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Saturday the day started out warm at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and just got hotter. By noon it was in the eighties, for a full day of practice, qualifying and racing at the Monterey Festival of Speed.

Friday started out cold, windy and very foggy. The fog was so dense Friday morning, the start time was pushed back twelve minutes, and early morning arrivals got lost in the fog looking for their special gate. 

TODD LAMB/No.84 AMG Racing has pole for the Saturday noon race with SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup. There are 21 cars in the field. His qualifying time was 1:42.382/78.693 mph.

Turner Motorsport swept the pole positions in qualifying for Saturday afternoon’s Grand-Am Koni Sports Car Challenge Series. MATTHEW BELL/No. got his third consecutive overall and GS class pole position with a time of 1:36.277/83.684 mph. His co-driver in No.96 BMW M3 is well-known driver, BORIS SAID. The race is Saturday afternoon. The ST pole position was set by DON SALAMA, who co drives with WILL TURNER in No.95 Turner Motorsport BMW 328i. The field has 19 GS cars, and 17 ST cars for the 2.5-hour long race, which starts at 3 PM race PDT.

The Mazda MX-5 cars in the Playboy MX-5 Cup Series are not at all the same as the Mazda MX-5 cars running in the Koni Challenge. Everything about the cars in the two series is different. The Series cars are convertibles and fairly stock, with bolt on Mazdaspeed kits and roll cage and different tires. The four Mazda’s in the Koni Challenge are hard tops and tricked out.

The 11-turn Laguna Seca road course is still 2.238-miles long. There have been some new runoff areas added to the track, but they don’t change the length. Turns Two and Eleven have additional asphalt runoff areas. The track wanted to keep race cars from going off in the gravel, and the MOTO GP who hold one of two USGP races at Laguna Seca in July have approved the addition.

The runoff construction was a two-week job, digging it all out and adding the new surface. The track, which is run by SCRAMP – Sports Car Racing Association of Monterey Peninsula, would like to add more runoffs in other corners, but time and money dictate that schedule.

The runoffs evidently did their job Friday as there was only one small off course excursion at the exit of Turn Eleven’s apex, barely making a mark in the gravel.

Friday there were a few spins and some minor tire wall bumps, but no major dramas. The drivers were fairly well behaved.

The wind picked up and cooled off the Friday afternoon practices for the Monterey Festival of Speed at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. The skies were clear and folks were grabbing jackets, while the many colorful flags atop the transporters were blowing in the wind. Sounds like a song.

The Grand-Am Rolex Series had its second practice, and was done for the day. Its Qualifying is actually Saturday, not Friday. The cars were slower in the cooler afternoon session.  TIMO BERNHARD and ROMAIN DUMAS/No.12 Penske Racing Porsche/Riley had the fastest Daytona Prototype  at 1:20.559/100.011. ANDREW DAVIS and ROBIN LIDDELL/No.57 Stevenson Motorsports Pontiac GXO-R had the fastest GT class car, in seventeenth place overall. Their time was 1:27.547/92.028 mph.

The Koni Sports Car Challenge Entries number 39, twenty in GS class and 19 in ST class. DEAN MARTIN and KEN WILDEN/No.59 Rehagen Racing Ford Mustang GT in the GS class were fastest in the two Koni practice sessions, with a best overall lap of  1:36.427/83.553 mph set in the first session. The fastest ST car in the first session was run by TOM LONG and DEREK WHITIS in No.145 in Mazda MX-5, at 1:41.415/79.444 mph – eighteenth overall in the session. The fastest ST car in the second session was DON SALAMA and WILL TURNER/No.95 BMW 328i, running a 1:41.246/79.576 mph – twentieth overall. Great showing after not making it out for the first session.

Among the 80 Koni Challenge drivers, ten are from Canada, two from Puerto Rico and the rest from the US.

ARA MALKHASSIAN/No.11 Alara Racing was the fastest SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup driver in the early morning practice session – while it was still cold and foggy. He turned a lap of 1:42.99/78.237 mph.

There are 21 American drivers in this field.

In the new Ford Racing Mustang Challenge Series, ANDREW CADDEL/No.1 Kaufmann Racing was overall having the best time. He was first in the first practice and third test, and second in the other two tests. There are 18 cars in this fledgling series, and all are from the United States.

Saturday’s weather promises to be warmer.

The morning fog quickly lifted Friday and the day was bright, sunny and warming to upper seventies at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Monterey Festival of Speed. The slight breeze cut the heat. Several series are running including the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No.16, Grand-Am Koni Sports Car Challenge, SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup, and the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge.

Michael Shank Racing Ford Riley Daytona Prototypes got off to a good start in the first Rolex Series practice Friday morning. MICHAEL VALIANTE/No.6 was fastest at 1:20.079/100.610 mph. His co-driver is JOHN PEW.  The sister car driven by OSWALDO NEGRI Jr/No.60 was second fastest.  His co-driver is MARK PATTERSON.

TIMO BERNHARD/No.12 Penske Racing Porsche Riley was third – co-driving with ROMAIN DUMAS.

SYLVAIN TREMBLY/No.70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 was the top GT driver, in seventeenth place overall – co-driving with NICK HAM. Second and third in class were ANDREW DAVIS/No.57 Steven Motorsports, partnered with ROBIN LIDDEL; and LEH KEEN/No.87 Farnbacher Loles Racing, driving with DIRK WERNER.

The sixteen Daytona prototypes are a diverse mixture of engine and chassis combination. Eleven have chassis by Riley, with two Dallaras, and one each Lola and Crawford. The engine manufacturers are Ford-6, three each for Pontiac and Porsche-3, BMW-2, and one each for Honda and Lexus.

The mix in the GT class is split four ways, with eight Porsches, four each for Mazda and Pontiac, and two Corvettes.

The Rolex Series drivers hail from North and South America and Europe. Many of the 51 Americans are from Florida, California and Colorado, with one from Hollywood, actor PATRICK DEMPSEY/No.40 Dempsey Racing Mazda RX-8, who is co-driving with JOE FOSTER. Canada and England have three drivers each; Brazil, Canada,  Germany and Mexico have two each, and one each hail from France, Monaco, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. There are more foreign drivers in the DP class, while the GT class has only three foreign drivers.

The Rolex Series has a second Friday practice, followed by afternoon qualifying for Sunday’s ‘sprint’ race.