No. 14 Dallara LMP2 second at Laguna Seca
The Monterey Sports Car Challenge at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca turned into another challenging race for Fischer Motorsport.
Once again entering three cars, the No. 84 and No. 85 Porsche 911 GT3 R in GTD class competition, it was the No. 14 Dallara P217 LMP2 making the most of this two-hour and 40-minute race by taking second place.
The two GTD class entries finished 12th and fifth, respectively.
For the Dallara LMP2, drivers Thomas Martin and Travis Linscome-Hatfield had to rally coming all the way from the back end of the field. Due to technical problems, Linscome-Hatfield had to start the race from pit lane, nearly a half lap behind the field.
Fortunately the first full-course yellow came out after just 29 minutes, giving the team time to catch up with the rest of the LMP2 field.
Under the yellow flag however, the car suffered damage when it got hit from behind by the No. 50 LMP2 of Wesett Racing’s Ryan Read.
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The No. 84 Porsche 911 GT3 R was collected in two incidents at Laguna Seca, the biggest one on lap 85 going into turn two
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The team continued on as the damage was not severe and decided to gamble on strategy, to stay out under yellow flag conditions. The decision paid off short term as it moved the team up to P7 when the restart followed on lap 32.
In GTD competition, the No. 84 Porsche decided to stay out under the full course yellow as well, while the No. 85 Porsche came in for a pit stop holding the 17th position.
When the race restarted on lap 30, the No. 84 Porsche with Manuel Mayer behind the wheel was running in fourth position.
But just 17 laps later, Mayer inevitably had to bring the car down pit road to take on fuel and also to complete the team’s lone driver swap of the race.
Once pit stops cycled through, the No. 84 Porsche was now scored in tenth position, about 50 seconds behind the leaders.
But Van Meppelen, who was now in the No. 84 Porsche, put the fight to the competition. On lap 58 the Canadian made a daring move into turn two, to pass the No. 111 HAC Racing Lamborghini of Richard Franke to move into ninth place.
By the time lap 68 came around, Van Meppelen was running in fourth position again while the No. 85 Porsche made its final pit stop and lone driver change on lap 64 and was now scored in P8.
Eight laps later, having moved all the way into second position, the No. 84 Porsche team had a miscommunication over the radio, causing Van Meppelen to make a split-second late decision to dive into the pit entry road, setting up a huge crash with the No. 11 LMP2 of Vision 1 Motorsports.
The crash damaged the rear of the Porsche 911 GT3 R but even more importantly resulted in a one lap post-race penalty against the team for the incident.
After the pit stop, Van Meppelen was now running in ninth place, 47 seconds behind the leaders, but with over 40 minutes still remaining in the race all the while knowing there was still a one-lap post-race penalty coming.
On lap 85 Van Meppelen got involved in a high-speed crash heading into turn two when a GTD class car was attempting a pass to his inside at the same time when a LMDh class car was attempting to pass both cars.
Despite yet another crash, the car was still able to continue and finish the race, albeit one lap down from the leaders. With the post-race penalty applied, the team wound up 12th officially.
The No. 85 Porsche was able to finish the race without further incidents and Will Robertson brought home the fifth-place finish in the end, taking the checkered flag at sunset over the Californian desert.
In the No. 14 Dallara LMP2 team, the driver change pit stop was completed on lap 40 and Thomas Martin took over for the rest of the race.
On lap 70, with just about one hour remaining in the race, Martin came back into the pits for the next scheduled pit stop. After pit stops cycled through the team held ninth position, getting ready for the final stages of the race.
Surprisingly, another full-course yellow never came for the remainder of the race, putting the pressure on the No. 14 Dallara LMP2 team when to make the final pit stop for a splash of fuel to make it to the finish.
On lap 104 Martin finally brought the car into the pits. The crew completed a flawless pit stop and serviced the car in just 14 seconds and the Australian driver went back out on the race track now running in fourth position.
Just four laps later Martin moved into third place when the No. 96 Dallara LMP2 of Albrecht Motorsports made its final pit stop.
A post-race penalty to the No. 86 Dallara of GSE eSports Racing meant a second-place finish officially for Martin and Linscome-Hatfield - the team’s first podium finish since Daytona.
In the LMP2 championship, the No. 14 continues to hold third place, now 87 points out of the lead.
In GTD competition, the No. 85 Porsche moves up three spots into P6, 456 points behind championship leaders and three-time race winners Kinetic Racing. The No. 84 Porsche is right behind in P7 with a gap of 474 points.
The next race in the VSCA SportsCar Championship will take place on May 20th at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
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