Racing at Mazda Speedway Laguna Seca is always exciting, so the fact that last weekend not one, but two races were in store as part of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship round four was a great treat. And, under perfect blue skies, the two two-hour-long races did not disappoint.
Qualifying for the first race of the weekend saw Mazda continue its dominant run that begun in practice by locking up the front row of the grid with their Multimatic-built prototypes. They were the only ones to lap the track in under one minutes and 19 seconds. Although impressive, it’s worth noting that almost 25 years ago, the mighty GTP machines would go around the same track in under 1:12. Behind the Mazdas were the Chevy DPs as well as Michael Shank’s Ligier JS P2 and the Elan-powered DeltaWing Coupe.
GT-LM saw Ford’s party ruined by a magnificent last lap by Daniel Serra who put the No. 68 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 GTE on pole, narrowly beating the two Ford GTs. It’s worth noting that Monterey was chosen by Michelin as the venue to debut their new GTE compounds for the IMSA series which are, in fact, the same as those used in the World Endurance Championship. These tires are made with mid-engined cars in mind and, as such, do not favor front or rear-engined machines such as the Corvette or the Porsche 911.
PR1 / Mathiasen Motorsport claimed the pole in Prototype Challenge while the Alex Job Racing-run No. 23 Porsche 991 GT3-R took pole. Spain’s Alex Riberas beat Scuderia Corsa’s Christina Nielsen who put the team’s 488 GT3 in the front row – her best qualifying effort to date.
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