Ric Team Racing left Laguna Seca with a second straight LMP2 victory, but the road to it was anything but straightforward. In the JRT Course De Monterey, Round 4 of the 2026 VSCA SportsCar Championship and Round 2 of the Sprint Cup, the No. 87 Dallara P217 survived six lead changes, one lengthy full-course yellow and a late-race scare to secure victory by 3.423 seconds in one of the tighter LMP2 finishes the series has seen. It was the ninth-closest LMP2 class finish in VSCA history, and it came at the end of a 2.24-mile, 11-turn race that began in the late afternoon and ran into the kind of headlight-lit dusk that gives Laguna Seca a little extra drama.
Fast from the start
Tiago Maduro Dias put the No. 14 Grow Racing Team Dallara on pole with a 1:15.662, the first career pole for the Portuguese driver and the first LMP2 class pole for Grow Racing Team. It was an important step forward before the race had even started, and for a while it looked as though that breakthrough could become something even bigger.
That changed quickly once the green flag flew. Maduro Dias led the class at the start, but Afonso Reis moved the No. 87 Ric Team Racing Dallara into the lead on lap one and immediately set the tone. On a track where LMP2 traffic management is unusually awkward because the pace difference to both GT3 and GTP machinery is relatively small, clean air was valuable and clean passes were anything but guaranteed.
Even so, this was never a race one car could simply control from the front. The lead swung six times between the No. 14, No. 87 and No. 11 Vision 1 Motorsports entries, with pit timing, yellow-flag sequence and traffic all taking turns at the wheel of the story.
The caution everyone expected, and the chaos that followed
Most teams and fans had expected more than one full-course yellow, but the race produced just a single FCY. It came 39 minutes into the event and lasted 20 minutes, from the incident that triggered it until the restart at 59 minutes. For LMP2, that caution became the hinge point of the race.
Vision 1 Motorsports briefly looked to have played the sequence to perfection. The No. 11 vaulted from fourth to first under yellow, and Rico Kollmeier and Damien Behnke kept themselves firmly in the fight. But the same FCY would later come back to bite them. Race Control issued the No. 11 a 120-second post-race penalty for entering closed pit lane under caution after already completing its legal service during the same yellow period. The car returned one lap later for additional service when pit lane was closed, a procedural mistake that turned an apparent on-track victory into an eighth-place classified finish.
There was another ruling for the No. 11 during that caution as well. Race Control handed Kollmeier 4 license penalty points for failing to catch the pacing line as quickly and safely as possible after leaving pit lane, a situation that contributed to contact among other cars behind. Late in the race, Damien Behnke also received a warning and 1 license penalty point in GT traffic. None of that changed the raw speed Vision 1 showed, but it changed the shape of the result entirely.
Morse controversy casts a long shadow
The biggest story of the race, however, was not a battle for the lead. It was the storm surrounding Connor Morse and the No. 22 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara. Morse, just 17 years old, had only joined the defending LMP2 champions days before the race, but Laguna Seca turned that first VSCA SportsCar Championship start into a weekend that spiraled badly.
Race Control issued Morse a warning for a personal conduct policy violation early in the race, over a personal interaction with the No. 44 Fischer Motorsport Porsche team, which was deemed disrespectful. Later, after contact with the No. 77 GT PRO Virtual Power Simracing Porsche in Turn 5 sent the No. 22 into the gravel 37 minutes into the race, the situation escalated dramatically.
While recovering, Morse rejoined nearly perpendicular to the racing line and directly in front of the No. 87 and No. 30 LMP2 cars. Race Control ruled it an unsafe rejoin and issued 5 license penalty points. Moments later, under the race’s only FCY, Morse passed the No. 77 and brake-checked it under yellow in what Race Control deemed retaliatory and dangerous driving, issuing a level-two personal conduct penalty and 9 more license penalty points.
By the end of the race, the No. 22 had been involved in seven separate incidents. Morse accumulated 17 license penalty points in total - a new series record - and was handed an immediate six-month suspension after his first career VSCA SportsCar Championship start. After the race Morse launched an angry public tirade aimed at VSCA organizers and race control, further underscoring how far the weekend had unraveled. VSCA organizers declined to comment on the situation after the race.
All of it cast a shadow over what should have been a special occasion for Twin Turn’s team owners, twin brothers Sebastian and Dominik Isenberg, on a weekend when Sebastian’s wedding meant they could not attend the race at Laguna Seca in person. For one of the paddock’s most respected LMP2 operations and the defending class champions, it was a headline no team wants. After the race, according to information in the paddock the team released Morse.
Ric Team Racing weathers the punches
Up front, Ric Team Racing still had to earn this one the hard way. The No. 87 led a class-best 90 laps, but Laguna Seca never let it breathe easy. After commanding the opening phase, the car lost track position in the yellow-flag cycle, later regained it, and then saw the race destabilized again in the final hour.
