Good Morning, Race Fans!
Welcome to the 3rd round of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA! Watch the replay on Peacock TV or YouTube. There are lots of great reasons to get to this race event early. There is so much to see around here!
WEDNESDAY NOTES:
Free Day: Arriving well ahead of on-track activities beginning on Friday, we took Wednesday to drive along the coast, stopping at all the beaches along the way. What a delight it was! Every beach was unique - from rocky crags with crashing waves to broad white sand with a whispering wash. There was a burbling cobblestone beach too. We had to build a rock stack there for fun.
We were treated to lots of critters - obviously every stop had lots of seabirds, gulls, cormorants, and oyster catchers. The first stop was overrun with super friendly ground squirrels. They had no fear at all and would come right up to us looking for a tasty snack. There were some with adorable fuzzy babies that mom kept closely in check. Along this part of the coast, kelp forests are common and where there’s kelp, there are otters too! With sharp eyes, we could spot their little heads bobbing in the water, leaping and playing.
At one stop, hundreds of sea lions had taken over a large rock off the shoreline. Their barks and grunts carried easily on the sea breeze. We stayed quite a while listening and watching. We finished at the end of the day with a cloudy sunset and a lovely lighthouse and more frolicking otters.
Everything is blooming so we saw lots of yellow, purple, and white flowers everywhere. All the color pops among the rocks and green shrubs. The weather was perfect - pleasantly cool with warm bright sunshine and soft breezes. The forecast looks to be pretty much just like this for the whole weekend. Just lovely!
THURSDAY NOTES:
Load-in Day: Thursday at Laguna Seca is load-in day. Even with nothing on track today, there is still lots of activity in the paddock. With three cars to get ready, the crew scurries with purpose to arrange and check every detail. In the afternoon, all cars run through tech inspection (and pass of course). All day long, the drivers laugh and joke with each other and the crew.
All the CSM Porsche 719 Cayman RS Clubsports are variations on a theme of white, red and black. To distinguish them:
- #67 - blue mirrors - Morgan Burkhard and Gordon Scully
- #2 - green mirrors - Robert Megennis and Phil Fayer
- #3 - yellow mirrors - Chase Jones and Nikita Lastochkin
Track Walk: The last thing to do before leaving the circuit is the track walk. The circuit is 2.238 miles around 11 turns. It also has about 180 feet of elevation change total, with 59 of those in the Corkscrew alone. It’s a long incline going up to that iconic turn, steepening on the last rise before leveling off a bit. Then the road plunges suddenly down and to the left. It’s basically a leap of faith because you can’t see where you are going at all. The trick is to line up points on the horizon and just go. Trust that the track will be there for you!
There are some differences from last year. The curbs have been updated and areas where once was grass have been paved over. New curbs means the drivers will have to assess how much they can or can't be used to go fast without unsettling the car too much. The loss of the grass changes the feel and requires an update to the imagery in the brain that tells you where to turn.
As the last and perhaps the best thing on the day, we get to go to the airport and pick up long-time friends Lisa and Krista! It’s wonderful to have them with us for the weekend!!
Friday will be busy with two hour-long practice sessions at 9:10 am and 1:00 pm and also 15 minutes for qualifying at 6:00 pm (all times Pacific). You can watch live timing and see session results at Al Kamel Systems.
FRIDAY NOTES:
It’s an early start today at Laguna Seca. Each practice session today is 1 hour long. We are on track for Practice 1 at 9:10 AM. Fortunately, the hotel is fairly close by the track so getting here by 7:30 is pretty easy to do. I love the aura of a race track before the engines start. The cool air is full of anticipation and gentle energy. The wisps of fog clinging to the hillsides are quickly retreating. The closer we get to the first group’s green flag, the more the tempo and excitement increase.
