Laguna Seca Weekend Notebook

***Following its street circuit debut at Long Beach earlier this month, Porsche Carrera Cup North America presented by The Cayman Islands makes its first appearance at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, completing its West Coast swing.

***Thirty-two cars are set for this weekend’s pair of 40-minute races. Click Here for the latest entry list.

***Qualifying returned to its traditional format of all cars on track with no split sessions, which was made as an exception for Long Beach only.

***Kay van Berlo raced his Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in a Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West event at Laguna Seca earlier this month, winning both rounds and setting a track record of 1:25.640.

***It marked van Berlo’s only time at the circuit and set the baseline time for the car at the 2.238-mile circuit.

***Trenton Estep improved on van Berlo’s benchmark in qualifying on Friday, with the MDK Motorsports driver storming to a 1:24.925 lap time. Van Berlo qualified fourth, marking the first time the Dutchman will not start on pole this season.

***Estep said his first career Carrera Cup pole was “really, really special” moment. “The race is going to be a completely different mindset,” he said. “This is my first pole here in Carrera Cup and the tire is very different than anything I am used to. That being said, I had the opportunity to test here. We did a couple of race runs and we focused on tire management.”

***Six drivers have won a class in the first four rounds: van Berlo has the most with four overall, Mark Kvamme has three of the four Am class wins, Alan Metni leads Pro-Am with two. Justin Oakes and Efrin Castro each claim a win in Pro-Am while John Goetz enjoys one Am win to-date.

***Kelly-Moss accounts for seven of the possible 12 class wins this season. MDK three, Nolasport one and Wright one.

***Five Carrera Cup teams are also competing in other series with Porsche this weekend: BGB Motorsports (Michelin Pilot Challenge), GMG Racing (WeatherTech Championship/Pilot Challenge), McCann Racing (Pilot Challenge), Nolasport (Pilot Challenge) and Wright Motorsports (WeatherTech Championship).

***Kyle Washington is pulling triple duty by competing in Porsche machinery in three series: Carrera Cup, WeatherTech GTD (No. 34 Porsche 911 GT3 R with James Sofronas) and Pilot Challenge (No. 32 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS Clubsport with Sofronas).

***Michael McCann, meanwhile, will do double-duty also racing the No. 8 Porsche GT4 in Pilot Challenge with Andrew Davis.

***The first race of the weekend gets underway at 11:50 a.m. PT (2:50 p.m. ET) with live coverage on Peacock, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us, featuring commentary from the IMSA Radio team. Race 2 takes the green flag Sunday at 8:40 a.m. PT (11:40 a.m. ET).