The most dangerous moment came in the braking zone for Turn 8, when contact from the No. 44 GT3 Porsche spun the No. 87. Race Control deemed the GT3 car responsible, and the damage limitation by Ric Team Racing was good enough to keep the race alive. The incident also helped push the No. 87 over the incident-point threshold, forcing a drive-through penalty late in the race, which opened the door once more for Vision 1 Motorsports.
Still, Ric Team Racing refused to blink. Francisco Silva put the car back in front on lap 99, briefly lost the lead again on lap 101, and then inherited the victory after the No. 11’s post-race penalty was applied. In doing so, the rookie team made it back-to-back LMP2 victories after also winning at Sebring, a remarkable start for an entry that already looks every bit like a title contender.
There was history in that result too. Ric Team Racing became the latest team to add its name to Laguna Seca’s LMP2 winners list, following Vision 1 Motorsports in 2025, Gowin Racing in 2024, Trading Paints Racing in 2023 and Element SimRacing in 2022. Unlike several of those earlier winners, the No. 87 did not have the luxury of controlling the day from the front without interruption. This one had to be rebuilt more than once.
Podium fight stays alive to the end
Behind the winner, the No. 552 RedLab Competizione Dallara delivered one of the comeback drives of the day. Kevin Burnett spun early and fell from fifth to tenth, the kind of setback that can bury a debut before it has really begun. Instead, RedLab kept its head down, chipped away at the deficit and emerged second at the finish, only 3.423 seconds shy of victory in Burnett’s first-ever VSCA race.
The No. 14 Grow Racing Team Dallara completed the podium in third, 4.795 seconds off the win. For a team that claimed its first LMP2 pole and ran at the front throughout, third place was both encouragement and frustration. The raw pace was obvious, but traffic, race flow and a late drive-through penalty for too many incident points kept Grow from converting that speed into a first class victory.
Just off the podium, the No. 23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara climbed from 10th on the grid to fourth, gaining six positions and salvaging a strong points day despite contact with the No. 44 GT3 Porsche and the resulting drive-through. On a messy afternoon, it was an important recovery for a team trying to keep Ric Team Racing within reach in both the main championship and the Sprint Cup.
How the top ten shook out
Fifth went to the No. 420 Track Limits SimRacing Dallara after a race that included an early off-track excursion, multiple pit visits and a late drive-through. Sixth was the No. 757 Flight Level Racing Dallara, though that result came with a 60-second post-race penalty after contact with the No. 47 in Turn 9. Seventh was the No. 47 Superstar Racing Team Dallara, one lap down after a turbulent race that included a spin, contact and a late-race penalty for too many incident points.
Eighth, officially, was the No. 11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara. That classification told only half the story, because the car had actually crossed the finish line first on the track before the 120-second post-race penalty dropped it back. Ninth went to the No. 22 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara after a bruising race defined more by disciplinary decisions than lap time. Tenth was the No. 99 Monarch Racing Team Dallara, two laps down after a string of penalties and repeated run-ins in traffic.
Championship picture shifts again
The win keeps the No. 87 Ric Team Racing Dallara on top of the LMP2 SportsCar Championship standings with 1415 points, now 85 ahead of the No. 23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim and 175 clear of the No. 11 Vision 1 Motorsports. In the Sprint Cup, the No. 87 also leads, with the No. 23 and the No. 552 RedLab Competizione tied for second, both 85 points back.
As always in VSCA, the finishing order does not necessarily tell the full points story. Because the clean racing bonus awards points based on the lowest incident totals, and because that bonus uses a scale equal to 50 percent of the finishing-points system, the race winner is not automatically the biggest points scorer on the day. What Laguna Seca did make clear, though, is that Ric Team Racing is no longer just an early-season surprise. Four rounds in, it has the profile of a team that intends to stay in this fight for the long haul.
Post-Race Reactions
Francisco Silva, #87 Ric Team Racing Dallara P217: “After the contact, the first thing I felt was relief that the car was not damaged. I tried my best to stay calm because I knew there was still a lot of the race left, even with the penalty to serve. After that, it was full push all the way to try to recover what was lost.”
“It is still too early to say much, but what I can say is that we have a strong team capable of winning, and we are very committed to fighting for the championship.”
Afonso Reis, #87 Ric Team Racing Dallara P217: “Actually, we only lost the lead because we had to serve a drive-through penalty after a GT3 car bumped us, which put us over the incident limit. Inside the cockpit, I felt completely calm. We knew our pace was superior to the competition. My focus was on managing the gap until the first pit stop. During the second stint, because of the maximum driving time regulations, I picked up the pace, which allowed us to build a massive gap over second place by the end of the run.”
“It is still too early for that. We know we have very strong opponents, and they are going to give us a hard time all the way until the end of the championship.”
Tiago Maduro Dias, #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara P217: “It is honestly a bit of both. Getting my first career pole and Grow Racing Team’s first LMP2 pole is a huge milestone, and a podium is still something to be proud of, but with the pace we had today, this one stings because it really felt like ours to win. I am confident that if I had kept the No. 87 behind at the end of lap one, we had the speed to open a gap and control the race from the front. But once traffic came into play and I got pulled into that fight for second, it became really hard to use our pace properly. The hardest part is that we still fought our way back into a position to win with only a few minutes left, so it is impossible not to stand here replaying all those split-second decisions and thinking about what might have been.”
