2017 Monterey Grand Prix

The 2017 Monterey Grand Prix was a sports car race sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).The Race was held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on September 24, 2017. The race was the eleventh round of the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship.

Background
IMSA's president Scott Atherton confirmed the Monterey Grand Prix was part of the series' schedule for the 2017 IMSA SportsCar Championship at Road America's victory lane in August 2016. It was the fourth consecutive year the event was held as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2017 Monterey Grand Prix was the eleventh of twelve scheduled sports car races of 2017 by IMSA, and was the eighth round not held on the held as part of the North American Endurance Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn 2.238 mi Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey County, California on September 24, 2017. After wrapping up the two "West Coast Swing" rounds also consisting of Long Beach in previous years, Laguna Seca moved to September and swapped places on the calendar with Circuit of the Americas. The event also returned to a single race format after utilizing a split race format the previous year due to the field size. For the first time since the 2009 running of the event, the PC class would not be competing.

After the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR four weeks earlier, Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 258 points, ahead of João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi with 232 points, and Dane Cameron and Eric Curran with 227 points. Antonio García and Jan Magnussen led the GTLM Drivers' Championship with 274 points, ahead of Bill Auberlen and Alexander Sims with 258 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen with 282 points, ahead of Jeroen Bleekemolen with 269 points. Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-AMG were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Wayne Taylor Racing, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa each led their own Teams' Championships.

On September 19, 2017, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of performance for the event. In P, the Nissan Onroak DPi received a reduction in turbo boost and a fuel capacity reduction of 1 liter. The Cadillac DPi-V.R received an increase in the cars minimum rear wing angle as well as a fuel restrictor reduction of 1 mm. In GTLM, the Porsche 911 RSR received a 0.6 mm larger air restrictor, 1 extra liter of fuel capacity, and a 0.5 mm larger fuel restrictor. The BMW M6 GTLM received a fuel restrictor reduction of 1 mm while the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R got a fuel restrictor increase of 0.5 mm. In GTD, the Audi R8 LMS and Acura NSX GT3 received fuel restrictor increases of 1mm and 0.5 mm, respectively. The BMW M6 GT3 and Lexus RC F GT3 received fuel capacity increases of 6 and 7 liters, respectively.

On September 20, 2017, Continental Tire announced their exit from IMSA after the 2018 season. Following the announcement, IMSA announced Michelin would replace Continental Tire as their official tire supplier beginning in 2019.

Entries
A total of 33 cars took part in the event split across 4 classes. 8 cars were entered in P, 9 in GTLM, and 16 in GTD. In GTD, Ben Keating returned to the #33 Riley Motorsports - Team AMG entry. No changes happened in P and GTLM.

Practice
There were three practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. The first two one-hour sessions were on Friday morning and afternoon. The third on Saturday morning lasted an hour.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 10:00 am PT on Friday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for VisitFlorida Racing, with a lap time of 1:18.462. The GTLM class was topped by the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe with a time of 1:23.344. Patrick Long set the fastest time in GTD.

Practice 2
The second practice session took place at 2:50 pm PT on Friday and ended with Ryan Dalziel topping the charts for Tequila Patrón ESM, with a lap time of 1:18.026. The GTLM class was topped by the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE of Toni Vilander with a time of 1:22.635. Alexander Sims was second in the #25 BMW Team RLL entry and Oliver Gavin rounded out the top 3. Oswaldo Negri Jr. was fastest in GTD.

Practice 3
The third and final practice session took place at 8:00 am PT on Saturday and ended with Jordan Taylor topping the charts for Wayne Taylor Racing, with a lap time of 1:18.216. The GTLM class was topped by the #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT of Dirk Müller with a time of 1:22.678. Bryan Sellers was fastest in GTD with a time of 1:24.711.

Qualifying
Saturday afternoon's 65-minute three-group qualifying, each category had separate 15-minute sessions. Regulations stipulated that teams nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each class' starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put Prototypes ahead of the GTLM and GTD cars.

The first was for cars in GTD class. Madison Snow qualified on pole for the class driving the #48 car for Paul Miller Racing, besting Daniel Morad in the Alegra Motorsports entry.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the GTLM class. Toni Vilander qualified on pole driving the #62 car for Risi Competizione, beating Dirk Müller in the #66 entry Ford Chip Ganassi Racing by over two tenths of a second.

The final session of qualifying was for the P class. Ricky Taylor qualified on pole driving the #10 car for Wayne Taylor Racing, beating Christian Fittipaldi in the #5 entry from Mustang Sampling Racing.

Qualifying results
Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡.


 * The No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing entry was moved to the back of the GTD field as per Article 43.6 of the Sporting regulations (Change of starting tires).

Post-race
The result kept Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor atop the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 288 points, 29 points ahead of second-place finishers Cameron and Curran. Barbosa and Fittipaldi dropped from second to third in the standings. In the GTLM Drivers' Championship, Briscoe and Westbrook advanced from fourth to second. Hand and Müller dropped from third to fourth. As a result of winning the race, Balzan and Nielsen extended their points lead to twenty-six points ahead of Bleekemolen in the GTD Drivers' Championship. Lally and Legge advanced from seventh to fourth while Aschenbach and Davis dropped from fourth to sixth. Cadillac and Chevrolet continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships. Ferrari took the lead of the GTD Manufactures' Championship while Wayne Taylor Racing, Corvette Racing, and Scuderia Corsa kept their respective advantages in the Teams' Championships with one round left in the season.

Results
Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡.

Standings after the race

 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.


 * Note: Only the top five positions are included for all sets of standings.