2014 Monterey Grand Prix

The 2014 Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix were a pair of sports car races sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) held on the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California on May 4, 2014. The events served as the fourth of thirteen scheduled rounds of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship. Both races were contested over two hours. The race marked the first time that the course had been used for IMSA racing and the first time that the venue had featured a doubleheader weekend with two races.

International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) president Scott Atherton confirmed that the race was part of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship schedule in September 2013.^[1] It was the first year the event was held as part of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. The 2014 Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix was the fourth of thirteen scheduled sports car races of 2014 by IMSA, and it was the second round not held as part of the North American Endurance Cup.^[1] The events were held at the eleven-turn 2.238 mi (3.602 km) Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey County, California on May 4, 2014.^[1] Due to the field size, IMSA would use a doubleheader race format where the Prototype Challenge and GTD classes would participate in the first event while the Prototype and GTLM classes would participate in the second event.^[2]

Before the race, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi led the Prototype Drivers' Championship with 98 points, 5 points clear of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas in second, and Jordan Taylor and Ricky Taylor with 91 points.^[3] With 101 points, PC was led by Jon Bennett, Colin Braun, and James Gue with an twelve-point advantage over Tom Kimber-Smith and Michael Marsal.^[3] In GTLM, the Drivers' Championship was led by Bill Auberlen and Andy Priaulx with 90 points; the duo held an two-point gap over Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz.^[3] Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell led the GTD Drivers' Championship, ahead of Marco Seefried with 67 points followed by Maurizio Mediani with 62 points.^[3] Ford, BMW, and Ferrari were leading their respective Manufacturers' Championships, while Action Express Racing, CORE Autosport, BMW Team RLL, and AIM Autosport each led their own Teams' Championships.^[3]

Fifty-five cars were officially entered for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix, with the bulk of entries in the Prototype (P) and Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) classes. Since the majority of the remaining rounds of the 2014 United SportsCar Championship were sprint races, PC and GTD teams entered their regular driver pairings for the first time this season.^[4] Action Express Racing (AER) fielded two Chevrolet Corvette DP cars while VisitFlorida Racing (VFR) and Wayne Taylor Racing (WTR) fielded one.^[5] Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) and Michael Shank Racing (MSR) entered one Ford-powered Riley MkXXVI. Mazda Motorsports had two Lola B12/80 while Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) entered two HPD ARX-03b cars and OAK Racing entered one Morgan LMP2 chassis with Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 engine.^[5] The DeltaWing car after skipping the previous round at Long Beach.^[6] The Prototype Challenge (PC) class was composed of ten Oreca FLM09 cars: two from Starworks Motorsport and RSR Racing. BAR1 Motorsports, CORE Autosport, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Performance Tech, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports, and 8Star Motorsports entered one car each.^[5] GTLM was represented by eleven entries from five different brands.^[6] Pierre Kaffer joined Giancarlo Fisichella in the Risi Competizione Ferrari.^[7] In the list of GTD entrants, twenty-one GT-specification vehicles were represented by six different manufacturers. Although it was listed as an entrant, the No. 009 TGR Aston Martin withdrew from the event.^[8]

There were two practice sessions preceding the start of the races on Sunday: both on Saturday.The first one-hour session was on Saturday morning while the second one-hour session ran on Saturday afternoon.^[9]

Saturday afternoon's 80-minute four-group qualifying session gave 15-minute sessions to all categories. Cars in GTD were sent out first before those grouped in GTLM, PC, and Prototype had three separate identically timed sessions. Regulations stipulated teams to nominate one qualifying driver, with the fastest laps determining each classes starting order.^[9]

Pole positions in each class are indicated in bold and by ‡. P stands for Prototype, PC (Prototype Challenge), GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans) and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡. PC stands for Prototype Challenge and GTD (Grand Touring Daytona).

Class winners are denoted in bold and ‡. P stands for Prototype, and GTLM (Grand Touring Le Mans).