Tire Strategy Proves Decisive in Laguna Seca Thriller

Tire strategy played a central role in Sunday’s StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, as Laurin Heinrich’s late-race charge to victory for the No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 was built on a calculated call that paid off on the final lap.

JDC-Miller opted to take four Michelin tires on their second-to-last stop, then pitted for energy only in their final stop, banking on the same set of tires to pay off in the closing stages.

They did. Heinrich made a last-lap pass on Earl Bamber’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R and held on for a 0.758-second win.

“I think our strength was on tires, which we could really make use of in the last four or five laps,” said Heinrich.

“You have to set up the car quite well because this is a high-load track and the asphalt is quite rough, so it’s quite hard on the tires.

“And the team asked me if I want to change tires or not and this was the last set that we had and I knew I want to take that towards the end of the race and it paid off perfectly.”

Bamber and the No. 31 Cadillac team took a different approach, making zero tire changes across their final two stops, a strategy that nearly worked. “He just had much more grip than us at the end of the race there,” said Bamber.

The fuel-only stop trend extended across the field.

The GTD Pro-winning No. 65 Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3 EVO and GTD-winning No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 both made energy-only final stops, with each team leaning on their Michelin tires to carry them to class victories.

Source: Sports Car 365