2023 Motul Course de Monterey



The 2023 Motul Course de Monterey (formally known as the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N) was a sports car race held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, California on May 14, 2023. It was the fourth round of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship and the second round of the 2023 WeatherTech Sprint Cup.

Background
International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) president John Doonan confirmed the race was part of the schedule for the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA SCC) in August 2022. It was the tenth consecutive year it was part of the IMSA SCC. The 2023 Motul Course de Monterey was the fourth of eleven scheduled sports car races of 2023 by IMSA, and the second of seven races of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup. The race was held at the eleven-turn 2.238 mi WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 14, 2023.

After the Grand Prix of Long Beach four weeks earlier, Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet led the GTP Drivers' Championship with 955 points, ahead of Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims with 954 points followed by Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor with 934 points. With 375 points, the LMP2 Drivers' Championship was led by John Farano, Scott McLaughlin, and Kyffin Simpson with a twenty-five point advantage over Scott Huffaker, Mikkel Jensen, and Steven Thomas. Ben Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth led the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship with 1067 points ahead of Jules Gounon and Daniel Juncadella with 994 points. In GTD, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow with 1008 points, ahead of Roman De Angelis and Marco Sørensen with 909 points. Cadillac, Lexus, and BMW were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Porsche Penske Motorsport, Tower Motorsports, Vasser Sullivan Racing, and Paul Miller Racing each led their own Teams' Championships.

On May 4, 2023, IMSA released the latest technical bulletin outlining Balance of Performance for the GTP, GTD Pro, and GTD classes. In GTP, both Cadillac and BMW received weight reductions, whilst Porsche and Acura received weight increases compared to Long Beach. The Cadillac ran at 1030 kg, the BMW ran at 1031 kg, the Porsche ran at 1038 kg, and the Acura ran at 1049 kg. As a result, the Cadillac ran on 511 kilowatts of power, the BMW on 512 kW, the Porsche on 514 kW, and the Acura on 520 kW. Maximum stint energy figures were also adjusted. In GTD Pro and GTD, the only changes in BoP are a 10 kg weight increase for BMW and a 5-liter decrease of fuel tank capacity for McLaren.

Entries
A total of 38 cars took part in the event, split across four classes. 9 car were entered in GTP, 8 in LMP2, 5 in GTD Pro, and 16 in GTD. In GTP, the entry list was headlined by the addition of the JDC-Miller MotorSports entry, featuring the first Porsche 963 customer entry on the IMSA SportsCar Championship grid. The car was driven by Tijmen van der Helm and Mike Rockenfeller. In LMP2, the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR Oreca 07 also entered with Ben Hanley and George Kurtz, even though the car was initially not confirmed as a full-season entry. In GTD, Andretti Autosport debuted their No. 94 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, driven by Jarett Andretti and Gabby Chaves.

Practice
There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the race on Sunday, one on Friday and one on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes on Friday while the second session on Saturday lasted 105 minutes.

Practice 1
The first practice session took place at 4:05 pm PT on Friday and ended with Matt Campbell topping the charts for Porsche Penske Motorsport, with a lap time of 1:16.703. Louis Delétraz set the fastest time in LMP2 driving the #8 Tower Motorsports entry. Ben Barnicoat was fastest in GTD Pro while Frankie Montecalvo set the fastest time amongst all GTD cars.

Final Practice
The second and final practice session took place at 8:55 am PT on Saturday and ended with Matt Campbell topping the charts for Porsche Penske Motorsport, with a lap time of 1:15.493. Ed Jones set the fastest time in LMP2. The GTD Pro class was topped by the #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 of Alex Riberas while Loris Spinelli was fastest in GTD.

Qualifying
Saturday’s afternoon qualifying was broken into three sessions, with one session for the GTP, LMP2, and GTD Pro and GTD classes, which lasted for 20 minutes for the GTP session, and 15 minutes for the LMP2, and GTD Pro/GTD sessions. The rules dictated that all teams nominated a driver to qualify their cars, with the Pro-Am LMP2 class requiring a Bronze rated driver to qualify the car. The competitors' fastest lap times determined the starting order. IMSA then arranged the grid to put GTPs ahead of the LMP2, GTD Pro, and GTD cars.

Qualifying was broken into three sessions. The first was cars in the GTD Pro and GTD classes. Klaus Bachler qualified on pole in GTD Pro driving the #9 Pfaff Motorsports entry. Alec Udell qualified on pole in GTD driving the #92 Kelly-Moss with Riley entry, besting Roman De Angelis in the #27 Heart of Racing Team entry.

The second session of qualifying was for cars in the LMP2 class. George Kurtz qualified on pole for the class driving the #04 car for CrowdStrike Racing by APR.

The final session of qualifying was for the GTP class. Matt Campbell qualified on pole driving the No. 7 car for Porsche Penske Motorsport, beating Mathieu Jaminet in the sister #6 car for Porsche Penske Motorsport by less than one tenth of a second.

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

Post-race
The result kept Tandy and Jaminet atop the GTP Drivers' Championship, 25 points ahead of Derani and Sims. Bourdais and van der Zande advanced from sixth to fourth. In the LMP2 Drivers' Championship, Loup Chatin and Keating advanced from fourth to second while Farano dropped from first to third. The result kept Barnicoat and Hawksworth atop the GTD Pro Drivers' Championship. The result kept Sellers and Snow atop the GTD Drivers' Championship while Iribe and Schandorff advanced from fourth to second. Cadillac, Lexus, and BMW continued to top their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Porsche Penske Motorsport, Vasser Sullivan Racing, and Paul Miller Racing kept their respective advantages in their respective of Teams' Championships. TDS Racing took the lead in the LMP2 Teams' Championships with seven races remaining in the season.

Class winners are 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.