frédéric Makowiecki. Andy Lally, John Potter, and Marco Seefried led the GTD Drivers' Championship with 67 points; the trio held a five-point advantage over Alessandro Balzan, Christina Nielsen, and Jeff Segal. Honda, Chevrolet, and Audi were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Action Express Racing, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Corvette Racing, and Magnus Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.
Entry list Forty-two cars were officially entered for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix, with the bulk of entries in the two Grand Touring (GT) categories: Grand Touring Le Mans (GTLM) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD). Since the majority of the remaining rounds of the 2016 IMSA SportsCar Championship were sprint races, GTD teams entered their regular driver pairings for the first time this season. Action Express Racing (AER) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars while VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and WTR fielded one. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 cars and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) entered one Ligier JS P2. Panoz brought the DeltaWing car to Laguna Seca for the fourth successive year. The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of seven Oreca FLM09 cars: two from Starworks Motorsports. BAR1 Motorsports, CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech Motorsports and PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports entered one car each. GTLM was represented by ten entries from five different brands. Alessandro Pier Guidi returned to the No. 68 Scuderia Corsa entry. In the list of GTD entrants, seventeen GT3-specification vehicles were represented by seven different manufacturers. Lone Star Racing made their season debut.
Practice There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the races on Sunday: two on Friday and one on Saturday.The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon while the third session on Saturday morning lasted 45 minutes.
In the first practice session, Joel Miller set the fastest time in the No. 70 Mazda with a time of 1 minute, 18.564 seconds, 0.004 seconds faster than teammate Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Mazda. Oswaldo Negri Jr. was third fastest in the No. 60 Ligier, Ricky Taylor's No. 10 Corvette DP placed fourth, and Dane Cameron's No. 31 AER car rounded out the top five. The fastest PC class car was Renger van der Zande in the No. 8 Starworks entry with 1 minute, 20.018 seconds, followed by Colin Braun in the No. 54 CORE Autosport car. The GTLM class was topped by the No. 68 Ferrari 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi. Dirk Müller in the No. 66 Ford GT was second and Toni Vilander's No. 62 Ferrari was third. Alex Riberas in the No. 23 Team Seattle/Alex Job Racing Porsche was fastest in GTD with a time of 1 minute, 25.260 seconds.
In the second practice session, Bomarito's No. 55 Mazda was fastest with a time of 1 minute, 18.139 seconds, ahead of the No. 70 Mazda. The seven-vehicle PC class was led by CORE Autosport's No. 54 car, driven by Braun with a time of 1 minute, 19.673 seconds. Scuderia Corsa's Daniel Serra led GTLM from Joey Hand's second-placed No. 66 Ford GT. Mario Farnbacher led GTD with a time of 1 minute, 25.390 seconds.
Miller led the final session in the No. 70 Mazda with a lap of 1 minute, 18.478 seconds. Tristan Nunez's No. 55 Mazda was second fastest. The No. 60 Ligier of Negri set the third-quickest lap. Dane Cameron's No. 31 AER car, along with Jordan Taylor's No. 10 WTR Corvette DP were fourth and fifth. A 1:20.094 lap saw van der Zande's No. 8 Starworks vehicle lead PC over Braun's CORE Autosport entry. Ferrari paced GTLM with Risi Competizione's 488 of Vilander lapping 1:23.086, ahead of the two Ford GTs. With a 1:25.639 lap, Riberas led the GTD class in the No. 23 Porsche, followed by Jens Klingmann's No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M6.
Qualifying Saturday afternoon's 90-minute four-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM, PC, and Prototype had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order. IMSA would arranged the grid to put all Prototypes ahead of the PC, GTLM, and GTD cars.
Nunez in the No. 55 Mazda set a new category track record, and took his first career pole position with a lap of 1 minutes, 18.143 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by Tom Long whose best lap in the sister No. 70 car was 0.236 seconds slower. Cameron's No. 31 Corvette DP took third followed by Ricky Taylor's No. 10 WTR car in fourth. Christian Fittipaldi's No. 5 ATR car started from fifth place. Sean Rayhall qualified the DeltaWing in sixth position. In GTLM, Serra took his first pole of the season with a lap of 1 minutes, 22.867 seconds. Ford took second and third positions, led by its No. 67 car driven by Briscoe (whose time was 0.169 seconds faster than Müller's third-placed No. 66 entry). The duo of Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.Rs were fourth and sixth: Tommy Milner in the No. 4 car was faster than the sister No. 3 entry of Jan Magnussen. They were separated by fifth-placed Vilander in the No. 62 Ferrari. The two BMW Team RLL entries and Porsche North America cars rounded out the GTLM qualifiers.
On his tenth lap, Alon took pole position for PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports with a time 1 minute, 21.146 in PC. James French's Performance Tech car qualified second, and Alex Popow's No. 8 Starworks vehicle took third. Riberas took pole position in GTD in AJR's No. 23 Porsche with a 1-minute, 25.775 seconds time. Christina Nielsen put the No. 63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari second, Patrick Lindsey for Park Place was third and Cédric Sbirrazzuoli's No. 27 Dream Lamborghini took fourth.
Qualifying results Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by . P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).