Laguna Seca Weekend Notebook

Photo: Jamey Price/Lamborghini

***The penultimate event of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America season has seen a 17-car entry following the late withdrawal of Taylor Proto’s US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo Evo as well as the No. 53 Wayne Taylor Racing entry, after not securing a driver.

***It has still resulted in a season-high overall grid and the largest entry fielded by US RaceTronics in two years when it also ran five cars at Laguna Seca in 2018. 

***US RaceTronics team principal Shane Seneviratne explained that their new additions for this weekend — John Hirshberg and Mel Johnson and Brian Thienes — completed testing at Thermal Club recently.

“They’re really a good addition to the team and we’re looking forward to giving them the best opportunity to have a good result and a fun weekend,” said Seneviratne.

***TPC Racing has also expanded its efforts this weekend with Scott Schmidt and Trevor Andrusko making their series debuts in the LB Cup class. The two drivers, who tested at Laguna Seca several weeks ago with the team, previously ran a TPC-prepared Porsche in the American Endurance Racing series.

***This weekend marks Schmidt’s professional debut, 17 years after getting his racing start in the Panoz Racing School. 

“We know Scott and Trevor really well, and it will be a lot of fun to have them along with us,” said TPC’s director of race operations Harris Levitas. “We coudn’t have done any of this without Chris Ward and his team at Lamborghini Squadra Corse, who were a huge help for us acquiring a car so quickly.”

***The No. 6 US RaceTronics Lamborghini of Jacob Eidson and Steven Aghakhani is running a tribute flag in support of the people of Armenia, which is facing an ethnic and territorial conflict with neighboring country Azerbaijan. Aghakhani, the youngest driver in the series, holds Armenian roots.

***Next month’s round at Sebring will serve as the season finale, with the North America series ending its season in the U.S. for the first time since the World Final was held at the famed Florida airfield circuit in 2015.

***Unlike other single-make series that have been forced to make last-minute changes, Lamborghini took the proactive decision of canceling its World Final, scheduled for Misano, earlier this year, in anticipation of continued travel challenges due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

***The 2021 Super Trofeo schedules for all three regions (North America, Europe and Asia) will be released on Nov. 15. As was the case with GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS, Lamborghini’s Asian single-make series was canceled this year due to the pandemic.

***Lamborghini will make a conversion kit available for Huracan Super Trofeo Evo cars to compete in SRO Motorsports Group’s GT2 category beginning next year. The Italian manufacturer’s head of motorsport, Giorgio Sanna, told Sportscar365 that he expects Super Trofeo teams to utilize the same cars between the single-make series and GT2 possibilities.

***While not currently eligible in any IMSA-sanctioned series, GT2 cars will be accepted in SRO America’s new Bronze driver-focused GT America series when it launches in 2021.

***Race 1 of the weekend gets underway this afternoon at 1:40 p.m. PDT, while Race 2 is set for Sunday at 10:25 a.m. Both will be streamed live on IMSA.com/TVLive featuring commentary from IMSA Radio’s Brian Till and Jeremy Shaw.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John