The No. 33 Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Mason Filippi and Bryson Morris led 67 of 70 laps at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 2, winning the Laguna Seca 120 and pulling Hyundai further ahead in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge manufacturers’ standings. Honda’s best entry, the No. 93 MMG Civic Type R TCR, finished third and celebrated like it won the lottery.
That gap between elation and domination tells you everything about where these two programs stand right now.
Bryan Herta Autosport didn’t just win. They locked out the top two spots, with the No. 76 Elantra N TCR of Dylan Dupont and Parker Brown climbing from eighth on the grid to second. All five Hyundai entries scored points.
The No. 98 car of Mark Wilkins and Maddie Aust started 12th and finished sixth. Even the No. 18, which got caught in an early incident and took a penalty, clawed back to eighth.
Honda, meanwhile, is playing a different game entirely. The MMG crew of Karl Wittmer and LP Montour brought home third despite getting tagged by a GS-class car past the halfway mark that compromised their handling. Montour’s strategy was straightforward: keep the car clean, hand it to Wittmer in one piece. It worked well enough for a podium, Honda’s first hardware of the 2026 season after three rounds.
The KMW Motorsports Civic Type R TCR of Tim Lewis and Rocco Pasquarella finished fifth, their second consecutive top-five, a quiet consistency that deserves more attention than it gets. But the No. 72 Pegram Racing entry retired early with a mechanical failure, thinning Honda’s presence at a track where numbers matter.
The manufacturers’ standings paint the picture clearly. Hyundai leads with 1,020 points. Honda sits second at 940, with Cupra and Audi trailing at 910 and 880.
An 80-point margin after just three races isn’t a canyon, but Hyundai is building it brick by brick with a factory-backed operation that fields five cars under Bryan Herta Autosport’s umbrella. Honda’s privateer teams are talented and scrappy, but they’re outnumbered and outresourced.
Filippi grabbed pole with a 1:29.373 and never really let go of the race. Multiple early cautions bunched the field, giving competitors chances to strike. Nobody could.
The Elantra N TCR program has looked dialed in all season, and Laguna Seca was its cleanest execution yet.
Wittmer was candid about the momentum shift. We had tough luck starting off the year, so it’s time to pivot and turn it around,” he said after the race. We know what this team can do, we know what our Honda Civic can do.” That’s a driver who believes in his car but knows the scoreboard doesn’t lie.
Hyundai’s Hope on Wheels initiative added $17,000 to its pediatric cancer donations after the Laguna Seca win, $100 per lap led, totaling $32,700 on the season. It’s a smart program that ties dominance directly to charity. The more they win, the more they give.
Both camps head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on June 7 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 4 Hours of Mid-Ohio, the season’s second endurance-format event. Four hours will test reliability and pit strategy in ways a two-hour sprint cannot. Honda’s privateers might find more room to operate in a longer race with more variables, or Hyundai’s depth advantage could become even more suffocating.
Three races in, the pattern is clear. Hyundai is running this championship like a factory operation because it is one. Honda is counterpunching with grit and smaller rosters.
Third place at Laguna Seca was a good day for the Civic Type R TCR. It just wasn’t good enough to change the narrative.
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