The weather gods shone down on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the fourth and final day of the American Le Mans Series Monterey Presented by Patron. There were whispy white clouds over the blue skies, and it felt warmer than the 60 degrees F shown on my phone.
There were crowds everywhere, especially on the grid for the pre-race ceremonies. I wished for spurs to make my way through the mobs.
In the morning warm-up, all thirty-five ALMS cars were on track. It didn’t matter who was fastest, because that’s not the name of that game. There were a lot of in and outs of the pits, to practice driver changes, car adjustments, fueling, tires, etc.
The Conquest Endurance crew had gotten its Morgan/Nissan/Dunlop-E-10 repaired overnight and will start the race.
The Lotus/Alex Job Racing Lotus Evora/Cosworth/Yokohama/E-10 GT was moved to the back of the grid for an engine change.
The GMG Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup/Yokohama/E-10 was moved to the back of the grid for a tire change.
The CORE Autosport No.06 Oreca FLM09/Chevrolet/Michelin/E-10 failed Post-Qualifying Technical Inspection, appealed and was reinstated, to start second in PC, seventh OA.
Tires are ‘free’ in ALMS P1, P2 and GT classes, and spec in PC (Michelin) and GTC (Yokohama.) The tire count is: Michelin-18; Yokohama-8; Dunlop-8 and Falken-1.