I'm back home in LA now after a long road trip, watching dark rain clouds fill the sky. Rain in Southern California? Does such a thing exist?
Anyways, we have a busy week ahead of us as we gear up for the Formula D finale in Irwindale, but before that we have more action from the Monterey Sports Car Championships at Laguna Seca. If you had the chance to watch the ALMS race on SPEED TV, then you know how crazy things got at Laguna Seca over the weekend!
It's been years since I've been to Laguna Seca, and I was itching to get back to this beautiful race track. As I walked into the paddock early on Friday morning, one of the first machines that grabbed my attention wasn't a race car, but this gleaming orange GT2 Porsche street car.
A walk through the ALMS pits revealed all the regular characters ready to put on one last show before the end of the season. There's the Risi F430 undergoing some last minute work before the start of practice.
I also made it a point to check out the qualifying sessions for the Speed World Challenge series. There are few things better than watching touring cars come down the cork screw, scraping body panels and bouncing all over the zeebra strips…
A new addition to the touring car field is this 2010 Mazda3 sedan, which joins the Mazda6's that have been active in the Speed WC for years.
The Speed GT class also offers some great action with cars like the veteran Caddy CTS-V…
…or the dominant Mustang Cobras of the ACS team. Fan-favorite Boris Said was behind the wheel of one of these Mustangs for the Laguna Seca race.
If you are looking for close racing, you can do no better than the GT3 Challenge series, which was running throughout the weekend.
Although Laguna Seca is a beautiful circuit, getting from one side of the track to the other can be a time consuming and sweat-inducing process. I'm hoping some of the calories I burned climbing the hills offset those nutritious meals from the trackside vendors…
As part of the Sports Car Championships weekend, owners clubs are invited to come out and have gatherings at Laguna Seca. I spotted lots full of Corvettes, BMW's, and the Porsches seen here.
A small crowd had assembled to watch this artist create paintings of race cars. Not a bad gift idea with the holidays around the corner, eh?
Just before the start of the ALMS race on Saturday, the grid was flooded with people as it opened to the public for a brief period. How many other race series let their fans partake in such things?
At 2:45pm sharp, the four-hour race got under way. Here we see Gil de Ferran leading the LMP's around the first corner after the green flag drops…
…with the tight traffic of the GT2 cars following close behind.
After just a lap or two, the field was already scrambling as the faster classes began to lap the slower ones.
This was particularly dramatic when the LMP cars had to mix it up with the much slower GT3 Challenge Porsches.
Just a few laps into the race the #90 BMW of Joey Hand and Bill Auberlen suffered a catastrophic engine failure, bringing a very early end to their day.
Luckily the guys in the #92 were a bit more fortunate. Tommy Milner will be doing another guest blog for us covering his experiences at Laguna Seca.
The beautiful profile of the #45 Flying Lizard as it comes down the hill after cresting the Cork Screw.
And speaking of the Cork Screw, here's a preview of the new "Flatbed Wrecker" class that will be part of the 2010 American LeMans Series. OK, maybe not.
Stay tuned for more from Laguna Seca, including Tommy's blog and a look at Team Falken's race weekend.
-Mike Garrett
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
does anyone know how much an 80s or 90s carrera cost in that states
like the ones on 10th picture
i want one so bad
I was watchin the whole race from the boxes on the home straight and Tommy got totally lamed. I was really surprised at how much the Corvette drivers acted like total Corvette drivers. They were definitely within their racing rights for most of their scraping and bumping but nobody else out there was running the kind of race that they were. Anyway one of the Vettes came in to turn one way too hot because for some ungodly reason he thought he could take the inside braking line later than the other 3 or so cars that were entering the hairpin at the same time! The funny part is that the car entering the corner next to the Vette was the Patron P1 car so ya I really don't get what the GT2 Vette driver was thinking trying to out brake and overtake one of the best P1 cars on the field. So as expected the Vette locked up the brakes and swerved to the right basically creating a wall in front of 3 cars. One of these cars was Tommy in the M3 and the other was a Porsche (can't remember if it was GT3 or GT2); anyway they both ended up in the gravel and while the Porsche was able to muscle out Tommy had to wait for the tow truck ending up in dead last. All in all I think it is a still a great testament to the M3 and to Dirk and Tommy that they came back from that and squeezed in a 7th place (I think GT2 was 14 cars). Great coverage Mike too bad we couldn't meet up!
@IsaacGT-R just saw a 1985 Turbo 930 for sale on ksl.com from Idaho (I think?) for like $20k in very nice shape, per the pics anyway. Love those 80s Porsches! I really like the World Challenge cars. Didn't know the new Mazda 3 was racing. Cool!
lol. f3int.
the corvettes got what was coming though. bergmeister wasnt having any of that childs play crap and put magnussen into the wall.
There is still a lot of pointing of fingers.
But all and all its good to see a lot of people talking about racing. The grudge match of 2010 will be epic season, and I for one will be watching.
@ IsaacGT-R - A mid 80's to early 90's 911 can be had for as little as $13-$23k for a reasonable example, and they can last a very, very long time with proper care, BUT proper care is expensive, and if you get one that has received a lot of abuse, be ready for some hefty repair bills. The mid 90's to late 90's 993 models are some of the most desirable, and figure high 20's to low 40's for a non turbo model. Once again, get ready to pay if yours has problems, big time on motors....but once again, they can last quite a long time compared to other "exotics" out there. 99+ watercooled are more or less problems waiting to happen unless you have a turbo or a GT2 / GT3 model.
My buddy's dad has an 82 Targa with over 200k on the orginal motor....
@ IsaacGT-R - that is an early pre-74 911 in the 10th pic. Expect prices to start around 12K for one in decent shape depending on where you live. Check out the forums at http://www.pelicanparts.com for lots of good listings
thanks a lot guys for the info
what about a 944
those are prety awesome too
Cool! 930, 964, 997, pre and post fecelift 996, all that's missing from that pic is a 993! I believe a desktop is in order- Mike? @IsaacGT-R, I've seen early 944s go for as little as $1,500 though those are mostly project cars. You can get a good, later one for 5-10 grand, with the Turbos obviously the most desirable.
Question- why hasn't Cadillac entered the new CTS-V? Could we get coverage of SPEED World Challenge on Speedhunters?
I was at the races with my fiance. I was in a wheel chair. We arrived in Monterey on 10/7 and I fell on the rocks on 10/8. In my fall, I later learned, I tore my ACL and MCL completely! However, we went to the races as that was our goal of trhe trip. I had many photographers take pics of myself and Joe while the drivers were signing me. I would love to be able to find those pictures so I could buy them for Joe. I fell on the 8th, we went to the races (had a wonderful time) on the 10th and he asked me to marry him on the 11th. I would love to have those pics for our scrap book. Any help or guidance locating the photographer (s) that took those pics is greatly appreciated!