Campbell: Strategy Key to First Win of Year for No. 6 Porsche

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Matt Campbell said an early race first pit stop was pivotal to putting the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 into victory lane for the first time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.

Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet celebrated their first overall win together as co-drivers, in a caution-free Monterey SportsCar Championship that continued Porsche Penske Motorsport’s undefeated run in the GTP class.

The Australian, who started second after missing out on pole to Dries Vanthoor by just 0.005 seconds, dropped to third early in the running behind Vanthoor and the sister No. 7 Porsche of Felipe Nasr, who took the lead on Lap 39.

However, contact with the No 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Danny Formal at the Corkscrew dropped Campbell to fifth and ultimately led to the team electing to pit Campbell early on an undercut strategy.

“The team has done a fantastic job and once again made no mistakes and did a fantastic job on strategy, which I think was a key point for us in Car 6,” said Campbell.

“Unfortunately I lost a little bit of time there with the contact with the Lamborghini coming down off the Corkscrew. I lost a little bit of time there due to the anti-stall, having stalled the engine.

“I got back going and Jonathan [Diuguid] on the pit stand did a fantastic job on strategy calling us in, and really saving us a little bit of time on track due to how busy it was coming up on the next lap.

“I think we made the right call boxing when we did.”

Diuguid, Porsche Penske’s managing director who also doubles as the No. 6 car’s race strategist, said the early stop was a key point in getting co-driver Jaminet a clear track to make up the lost ground.

“I think the 6 car fell back to P5 and basically we told Matt to push as hard as he could until he caught the back of the prototype field, then we pitted because we were in the window,” Diuguid told Sportscar365.

“We put [Jaminet] in clear track and he was able to get the gap that he needed to overcut everybody. He went from fifth to first, so it was a big jump.

“After that, it was just managing the gap to make sure we didn’t tumble back on the next pit stop cycles.”

Diuguid added: “It was a really good execution day again. A lot of our competitors had penalties. It was another zero penalty race for us, which was a big one.

“Obviously we had a little bit more contact than the previous races with both the 6 and 7 having some on-track contact.

“But it’s tight around Laguna Seca and passing is difficult. They were pushing hard.”

Jaminet emerged from the second round of pit stops in the lead ahead of teammate Nick Tandy to eventually lead home a 1-2 finish for the team.

“It was exciting for the people but also inside the car,” said Jaminet. “I ended up fighting with lap cars like it was pole position; this is how it pretty much felt.

“I was run off the track at some point and got hit by one Cadillac, got hit by the other one.

“It was really hard racing out there but what really made the difference was the great strategy calls and hitting the energy numbers in the first stint.

“There was a lot of energy saving to stretch it to such an early stop compared to the sister car.

“I had to try to keep the pace and get the number and it worked out well in the end.

“It was fun out there. I think we’ve seen one of the best IMSA races in a long time, also with no yellows, which was really cool.”

Diuguid: No Team Orders in Final Laps of Race

While both Tandy and Jaminet indicated post-race there was some sort of instruction from the pits to hold positions after the final round of stops, Diuguid insisted there were no team orders in place during the frantic closing laps.

Tandy said: “The the last stint, we got the call from the pit, obviously, ‘We want to protect the position of the Porsche Penske cars were in.'”

“I think there was for sure some rules to be respected in between us because you don’t want to lose a 1-2,” Jaminet added.

“But we also know how racing goes. With the BMW behind, if you have a bad run in traffic. You race sometimes.

“Obviously I was stuck behind the lap cars for a while, so that put the pack together. I didn’t want to take too much risks but at some point I had to.”

When asked by Sportscar365, Diuguid said there “wasn’t necessarily orders” but rather a “no-risk situation” enforced within the team.

“At the end, there was clearly no orders,” he said. “They were all racing.

“We would have been silly to tell them to stay in line because the BMW was applying so much pressure there for the last 10 or 12 laps. At the end, there were no orders.”