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JDC-Miller MotorSports Wins the Monterey SportsCar Championship at Laguna Seca

Katie Church on May 5, 2026

SAVAGE, Minn. (May 3rd, 2026). Led by great team strategy and execution, Laurin Heinrich put in a thrilling late race drive of his Porsche 963 for the overall win of the Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway. Heinrich made the pass for the lead on the final lap of the 119-lap event.

Tijmen van der Helm started the car in 11th place, and he and Heinrich steadily improved their positions throughout the race. The team made a couple of crucial tire and fuel strategy calls that allowed Heinrich to close on the leader in the final laps. He then delivered a stellar drive, making an exciting last-lap pass for the win. This is JDC-Miller MotorSports’ first GTP win and the first win for a customer team since the inception of the GTP program, which began in 2023.This is Tijmen van der Helm’s first IMSA win in his 31st start. It was Heinrich’s 8th victory in 24 IMSA starts. It is his third victory in 2026 in the first four races, including wins at Daytona and Sebring in the number 7 Porsche 963. He has competed at Laguna Seca three times and won all three times. The win gives Heinrich the lead in the IMSA driver’s championship after his wins at Daytona and Sebring in the number 7 Porsche 963 and his 6th at Long Beach.

Next race for the team is the Detroit Grand Prix contested on May 30th.

Quotes:

John Church, Managing Partner, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

“What this means to our team hasn’t quite sunk in yet. It may take a few days. Putting Laurin Heinrich in the car has been just what it took to bring everything we have worked so hard on together. Not only is there incredible talent behind the wheel, but Laurin also brings a slightly different perspective. A new set of eyes that has made us better.”

The response in the paddock to our win was extremely gratifying. There was a steady stream of people from other teams, journalists, officials, and all kinds of fans coming to congratulate us. It seemed there were a lot of people rooting for Laurin to make that pass for the win. It made me feel good to see a whole bunch of the Porsche Penske team come over to congratulate our guys. We work closely together on all kinds of things, so our win is a bit of a win for them.

It was great fun to celebrate with the Miller family, as well as Ken Thompson from Mustang Sampling and the Lind family and their guests from Cram-A-Lot . It is very gratifying to deliver for your loyal sponsors.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been four years since we first ran the Porsche 963 here in 2023. This GTP program has been an incredible journey, and it feels great to get the first win. I’m confident there are more to come.”

Tijmen van der Helm, Driver, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

“Just amazing. I’m so happy to get my first IMSA GTP win. We were close to the time we wanted yesterday in qualifying, but in the super-competitive GTP class, we started the race in 11th. During the race, our fuel and tire strategy helped us work our way up through the field. We had a competitive car, so it was easy to manage the race plan. Toward the end of the race, I was getting excited about the possibility of being on the podium. Then the team and Laurin closed it perfectly for the win. We started this program here four years ago with our first GTP race, and now it’s our first win. I couldn’t be happier.”

Laurin Heinrich, Driver, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

“It’s an amazing day, not only for Tijmen and me personally but also for the whole team. They have done an amazing job and deserve this so much. JDC-Miller MotorSports’ first win in GTP, the first win ever for a customer team in the GTP era, is simply an amazing achievement. I’m incredibly happy to bring this result to the team because I saw how hard everyone works in Long Beach. I knew then that the potential was on the table, and I’m so happy I could deliver my part. I had a tough fight with Earl Bamber in the 31 at the end. It was a hard, fair fight. I could see he was struggling in a few spots, knew we had a shot at the win, and went for it. Going wheel-to-wheel with a driver like Earl was not only a pleasure but also an honor. I enjoyed this fight so much, and I just want to say thank you again to Porsche Motorsport and to JDC-Miller MotorSports for the opportunity.”

Last-Lap Pass Sends Heinrich, JDC-Miller MotorSports Back to Victory Lane at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

Katie Church on May 4, 2026

May 3, 2026

Heinrich Wins for Third Straight Year in Monterey, van der Helm Takes First IMSA Victory

By John Oreovicz for IMSA.com

MONTEREY, Calif. – For most of Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship sprint race, it appeared Cadillac would complete its domination of the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship weekend.

But never count out Porsche – on this day, the privately-run No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 that Tijmen van der Helm and Laurin Heinrich drove to a giant-killing victory at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Heinrich, who at age 24 is one of international sports car racing’s most prominent rising stars, stirred memories of the late Alex Zanardi’s performances at Laguna Seca as he forcefully moved from third to first as time counted down on the two-hour, 40-minute race clock.

He first made an authoritative pass on the No. 25 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Philipp Eng and Marco Wittmann into Turn 10 for second place with 14 minutes remaining. Then on the final lap, he moved to the outside of Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R through the right-hand Turns 3 and 4 before pulling ahead to the inside on the run to the Turn 5 lefthander and up the hill toward the Corkscrew.

Heinrich crossed the finish line 0.758 seconds ahead of Bamber, who shared the No. 31 Cadillac with Jack Aitken. Wittmann and co-driver Eng finished 3.343 seconds back in third place, just ahead of the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 after a nice comeback drive from Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun.

But the talking point after the race was Heinrich, who remarkably has never lost a race at WeatherTech Raceway. The last two years, he claimed Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) PRO class victories in AO Racing’s dinosaur-themed Porsche 911s. He started this year as the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup co-driver in the factory No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963, taking overall and Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class victories at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

As a result of his latest win at Laguna Seca, Heinrich now leads the GTP driver championship standings by 21 points over Aitken and 146 points over his No. 7 Porsche teammates Felipe Nasr and Julien Andlauer, who finished seventh on Sunday.

It was the fifth WeatherTech Championship race win for JDC-Miller MotorSports, and the first in the modern GTP prototype era. The team’s last victory came in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class and overall at Sebring in 2021.

