Michelin Laguna Seca Notebook

Green Runs and Acura Wins

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca offers plenty of racing action under green flag conditions. Over the past three races there’s only been eight laps of caution out of 358 total laps run, with an Acura ARX-05 DPi taking the overall victory.

Going for No. 4

Richard Westbrook (JDC Miller Motorsports) and Antonio Garcia (Corvette Racing) are going for their fourth victory at the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship. John Edwards (BMW M Team RLL), Ricky Taylor (Wayne Taylor Racing) and Renger van der Zande (Cadillac Racing) are each going for their third victories.

Pilot Challenge Field Wide and Deep

Like the nearby Pacific Ocean, the Michelin Pilot Challenge field is wide and deep, as shown by the 41 cars and 82 drivers entered for Saturday’s Weather Raceway Laguna Seca 120.
The Pilot Challenge entries include drivers from 23 states and nine foreign countries.

The field includes 11 different auto makers: Aston Martin, Toyota, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford Mercedes -AMG, and Porsche entered in the Grand Sport (GS) class. The Touring Car (TCR) class will feature Alfa Romeo, Audi, Honda, and Hyundai.

Home Game

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is close to home for nine northern Californians; Josh Hurley (Livermore), Sean Quinlan (Palo Alto), Kenny Murillo (Santa Rosa), Christian Szymckak (Oakland), Tyler McQuarrie (Danville), and Mason Filippi (Alamo), while San Francisco is home base for Gregory Liefooghe, Sameer Gandhi, and Jon Morley.

Road Trip

Ten Michelin Pilot Challenge drivers who are not so close to home are: Alfredo Najri of the Dominican Republic, Thiago Camilo of Brazil, Scott Andrews of Australia, Stevan McAleer and Robin Liddell of Scotland, Mikey Taylor and Stephen Simpson of South Africa, Anderson Tanolo of Indonesia, Lars Kern of Germany, and Victor Gonzalez of Puerto Rico.

They are joined by a veritable six pack of Canadian drivers from Newfoundland, Quebec, and Ontario.

Decals Adding Up

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America races at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the first time this weekend. Kay van Berlo with Kelly Moss has won all four races this season by an average 2.6 seconds. This year, Michelin is providing victorious drivers race winning decals to place on their cars above the cockpit. Van Berlo will be going for decals No. 5 and No. 6 at Laguna Seca.

Track Records

Qualifying:
DPi: Felipe Albuquerque/1:14.441/2021
LMP2: Kyle Masson/1:16.817/2019
GTD: Laurens Vanthoor/1:23:872/2021
GS: Tyler McQuarrie/1:30.400/2020
TCR: Tyler Maxson/1:32.689/2021

Race:
DPi: Loic Duval/1:15.669/2021
LMP2: Mikkel Jensen/1:16:371/2021
GTD: Alvaro Parente/1:25:065/2018
GS: Corey Lewis/1:31:256/2020
TCR: Jon Morley/1:33.585/2021

Laguna Seca Tire Allocations

WeatherTech Championship
DPi: 10 sets – IMSA Hard
LMP2: 10 sets – IMSA Hard
GTD Pro: 7 sets – Michelin Pilot Sport GT S9M
GTD: 7 sets – Michelin Pilot Sport GT S9M

Michelin Pilot Challenge
GS: 5 sets – Michelin Pilot Sport GT S9M
TCR: 4 sets – Michelin Pilot Sport GT S9M+