The throwback cars gather!
Thursday afternoon, the special throwback cars from various teams in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge gathered for a photoshoot approaching the Andretti Hairpin at Laguna Seca.
They were joined by a couple of interlopers with throwback liveries that have been in use all year: Myers-Riley Motorsports’ #16 Ford Mustang GT3 Evo in its Bud Moore Engineering Trans-Am livery, and Turner Motorsport with its timeless original blue and yellow on the #96 BMW M4 GT4 EVO.
Eng regretful after Long Beach dust-up with friend Heinrich
Philipp Eng of BMW M Team WRT expressed remorse for the mid-race incidents between himself and Porsche factory driver Laurin Heinrich at Long Beach last month.
“We had a chat immediately afterwards,” Eng explained at Laguna Seca. “We’ve known each other for many years. I don’t know if many guys know, but we actually won the virtual 24 Hours of Nürburgring together on iRacing a few years ago during COVID times. So we have a very good connection.
“And I mean, we talked about it and we shook it off. It was, I think, two very unfortunate incidents.”
In the first incident, Eng blocked the #5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 driven by Heinrich down to the wall along Seaside Way. On the next lap, Eng turned in on Heinrich and the two made contact, sending Eng into the tire barrier.
Adding to the damage the #25 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 sustained in the incidents themselves, the Austrian driver was ruled at fault for the collision and given a 60-second stop-and-hold penalty, finishing 11th out of 11 cars alongside co-driver Marco Wittmann.
“The first [incident], I take full blame on myself,” Eng admitted. “I misjudged the situation. I didn’t think at that time that his nose was already between my tail and the wall, so I apologized to him, I apologized to the team, because it was full blame on myself.
“The penalty I got was fully deserved in general.”
De Angelis: ‘Our time will come’ after good Long Beach run
Also finding himself on the wrong end of a collision at Long Beach was Roman de Angelis of Aston Martin THOR Team, which struggled at Daytona and Sebring, then saw hopes of the #23 Aston Martin Valkyrie’s best finish of 2026 vanish when De Angelis and Sheldon van der Linde collided coming off a restart.
“In the race, I didn’t really know what happened. I had turned in, and then I was in the wall. I checked where he was when I hit the brakes, and he was just a little speck at that point,” said De Angelis.
“I’m not one to cause issues or drive dirty, you can probably look back at all the IMSA racing I’ve done, and I haven’t found a penalty or anything. Not my style of driving.”
The #23 Aston Martin of De Angelis and Ross Gunn was running fourth at the time of the incident, but dropped to ninth at the chequered flag.
Despite the lacklustre result, the Canadian took away a positive impression from the weekend as a whole. “I think Long Beach is about where we expected and where we wanted to be,” he said. “I think the pace, relative to ’25, was way better. Pace aside, the driveability was way better.
“I really enjoyed driving the car there, where last year, it was emotional, for lack of better words.
“To be running in the top five and then kind of get thrown out of a result was a shame, but we’re just keeping positive, and our time will come.
“We look at qualifying this year, where we were three or four-tenths from pole in Long Beach. Last year, I think we were over a second and a half. So, a massive improvement. Obviously we want to be quick with the pace, but when we’re actually abel to push and extract everything out of the car – which is something we struggled to do last year – it’s also more of an enjoyable experience for us.
“That’s just going to carry throughout the year.”
MMR Mustang wins pole for Saturday’s Michelin Pilot Challenge sprint
Michelin Pilot Challenge action on Friday consisted of two practice sessions and qualifying. Nate Cicero put his #13 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 on pole overall from the GS class. He and rookie teammate Robert Noaker, both dominant in IMSA’s one-make series in the last few seasons, will look to defend their pole position in hopes of bringing home their first victory as a duo tomorrow afternoon.
The #23 Koch-Copeland Motorsports Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 finished second overall with Ford Koch and Jaxon Bell at the wheel, posing as the first of four Toyotas in the top six behind the #13. The #12 RAFA Racing Toyota finished third ahead of the #67 BSI Racing Toyota, with the #39 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing BMW M4 GT4 EVO finishing fastest of the BMWs in fifth position.
In TCR, Mason Filippi and Bryson Morris carried their practice-leading pace into qualifying to set the fastest lap in class with a 1:29.373 for their #33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Louis-Philippe Montour and Karl Wittmer in the #93 MMG Honda Civic FL5 TCR will line up second tomorrow, just 0.126 seconds off the class leader, after great practice performances proved their pace this afternoon.
The #5 KMW Motorsports With TMR Engineering Honda will start third with Tim Lewis and Rocco Pasquarella at the wheel, ahead of fourth-place Harry Gottsacker and Lance Bergstein in the #18 BHA Hyundai.
PILOT CHALLENGE QUALIFYING RESULTS >>>
Loftsgard sweeps Mustang Challenge practice ahead of Qualifying
In Mustang Challenge North America Practice 1, Sebring victor Cole Loftsgard quickly came to grips with the track, topping the timing sheets early in the session. The Round 3 Racing driver maintained his spot at the top throughout the rest of the session, lapping in the 1:33.3s before setting a final overall fastest lap of 1:33.172.
Practice 2 saw Loftsgard top the timing screens again: He was immediately on the pace, which has become a pattern for the rookie driver. His fastest time was a 1:32.673, a full 0.5 seconds faster than his lap time in Practice 1 and the first sub-1:33 time of the weekend.
Devin Anderson, who went on to take the pole position for Race 1 on Saturday, finished second in the #22 TechSport Racing car, followed by Sandy Satullo in the first of the Wheelhouse Motorsports cars with his #7 Mustang in third.
An incident in turn 11 involving Ford CEO Jim Farley in the #17 Wheelhouse Motorsports car and Chris Clarke in the #5 Paley Motorsport with AAG Racing halted the first session, bringing out a red flag with 20 minutes remaining. The incident was reviewed, finding Clarke at fault, and he was therefore penalised by having his fastest lap time taken away in Qualifying – but Clarke would go on to win the pole in his class regardless.
Dark Horse Legends saw Tom Tait go quickest in across both sessions the #8 Wheelhouse Motorsports car. He was followed by teammate and Practice 1’s leader, Joseph Dederichs, in the #63 Wheelhouse car. #70 Round 3 Racing driver Joe Koenig was the third fastest in class.
MUSTANG CHALLENGE PRACTICE RESULTS >>>
Bamber Leads Super Trofeo Practice
The #33 XONINE Racing Lamborghini Huracán of Will Bamber and Darius Trinka went quickest in the first practice session of the weekend for the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America series. Bamber won both races at the season-opening round at Sebring last time out, and his time in Practice 1 was the best across both practices.
Behind him, from the Pro-Am class, was the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing car of Graham Doyle and Danny Formal in second place overall.
Former Lamborghini factory driver Dennis Lind was third-quickest in the #29 TR3 Racing Lamborghini, and second in Pro for the day.
In Am, the #48 Precision Performance Motorsports was fastest in the hands of David Staab. LB Cup was led by the #66 Forty7 Motorsport of Christopher Koebbe. Both drivers led their class in both practice sessions.
SUPER TROFEO PRACTICE RESULTS >>>
Images © IMSA, Ford