“It hasn’t sunk in 100 percent yet, but certainly this is one of the biggest wins,” said team principal John Church. “We started here four years ago and didn’t have any idea what we were doing with this car and have slowly been building and picking up the pace. We’ve been fighting an uphill battle the last couple years, so this is really special.

“It’s been great to have Laurin come along and give us some direction and some pace as well,” he added. “What a day – incredible! I couldn’t be happier.”

The JDC-Miller Porsche has shown speed before and notched the occasional podium finish. But the addition of the highly regarded Heinrich, a Porsche factory driver, has supplied an extra boost.

“This place seems to work for me and I love it, to be honest,” Heinrich said. “Every time I come here in the morning and see this track, I feel something special. The team has given Tijmen and me an extremely strong car, extremely well balanced. I think our strength was tires, which we could really make use of in the last four or five laps. The strategy also worked great. To have all this work pay off is incredible.

“We were pushing flat out and that was all we had,” he concluded. “To have something like that happen on the last lap makes it a magic day.”

Added van der Helm: “It’s great. I wasn’t expecting it at all 30 minutes before the finish. Laurin did some great stuff at the end of the race, and this is an incredible day for the entire team.”

Heinrich also gave credit to sports car ace Richard Westbrook, who has driven the Porsche 963 for JDC-Miler Motorsports in the recent past and serves as an advisor for the team.

“He knows exactly what it feels like in this car and I’m amazed how when he sees the live data, he knows exactly what’s going on in the car,” Heinrich said of the three-time Laguna Seca race winner. “Two days ago, he told me something about the last corner that helped me today to set up the last move. Honestly, it’s a big help for the team.”

Bamber was philosophical after Heinrich got the best of him on the final lap. The No. 31 Cadillac has finished on the podium in all four WeatherTech Championship races in 2026, including three second-place finishes, after closing out the ‘25 season with a pair of wins.

“With about 10 laps to go, the (No.) 5 just appeared out of nowhere and when I heard it was coming at half of a second a lap, I knew it was going to be tough to hold him off,” Bamber said. “I got a couple of good runs through traffic on the last second-to-last lap, but then he just had much more grip than us at the end of the race.

“I raced him hard and fair, but he just got through. It is what it is – another great podium and it was great to race with Laurin. I’ve seen him come up through the ranks with Porsche, and to see him get this win with the No. 5 team is something special.”

The next round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is the May 29-30 Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic, a 100-minute street course sprint race featuring the GTP and Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) classes.

JDC-Miller MotorSports Finished the Grand Prix of Long Beach in the 6th Position

Katie Church on April 19, 2026

SAVAGE, Minn. (April 19, 2026). The JDC-Miller MotorSports No. 5 Porsche GTP team took the checkered flag in 6th place at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, culminating a very strong weekend. 

It was the first race with JDC-Miller MotorSports for Laurin Heinrich, who is on loan to the team from Porsche Motorsport. Heinrich is undefeated this year in IMSA, with victories in his two previous starts, including the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. He will be with the team for all the sprint races on the schedule.

The team unloaded a very strong Porsche 963 and put the IMSA WeatherTech Championship paddock on notice that they would be contenders this weekend when Laurin Heinrich set the fastest time in Practice 1. They were also strong in Practice 2, however, Tijmen van der Helm experienced tire pressure issues in qualifying, which led to a 10th-place starting position. 

At the start of the race, an early caution prompted a quick strategy call, pitting the car on lap 5 to complete its mandatory driver change and get an energy fill. The team’s confidence in the car’s pace paid off as Heinrich quickly worked through traffic on the notoriously difficult-to-pass Long Beach circuit. By lap 13, he had worked his way through the field and was back in 10th. By lap 29, he moved into 6th and held it for the remainder of the race. In his charge forward, Heinrich set the fastest lap of the race on lap 7, a 1:12.918, the only driver with a lap in the 1:12s. 

The team leaves Long Beach full of confidence for the second stop on the West Coast swing, Laguna Seca, in two weeks. 

Quotes:

John Church, Managing Partner, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

“We had a really good weekend here in Long Beach. When you unload a really fast race car, everything builds on that. We were fastest in Practice 1, which gave the entire team confidence for the rest of the weekend. We missed the tire pressure in qualifying by a few tenths, and in the ultra-competitive IMSA GTP class, that put us back to 10th to start the race. A strategy call on lap 5 to get ahead of the driver change and fuel window set us up for a strong finish. Laurin ran many very fast laps, and we were in the hunt for a podium for the entire second half of the race. 

I really want to thank everyone at Porsche Motorsports for all their support. Lending us a driver like Laurin is very beneficial for our program. He is a great fit, and I think this will move us to another level.”

Tijmen van der Helm, Driver, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

“Long Beach was a quick weekend for us, just two days. We were strong all weekend and finished P6, which we are quite happy with. We had a bit more pace, but we were a bit unlucky in qualifying and started P10, which is a disadvantage on a street circuit. We managed to gain four positions, so we are quite happy with the result.

Good start with Laurin in this first race with JDC-Miller MotorSports, and we are eager to build on these results at Laguna Seca.”

Laurin Heinrich, Driver, No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963

The Grand Prix of Long Beach is complete, and what a race it was. The team gave me a great car, and I set the fastest race lap, so I’m quite happy with how things went.

The JDC-Miller MotorSports team executed a great strategy, trying to make something work from the back after a disappointing qualifying. This worked quite well, and we crossed the line in a solid P6, which is a result we are quite happy with. 

I think it was a good first start to my new program with JDC-Miller MotorSports, so I am really looking forward to our next race at Laguna Seca.”