Mario Farnbacher completed one of his most successful rounds of the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season yet with a fighting fifth in class at the Laguna Seca Raceway.
After showing front-running pace at both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring earlier in the year before misfortune cost them time on both occasions, Farnbacher and Forte Racing finally proved their competitive might by finishing just 12 seconds off the GTD podium at Laguna Seca. Valuable points earned move Farnbacher into a more representative place in the top 10 of this year’s GTD drivers’ championship standings.
Farnbacher said: “This was a good weekend! The whole team performed well and did a fantastic job. We didn’t make any mistakes. The strategy was good, and well-executed. And we gained positions with overtakes on-track. To finish fifth in the race and bank some points is a real confidence-boost.”
Starting ninth in class, the #78 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2, with Farnbacher’s teammate Misha Goikhberg at the wheel, moved up two places across a clean first stint. Meticulous pit work during Forte Racing’s one and only driver change helped keep the Lamborghini in contention. Thereafter, two-time GTD class IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar champion Farnbacher, already a multi-time class winner at Laguna Seca, worked his way methodically through the GTD field to finish a strong fifth in-class, despite the stronger pace of the cars ahead.
“We’re still lacking a bit of pace at the moment, and this was not an easy race as we had to fight a lot with the car, balance-wise. But we are analyzing this and making a lot of improvements as a team. We’re looking forward to coming back stronger at the next round,” said Farnbacher.
Mario Farnbacher is set to return to one of his favourite North American circuits – Watkins Glen International – for the first time since 2022 on 19 to 22 June for the next round of his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The Ansbach-native is a two-time GTD podium finisher already at Sahlen’s Six Hours Of The Glen, having secured third at the event in 2016 and taken a class win there in 2019.
