It’s May – It’s time for the ALMS to once again compete at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
This year sees 36 cars entered (tentatively anyway) for the four-hour race, scheduled to start late in the afternoon on Saturday. In the past, this has been a six-hour race – unfortunately this year it is shortened by two full hours.
In the entry list there isn’t really anything out of the ordinary for those following the sport. For those that haven’t been following, wake up. There are two significant changes – CORE makes their debut in the GT category with a Porsche, while the DeltaWing returns to competition, although with some changes.
First off, P1 will likely be fought out by Rebellion and Pickett Racing, both anxious to get an advantage over the other in what appears to be a two-car chase to the final ALMS P1 Championship. Rebellion ran strong at Long Beach, only to be out-strategized by Muscle Milk. For Laguna, the team expects to be using their new trick rear wing, the same as they have been using to great success in the WEC.
As far as Muscle Milk, Laguna is effectively their home track in ALMS competition, where they have a win (last season) and a pair of second-place finishes. There has been no indication as to when the team will go back to the wide front tire set-up that they had tested earlier this year. Will it be at Laguna? Smart money will likely be on the change debuting in a race post Le Mans.
For Dyson Racing, their championship challenge is just about kaput. Thus far their season long points-total is zero, the same as the DeltaWing in 2013 competition. Without a good result here and some assistance from Rebellion and Muscle Milk, the team will be reduced to the role of a spoiler for 2013.
They did appear to have speed at Long Beach – it was racecraft/ fortune that caught them out there. The team is still pushing and developing the car and it is hoped that some further developments will debut soon which should help the team immensely, speed and efficiency wise.
The new-ish arrival in the class is the Dave Price-run DeltaWing effort. Stepping in for Olivier Pla for the rest of the season is Katherine Legge, who reportedly had a successful test at Road Atlanta in the last couple of weeks. She will be joining Andy Meyrick, who was the only driver to race the car at Sebring before it retired. For this team to be able to accomplish anything, they need the car to be reliable. You can’t develop an unreliable car and if the cooling issues continue, it could be a very long and hot season for the team.
GT was the big battle at Long Beach and there appears to be no reason why it should be any different at Laguna. If anyone can predict a winner here in this class, they’ve got some pretty good prognosticating skills going on. The emergence of the Vipers as a legitimate contender, as well as the BMWs, adds to the competitiveness of the class. Laguna has been the site of some spectacular finishes in the GT category in the past – this race will not likely be any different.
As many as eight cars can be expected to be competing for the win and, to be honest, the AJR/West Ferrari and the Miller Racing Porsche are really not that far off the pace. CORE will be an interesting one to watch. If their efforts here in the GT class are anything like what we’ve seen in the PC class, they could be contending real soon. As far as drivers, you can’t get much better that Pat Long in a Porsche at Laguna and Tom Kimber-Smith has been very underrated in the past. Could CORE spring a surprise here?
In P2, it is the same characters – Level 5 vs. Extreme Speed. At Long Beach, it could be looked at as ESM winning, but there is some thought that Level 5 lost. That is not to belittle the ESM effort – their determination has been impressive – it’s just that at this time Level 5 is likely a better-prepared team. But if ESM can take it to the multi-time reigning champions, it could definitely be game-on for the P2 season-long challenge.
PC has the start of a good championship challenge brewing. Defending champion CORE hit their stride at Long Beach, but they are still trailing PR1 Mathiasen in the championship. But this class is much more than just those two teams – RSR, BAR1 and Performance Tech have featured and could also feature at Laguna. On the entry for Laguna is Dragonspeed. It was recently announced that 8Star Motorsports was joining forces with them, effective this race.
One thing to look for at Laguna is the pace of the PC class compared to the P2. At Long Beach they were pretty much the same, thanks to the greater torque of the Chevy V8s vs. the turbo HPDs as well as the improvements speed-wise thanks to the Continental tires on the PC cars. If that is the case here at Laguna again, that could have some interesting repercussions on the future USCR regs.
One of the big questions concerning GTC is when the Boss Lizard, Seth Neiman, would be able to return to the cockpit. At Long Beach, the team was still sorting out their line-up and thus far Seth hasn’t been a part of it. He hoped the doctor would release him to race at Laguna. His wish worked out – he will be in the #45 with Nelson Canache Jr. and Spencer Pumpelly, who are currently second in the points.
As far as the chase in GTC, thus far it is NGT/MOMO leading a very tight battle over the Lizards and AJR.
Off the track, but very newsworthy and significant nonetheless for us that have been working in the ALMS media center for a while, concerns Ryan Smith. This will be the last race for Ryan in his position for the ALMS. While he is leaving the series, he isn’t going that far as he will soon be doing PR work for Corvette Racing, taking the position that Rick Vogelin vacated in the off season. Ryan – thank you very much for all that you have done for the sport and for us in the media center and congratulations on the new position.
Gary Horrocks