“I definitely walk away encouraged by the raw pace, because Laguna showed we can take pole and fight right at the front with the guys who have been setting the standard so far. Naturally there is some frustration too, because this felt like one of those rare chances to convert that speed into a win, but there is no point dwelling on that now. Our job is to take the lessons, keep building, and make sure we are in an even stronger position when the next opportunity comes.”
“I also want to give some credit to Ric Team Racing. Their execution was nearly flawless today, and what they have done at the start of this season has been seriously impressive. To come in as a new team and take back-to-back wins straight away says a lot about the level they are operating at, and it is great to see another Portuguese team showing that kind of pace and race craft.”
Alirio Rego, #14 Grow Racing Team Dallara P217: “It was a mix of emotions for me. On one hand, it feels good to be fighting at the front and, considering practice, not getting 10 off-tracks per stint was a huge win for me. On the other hand, it really hurt getting that drive-through in the final minutes because we knew we had the pace to catch the leader, or since they got a penalty after the race, we could stay in the lead. During practice this week, my biggest fear was actually finishing the stints without off-tracks, which I was not managing to do. On top of that, I spun out in the last corner while trying to push the car. In the end, it was a good result for us, a podium on a tough track with three classes and against these guys who are fast and consistent.”
Kevin Burnett, #552 RedLab Competizione Dallara P217: “Honestly, I was just glad I hit nothing. I have done enough rally racing to know it does not matter how many times you spin, as long as the car keeps running you still have a chance at a good result, so I just put my head down and went to work.”
“I never rule out the possibility of a podium, and I never doubted the speed of our car when it is set up by our performance engineer Danial. He has a wealth of knowledge, and I trust that whenever he gives us the keys to the car, a good result is possible.”
“It shows that we are not to be ruled out in any race or in the season championship. We will fight tooth and nail and only get better with every lap and every race.”
Lucas Moncla, #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara P217: “It was so crucial to keep it clean today and come out with some good points. We knew we likely did not have the outright pace for the win, but we also knew that if we kept it clean, a podium was still on the cards, which likely would have happened without the incident with the GT3 and our drive-through penalty.”
“Yes, we are happy to still be very much in the fight, but it is unfortunate that we lost the lead in the overall championship. Sebring still very much stings and is a case of what could have been after spinning into the wall in Sunset while leading with three hours to go, after running at the front for most of the race. Instead of dwelling on that, though, we have mentally reset and are ready to put up a tough fight for the rest of the season. Ric Team Racing has not seen the last of the No. 23 Twin Turn LMP2 entry, and we will be coming back for the championship lead next month in Virginia.”
Adam Mailhot, #23 Twin Turn SR by Debeka Bornheim Dallara P217: “Yes, this is a bittersweet result for me. All in all, I am happy with fourth place, but I cannot help but look at being 16 seconds off the leader and think about what could have been. I feel awful for my contact with the No. 44, and I apologize to that team, as well as my own, for my mistake. It was just one of those situations where I had target fixation trying to stay with the car in front of me, and I misjudged the room. Between that and a subpar qualifying, we might have been standing on the podium.”
“With some of the mainstay No. 23 drivers unable to make the race, I was called up from the No. 22 to fill the seat with the job of getting as many points as possible and keeping it clean. When all was said and done, I feel as though I was able to accomplish those goals. While not perfect, I was able to hand the car off with no damage penalty to my co-driver, and we came away tied for second in total points for the race. I look forward to VIR and plan to correct my mistakes from Seca.”
“As a fill-in for the No. 23 this weekend at Seca, I will defer that question to Lucas. What I will say is that, knowing the mainstay guys in the No. 23, there is no quit in them. They are still very much in the fight and hungry for the lead. We have a mindset on our team of understanding our mistakes and learning from them, but not fixating on what is in the past. There is no doubt in my mind that the No. 23 will be in it to win it at VIR, and I look forward to seeing what they can do.”
Damien Behnke, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara P217: “Disappointment. When a mistake that leads to no advantage gained takes your win away, a win that was earned by staying under 10 incident points and doing everything else correctly. We are not a team that will win by pace alone.”
“It is a big loss that could easily be the deciding factor between being the champion or finishing second. Like I said, we are not a team that wins on pace alone. So we are under even more pressure to make sure we stay clean and finish strong for the rest of the season. There are still a lot of races left.”
Rico Kollmeier, #11 Vision 1 Motorsports Dallara P217: “There was a problem with the black box pit settings, and we did not catch it in time, so we had to go back for fuel. To say it is frustrating is an understatement.”
Looking Ahead
Next up is the Virginia Sports Car Grand Prix on April 18, 2026, at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia, scheduled to start at 16:00 GMT. It will be Round 5 of 11 in the championship, and the first time LMP2 returns to VIR since 2024. That last LMP2 race there produced a 0.312-second finish, still the closest in class history. After what Laguna Seca delivered, Virginia already feels like a race worth circling twice.
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