IMSA: Sheena Monk displays fighting spirit through adversities at Long Beach
- RACERS
- Apr 17
- 6 min read
"A lot of effort goes into this, so it's tough to swallow these kinds of weekends, but we'll figure something out" - Sheena Monk and Triarsi Competizione endured a tough weekend at the iconic Long Beach circuit, battling early technical issues in the weekend, but still delivered a clean, determined run showcasing perseverance after a challenging start of their 2025 IMSA campaign.
Additional reporting: Linda Lam
It was a challenging round for Sheena Monk at the third event of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship, where the only female driver on the full-season IMSA grid had to dig deep and showcase all her fighting spirit and determination. The Triarsi Competizione Ferrari in fact struggled to find pace at Long Beach after encountering early technical issues during the weekend.
Despite the best efforts of Monk and co-driver Stevan McAleer, the team could manage no better than P14 in the GTD class. Monk gained a few positions in her first stint and delivered another clean and solid drive—now a trademark of the Bronze-rated racer, who is in her third season in IMSA competitions.
With this being the first sprint race of the season, the shorter 1-hour-40-minute format made qualifying especially critical—particularly on a narrow and unforgiving street circuit.
Monk came into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach off the back of a strong showing at the Californian venue in 2024, where she finished fourth in GTD, though the start to her 2025 season has proved more challenging.
At Daytona, Monk and her teammates—including Ferrari factory driver James Calado for the endurance classic—were in serious contention for victory in the closing minutes of the Rolex 24 before being taken out by contact from another car. At Sebring, the team again stayed on the lead lap through to the final stages, but further contact and a transmission issue ultimately ended their chances of a top result.
The third round at Long Beach began with more adversity for the Triarsi Competizione squad, as technical issues in Free Practice 1 forced the #021 Ferrari to sit out the entire session. With the team scrambling to recover lost track time in FP2, they managed a 1:21.121 lap—still leaving a noticeable gap to the front-runners.
Monk was behind the wheel for the 15-minute qualifying session and was one of three Bronze-rated drivers eligible for the Bob Akin Award. Several teams lost their fastest laps due to causing red flags during practice.
Her first lap was a 1:26.185—serving as a banker to get a time on the board. With tyres up to temperature and lap times improving across the field, Monk clocked a 1:20.446, moving into the top ten and up to eighth in GTD. As others improved in the final five minutes, she ultimately slipped back and qualified P15 in class.
"I mean, it's always a pleasure to be in Long Beach", Monk said on Friday. "Not many people are lucky enough to say that they're racing a Ferrari at such an incredible event, but this has been easily one of the worst days that I can remember in racing."
"We missed the first session for a problem, and we're not on par with where we should be," she continued. "I'm still learning the car, and I think there's some degree of that, but I would argue that I put in one of my best qualifying laps I ever did, and I really love it around here at this track. So being this far off is very frustrating—I can't even convey how disheartened I am for the folks at JG Wentworth who make this programme happen", a disappointed Monk said.
The first sprint race of the season—a 100 minute contest with two drivers sharing the car—was held on one of the most iconic and prestigious racetracks in North America, and one of the most revered street circuits in the world, the 11-corner, 3.167 km long Long Beach.
Sheena Monk took the start from P15 in GTD, determined to make the most of any opportunity and bounce back from a tough start to the weekend. She made a clean getaway, navigating the tricky Turn 1 and the famous dolphin fountain section without issue, as both the GTP and GTD fields avoided early drama.
Monk held position ahead of Manny Franco in the Conquest Ferrari and ran close to Danny Formal’s WTR Lamborghini and Brandon Iribe’s Inception Ferrari. Iribe—also a Bronze driver competing for the Bob Akin Award—fell behind Formal, with Franco soon joining the pack.
When Orey Fidani and Misha Goikhberg came together at Turn 8, the #13 AWA Corvette was sent into the tyre barriers, triggering the first full-course caution of the race. Monk moved up to P14 in GTD and gained one position in the Bronze driver classification, while Franco pitted under closed pits with an issue on the right rear suspension.
Once the pit lane opened, several GTP entries took the opportunity to stop. When racing resumed with 1 hour and 8 minutes to go, Monk continued her pursuit of Iribe. Both gained another position as Goikhberg was penalised with a drive-through for causing the earlier incident. Monk was now up to P13, running about one second behind the Inception Ferrari.
With one hour remaining and the minimum drive time met, most GTD cars made their pit stops—including Sheena Monk, who boxed from P13. She had once again delivered a clean, consistent, and mistake-free stint despite the persistent pace deficit of the #021 Ferrari throughout the weekend.
Stevan McAleer took over for the second stint and rejoined in pursuit of Frederick Schandorff, though the Triarsi team had lost a bit of time during the stop.
McAleer managed to slightly improve his sector times, but still couldn’t match the pace of the leading GTD runners; he found himself trailing the #45 WTR Lamborghini, now driven by Trent Hindman.
A collision between the Heart of Racing Aston Martin and the #85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche at Turn 6 triggered the second full-course caution, as the yellow prototype lost the rear wing after hitting the barriers. When the green flag waved again with 36 minutes left, McAleer had another chance to make progress; unfortunately, he couldn’t hold off the #78 Forte Racing Lamborghini of Mario Farnbacher, who overtook to claim P14.
McAleer dipped under the 1:20 mark for the first time, but was soon forced to defend from Matt Bell in the AWA Corvette. Bell eventually made a move stick on lap 53. McAleer clawed back into P14 when Tommy Milner’s DXDT Corvette was shown the mechanical black flag after sustaining bodywork damage in an incident at the hairpin, forcing him into the pits for repairs.
The Scottish driver remained determined and fought hard to the chequered flag, staying within a second of Farnbacher and Bell in the closing stages. Despite a final push, the Triarsi Competizione Ferrari crossed the line P14 in GTD—completing a clean race overall, but one that offered limited opportunities to move up the order.
Still, it was a commendable effort by both Monk and McAleer, who ran comparable lap times and gave everything in every session and every lap, showing their grit and commitment.
"We've been complaining all weekend that we feel like we're lacking some straight-line speed, even relative to the other Ferraris, so we're not entirely sure what's going on with that", Monk explained after the race. "I just couldn't get comfortable. The car was really on a knife edge, and that, combined with what we feel like is some less-than-ideal power leaving the corner—it's just been a tough one."
"A lot of effort goes into this, so it's tough to swallow these kinds of weekends, but we'll figure something out."
The team will now look into the issues encountered at North America’s most iconic street circuit and aim to return stronger at the next round—WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca—for Round 4 of the 2025 IMSA SportsCar Championship.
"At this point I haven't even finished a race without a problem since last August. It's just a gut punch", she continued. "But, you know, my entire racing career I've shown some perseverance. And so for whatever reason, I'm just going through a tremendously bad time. And I keep stepping up to the plate and swinging the bat and hoping that it's a numbers game—and hopefully it starts to go my way."
