Patrick Fogel and Nicholas Johnston hugged and celebrated in victory lane after accomplishing a major milestone in the history of their team, Composite Performance and to give their #15 Cadillac V-Series.R GTP its first points win of the season.
The Canadian team out of Fredericton, New Brunswick previously won the exhibition event, The Roar Before The 24 in January, but Laguna Seca marked the first time they captured a checkered flag in a VSCA SportsCar Championship points-paying event.
Saturday’s win also continues a strong upward trend for the team after finishing second at Sebring in March. The team’s low point of the season so far was a seventh place at Long Beach in February.
Speaking of “low point” - a number of drivers and teams shared words after the race, about the exceptionally wild race and large number of incidents and crashes in the two-hour and 40 minute race.
The Course De Monterey was slowed by only one full-course yellow but saw several contenders fall prey to incidents - some of them more violent than others.
Leading 62 laps en route to their win, even Fogel and Johnston had their share of scary moments, including a contact with the #29 Mercedes of Firestorm Motorsport on lap eleven.
But overcoming all obstacles, it was Johnston taking the checkered flag after the Californian sun had set over the hills of Laguna Seca and the team’s celebrations began.
“This was without a doubt the hardest race I've had to run.”, said Patrick Fogel in victory lane.
“I only ran two clean laps the whole race, lap one and two (laughing). There was traffic the entire rest of the race. It probably helps that we won, but that race was so much fun to run in. The management of traffic was so much more vital than outright speed.”
“We managed to only get eleven incident points and our Cadillac was one of two GTPs to not get a drive-through penalty. That is how we won by a minute, just keeping it clean and managing traffic. And oh yeah, having the race run in the evening and finish after sunset was fun. I love sunset and night time racing, so I loved that!”
Taking second place, Bravo Snow Schatten and their #50 Acura ARX-06 GTP celebrated their best-ever VSCA result with Gustavo Frigotto and Gabriel Pecly behind the steering wheel.
Pecly, a 21-year old sim racer from Bom Jesus do Itabapoana, Brazil only became an officially registered member of VSCA one day before the race, but immediately made a mark in his team’s performance, taking the second step on the podium. For Frigotto it was a sweet redemption after a disqualification at Daytona in January.
Completing the podium was the #88 Cadillac of DS Racing eSports Team and Rui Sousa and Pedro Espadinha.
The highest-finishing Porsche in GTP class and taking fourth place, #3 Mayer Simspeed Performance started out strong with Niclas Pedersen leading the way and team-mate Kyle Birnie taking over in the second half of the race. In total the Teisendorf, Germany team led 35 laps, but finished one lap down when they had to take a drive-through penalty on the final of the race.
The #42 DS Racing eSports Team Cadillac rounded out the top-five with Francisco Pereira and Tomas Mora, one lap down.
HAC Racing’s Christophe Demay and Matthew Routon were left with disappointment, after their #111 Cadillac was involved in a major multi-car pileup in turn eleven in the second half of the race, leading to a sixth-place finish in the end. The result resulted in the entry dropping two spots in the championship standings and losing the championship lead.
Denmark’s #278 Stop N’ Go Racing Porsche with Morten Kofoed and Thomas Mørk finished two laps down in seventh place, followed by the #51 World Of SimRacing Team Cadillac of Iker Estefania and Dani Fonte in P8.
Defending series champions #1 Grizzly Motorsports Porsche piloted by Joshua Wolf and Scott Meredith took ninth place. Leading on lap 77, just before the two-hour mark of the race, Joshua Wolf saw his team’s race spiral out of control - literally - on lap 88 following a pit stop.
Touching the dirt on the pit exit road in turn one, Wolf briefly lost control but was able to recover quickly, only to find trouble in turn four of the same lap, when car contact between Wolf and the #016 Vulture Motorsports Ferrari of Justin DeLano sent the Grizzly Motorsports machine hard into the tire barriers. In the end the #1 car finished eight laps down in P9.
Taking P10 and rounding out the top ten finishers, the #19 Trading Paints Racing Porsche 963 GTP was facing a 23-lap deficit at the end of the race, leaving Jordan Erickson and Selena Ward with very little reason to be happy.
And all of this, despite things looking very promising for the Allentown, Pennsylvania team at the 80-minute mark. Ward was running in first position on lap 54 when, coming out of turn ten, an awkward contact in the left rear from the #18 Gowin Racing Dallara of Jack Hedgcoxe created so much damage, that Ward had to bring the car in for extensive repairs immediately after, bringing to an end another promising run for a team that has won six races in LMP2 in 2023 but has been looking to find its groove in GTP class this season.
The #4 Fischer Motorsport Porsche of Thomas Martin and Patrick Rall was the final points-scoring GTP class car to finish the race, 30 laps down and after leading five laps earlier in the race. But a major incident involving the #18 Gowin Racing Dallara, #46 Rising Panda Racing Dallara and the #80 Digital Chicane Ferrari in turn two resulted in severe damage to the German team’s car.
Composite Performance takes championship lead
By way of winning at Laguna Seca the #15 Cadillac now takes the lead in the GTP class championship, 41 points over Daytona winners #3 Mayer Simspeed Performance while former points leaders #111 HAC Racing drop to third.
After realizing they’d just claimed the championship lead, Patrick Fogel had this to say:
“It's been quite the start to the season! We feel we have had speed to win every race this season, but have honestly shot ourselves in the foot in each race so far. I've been sim racing with Nick since 2003 and it feels awesome to get to team up with him and compete for wins.”
“Unfortunately though, Nick has to miss COTA, VIR and Homestead so it's going to be key to avoid a drop in performance during those weeks. Brandon (Walker) will be running with me at COTA, which is going to be the first time I've turned laps at COTA. Going into the season I was hopeful for a potential title chase, so it feels good to be at this spot at this point in the season.”
VSCA to make debut at Circuit of the Americas next
With Laguna Seca still making waves in the paddock by hosting one of the craziest, wildest VSCA SportsCar Championship races since 2022 when the series visited the same track, the series’ focus shifts to Circuit of the Americas - or short “COTA” - coming up next on May 11th. For the first time ever VSCA will race at the Texas track for the inaugural Lone Star Grand Prix.
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