Laurin Heinrich left WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca with the IMSA GTP championship lead in his own hands after winning the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship for JDC-Miller Motorsports.
The race ran the full 100-minute distance with a barely-controlled level of contact through GTP, GTD Pro and GTD, but in the end the JDC-Miller Porsche 963 stayed clean and stayed quick.
"Lauren Heinrich, you said it Calvin, he is now singularly in charge of GTP," the broadcast team said as the chequered flag fell. "The kid is the real deal. What a day for JDC-Miller Motorsports."
Wayne Taylor Racing's strategy call moved Heinrich into the position he needed at the right time, with the team also sending its number 7 Porsche down pit road for a right-side-only tyre change in a late Hail Mary that ultimately failed to net the win but did pull the car forward through the field.
"Felipe Nasr coming down pit road said, uh, we are changing tyres, right? They said right sides only," the broadcast noted. "So new Michelins going on the right side and the fuel to make it to the end of the race. We'll see where this Hail Mary nets out."
GTP class action was punctuated by a turn-one mistake from Filipe Albuquerque early in the race, a contact-heavy battle for second and a race-defining late-race exchange between the WeatherTech-liveried Cadillacs of Jack Aitken and Louis Deletraz.
"That was a hit," the broadcast called as Aitken cleared his teammate. "Deletraz felt the heat from the outside and he loses the front end right there, clips Aitken, but Aitken is off and on his way and established really quickly a two-and-a-half-second gap over the fellow Cadillac driver."
In GTD Pro, the Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 of Christopher Mies and Frederic Vervisch ended a difficult start to the year with a long-overdue class win.
"Two corners to go for the Belgian, Freddy Vervisch, hadn't seen victory lane since the Rolex 18 months ago," the broadcast commentary said. "Katsburg in the dust, Vervisch looking for his second win for Christopher Mies. Ford wins at Laguna Seca. Ford versus Chevy, and Ford comes out on top."
Vervisch was direct about how the result came together.
"Qualifying yesterday went well with P3," he said. "Then we had a bit of a moment plus a penalty which I don't agree with, but it actually helped us in the end. Our strategist did an amazing job. We used the disadvantage to our advantage and it paid off."
The Corvette Racing entry of Tommy Milner and Nicky Catsburg, who had publicly committed to a points-first approach for the season, came home second in GTD Pro after surviving a contact-heavy battle with the works Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli.
GTD belonged to Wayne Taylor Racing's number 45 Lamborghini Huracan, with Trent Hindman and Danny Formal taking another mature win.
"It was just like CTMP last year, absolutely a team effort," Hindman said. "We had speed all weekend. We knew we can execute. Danny did a hell of a job in qualifying, obviously, in that first stint, and then that strategy there by the WTR guys, beautifully executed. It got dicey there with some of the GTD Pro battles going on and us getting caught in the pit cycle, but the biggest thing was the box was telling me to be patient and work through it."
In the championships, Hindman and Formal pushed Wayne Taylor Racing's GTD case forward, while in GTD the points lead remains with Bryan Sellers, with Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher closing in after a third podium in four races for the number 27 Turner Motorsport BMW.
The IMSA paddock now turns to the next round, where Heinrich's lead is real but extremely thin.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/laurin-heinrich-laguna-seca-jdc-miller-imsa-gtp-lead-2026). Visit for full coverage.*