Peregrine Racing Celebrate First GTD Podium After Enthralling Home Race

Monterey, Calif. (May 2, 2022) — Peregrine Racing’s Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 39 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO team secured their first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship podium with a superb second-place result in their home race this weekend. The Monterey Sports Car Championship provided a fitting atmosphere for the momentous triumph, with the team providing first-class hospitality to stakeholders and partners who were on-site to share in the celebrations.

The result marks Robert Megennis’s second career IMSA podium and co-driver Jeff Westphal’s first GTD podium since the 2020 season.

With the top-five qualifiers separated by mere tenths on Saturday, Robert Megennis took the green flag for Peregrine in fifth position to start Sunday’s race. The driver from New York City proved himself more than capable around the famous Northern California road course, pitting under caution with just under two hours remaining to hand the car to Jeff Westphal. The team opted to pit later in the caution period than the majority of green flag runners, sacrificing immediate track position, but setting themselves up to push to the finish.

Westphal climbed aboard, running eighth in class for nearly an hour before the pit cycle saw him jump to fifth. He made his way up to second, before falling back to third. He fought hard all the way to the finish, trying to take second position for the second time, which he accomplished at the final corner of the final lap.

“It’s always great to get on the podium at your home race,” said team owner Mark Siegel. “In our case, this was an especially important result because the first three races of the year involved a lot of bad luck and we essentially had DNFs at all three of them. To show what we’re able to do, both from the drivers and engineering team, and have a podium car is really special. To do it here at Laguna Seca is wonderful.”

Sameer Gandhi qualified the Carbahn Motorsports prepped No. 93 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS in P26 for Round 3 of the 2022 Michelin Pilot Challenge, the Laguna Seca 120, on Saturday. He drove well, but contact with another class of car and subsequent damage due to a flat tire ended the team’s day early.

The 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season continues for Peregrine Racing in two week’s time with another sprint race, the Lexus Grand Prix of Mid-Ohio. Green flag for the two-hour and 40-minute sprint waves at 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 15th. Full coverage, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET, can be streamed on Peacock or viewed on USA Network. Peregrine’s GT4 effort will resume with the Mid-Ohio 120 the day prior.

INSIGHT FROM THE GTD COCKPIT:

Robert Megennis
“This was awesome. I’m so hyped. Thank you to the whole team—they’ve worked so hard all season. We’ve had a few bad races and had to get to grips with this new car, but everyone did an amazing job of executing today and all our efforts came to fruition. The car was so good. Our tire management was great and Jeff did a stellar job. My start was solid and I kept us in a position where we could compete for the win. At the end of the day, that’s where we were—fighting at the front. I’m honestly shocked. The strategy was a key piece. We ended up so far ahead of all those guys that we were racing amongst and that’s thanks to Joe, Stephen and Steve. They killed it. The team deserves this. The result provides a lot of momentum and that’s what we need heading into the remainder of the GTD Sprint Cup season. We want to go win some races. I’m excited for what’s to come.

“I’m glad that this happened at the home race for the team. We had a lot of partners, friends and family here. I’m happy to show what we can do in front of all of them and get everyone excited. If there was one place we wanted to get a podium this year, it was here.”

Jeff Westphal
“Getting a podium for the first time with Carbahn with Peregrine Racing in 2022 is special. I cannot imagine a better way to achieve it than doing it at home. More podiums would be better, but with my family and friends here and everyone from the shop and the team cheering us on, the energy is electric. It’s great to put on a show for them. Everyone in the team worked so hard all season and my teammate, Robert, did a fantastic job. This was a team win for sure.

“Coming into the final turn, specifically, I was hunting down Mr. Auberlen in the BMW. They were struggling with the rear tires, but they had massive straight line speed. I needed a little help, and I got it in the form of a prototype putting him off his line in Turn 9. I attacked in Turn 10 and forced him to go super defensive. I popped back to the outside, opened up the corner, got underneath him and used a side draft to get past on the straight. I got to his nose, pulled away and was able to make it stick. We almost ran out of fuel. I sputtered on the last lap and had to run to a fuel number during the entire stint. It was a well-executed race.”