In Practice 1, Morgan takes the first stint and gets a good feel for the track and the car and how they are all going to work together today. After a few laps, he pits for some set-up adjustments. With a few more laps, he knows it’s in a pretty good place and hands the car over to Gordon for the 2nd half. Gordon has his go and by the end of it, both are happy. Morgan’s time put them in P4 for the session. That is an excellent showing first thing in the weekend!
Practice 2 goes out at 1:00, this time with Gordon in first. It’s quite a bit warmer by now and everyone is a bit slower initially. Gordon runs some good laps and when he comes in, they practice the driver change as it will be in the race tomorrow. Morgan’s half of the session is punctuated with a couple red flags (nobody hurt, just stuck) making it hard to get long runs done. At the end they are both in a good place with the car. It's typical for the track surface to change as the weekend goes on. In every session, the cars lay down more and more rubber and more dust and marbles accumulate offline. The result is that the line gets stickier and quicker, but offline gets more and more slippery. Precision is rewarded.
Qualifying is imminent now. The session starts at 5:45 and it is our turn at 6:00. Gordon will have the wheel and set the time for tomorrow’s grid. Here’s hoping all three cars have good luck this evening!
And just like that qualifying is over! Gordon warmed it up gently, just like the tires want and then proceeded to get faster with every circuit. On the very last lap, he jumped up two spots! Tomorrow, Gordon will take the lead stint and start from 13th in Saturday’s race. Find it on Peacock TV or on YouTube.
SATURDAY NOTES:
Good morning, Race Fans!! Today is Race Day! The three CSM cars are sparkling and ready to go play. With a few practice runs for the driver change and a final polish, the drivers and the crew are keen to get going. It’s looking like it will be another warm day with bright sunshine, cloudless blue skies and light breezes. It will still be quite hot in the cars, but with the cool suit and good hydration, all will be well. For today, John will be on the lollipop for Morgan’s car, the #67. I get to do the lollipop on Robert and Phil’s #2. It feels good to have useful roles!
Fan Walk: Soon the cars will go up to the grid to line up for the fan walk. As always, there is lots of uplifting energy in that experience. The fans are so thick that the cars are hardly visible through the smiling throng. Lots of autographs are signed and as the fans move onward, they leave wishes for good luck in the race to come. Calls start coming to clear the grid, but it still takes 10-15 minutes to do so as there's still just one more car to see. Pre-race ceremonies go by quickly and Gordon gets buckled into the car. He'll get two pace laps and before the green flag waves.
The Race: Two hours is a long time. A whole lot can happen in that span. After the initial rush and scramble to move up quickly in the first couple of laps while everyone is still close together, the first hour settles down and gets quite calm for a while. At the 40 minute mark, the pit stop window opens up. We stay out until just past halfway and came in during the first full course yellow. Gordon brings the car in from a good position, right about where we were aiming to be at this point. Stops for our 3 cars were all spread out so we aren’t piled on top of each other.
Morgan gets back out there and the second round of drivers still has a long way to go to the finish. At this point, we think perhaps we can do it with just one pit stop. Almost immediately, it becomes apparent that the pleasantries are over and the battle is fully on. With the second half of the race turning out to be no where near as tidy, the one-stop plan is quickly discarded. We get short runs of green flag between three more full course yellow periods that really break up the flow of the race. Cars leave the pavement and bump into each other, including one contact resulting in a car with broken suspension stuck on the track surface. More and more bits of debris from broken bodywork get scattered around the track. Most cars have some sort of contact, either side-to-side or nose-to-tail, and come away with marks and scars, including all three CSM cars.
At the end of it, two cars retired with damage - the #2 made it a bit past the hour mark and Morgan in the #67 had to stop just 10 minutes shy of the checkered flag. The #3 made it all the way to the end in 12th. Tough day to be sure, but all three had good pace over the weekend. Our luck is bound to improve.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Next up for IMSA is at Mid-Ohio in June. But you can catch us there in the SRF3 for the SCCA Hoosier Super Tour in just a few days.