Motor sports: A new era of racing arrives at Laguna Seca

I have been waiting for this particular race weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for more than three years, knowing that within the rolling hills between Monterey and Salinas a new era for Northern California endurance racing fans would be ignited.

The anticipation started just before the 2020 Rolex Daytona 24-Hour race when the world’s top three sports car racing sanctioning bodies announced that they had reached a consensus that would allow IMSA, the FIA’s World Endurance Championship, and the stand-alone sanctioning body for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Automobile Club de l’Ouest, to all race on each other’s turf for the first time in two decades.

And this was all conceived to give the world’s major automotive manufacturers a reason to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new type of car to attempt to be top dog at the 100th anniversary running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans this June 10-11.

Far closer to home, Northern California’s first taste of this dramatic new era will see factory two-car teams from Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, and Acura as well a third privateer Porsche over the Motul Course de Monterey Powered by Hyundai N this weekend.

Saturday’s qualifying starts at 12:55 PM with the 2-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge race following at 4:30. Sunday’s featured 2-hour, 40-minute race gets the green at 12:10 PM, preceded by a glorious open pit lane where thousands of fans can get their kneecaps right next to these impressive machines.

While some of the cars may look somewhat similar to last year’s DPi (Daytona Prototype international) machines, all now must have additional hybrid power that is regenerated through braking forces. The hybrid adds 67 hp while total horsepower is capped just below 700 for all entries and can only assist driving the rear wheels.

And here lies some of the clever thinking in dreaming up this new formula. The aerodynamic downforce is capped at modest levels as well. The reason for this is to allow manufacturers to retain the styling cues of their road-going cousins without losing out in aerodynamic downforce in the corners.

The BMW M Hybrid V8 sports the “mirrored kidney bean” design from their road cars’ radiator intakes. The Cadillac V-Series R retains the angular design and vertical taillights that the brand is known for. Porsche’s 963 follows the graceful lines of their all-electric Taycan. And the front of the Acura ARX-06 closely follows the v-shape associated with front ends of their cars, particularly the NSX.

Internationally these cars are classified as LMDh for Le Mans Daytona hybrid. But IMSA labels them the GTP class, harkening back to the Grand Touring Prototypes raced between 1982 and 1993.

Then factories around the world looked to IMSA, the International Motor Sports Association, as the way to cement their brands into the minds of racing enthusiasts.

England had Jaguar, March, and Spice. Germany had BMW and Porsche. Japan had Nissan. And the US automakers supplied factory efforts through the Ford Probe GTP and the Corvette GTP. Although almost all saw victory at least once, it was Nissan and a pack of factory and customer Porsche 962s that rose to the top.

That was, however, until Dan Gurney and his All-American Eagle Toyota team established such domination that other factories fell by the wayside in the early ‘90s and the GTP era imploded. In its wake, slower open-cockpit cars were mandated by IMSA and factory involvement, except for the Ferrari P333, dried up.

But the rules this time won’t allow for horsepower or aerodynamic dominance to kill a great thing. And the future looks even brighter with the possibility of Ferrari expanding from their current WEC-only campaign, and Peugeot bringing over their unique wingless prototype rebranded as a Dodge for the American market.

Like before mechanical diversity adds to the challenge for drivers, engineers, and manufacturers alike. Most of the cars in WEC are classified as LMH cars, which stands for Le Mans Hypercars. The LMH cars need not use hybrid power, but if they want to they can choose to use it to power the front wheels as the series-leading Toyota Gazoo Racing team does.

IndyCar entrants Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi have teams in both series with each getting two entries into the Le Mans 24. This weekend at Laguna, Porsche Penske Motorsport will field the No. 6 Porsche 963 for Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet as well as the No. 7 for Matt Campbell and Felipe Nasr. Chip Ganassi Racing will run the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series R for Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande. A sister car, the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac, has Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims sharing driving duties.

Acura has two factory cars run by completely separate teams. The Meyer Shank Racing team won at the Rolex 24 at Daytona but an engineer disgraced the team and cheated on minimum tire pressures. The No. 60 Acura was dropped to last-place in points but drivers Colin Braun and Tom Blomqvist kept the trophy. However they will be fighting an uphill battle for the overall championship. Of course, the engineer was fired immediately.

The Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Acura might have won at the 12 Hours of Sebring but was punted in a pileup that collected both Penske Porsches including the car that gave the Acura a hip check into the barriers. Drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor stand just one point out of the lead coming into Laguna behind Tandy and Jaminet. The latter pair scored Penske’s first victory in the new era at Long Beach.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing runs the BMW factory program with Philip Eng and Augusta Farfus driving the No. 24 entry while Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly pilot the No. 25. Coming off a pair of second place finishes at Sebring and Long Beach they lie a joint fourth in the standings at 934 points, one behind Albuquerque and Taylor.

The new car in their midst will be the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 driven by Mike Rockenfeller and 19-year-old Tijmen van der Helm. The is the first customer 963 delivered to North America, with more to come.

Filling out the field will be eight LMP2 cars with performance not far behind the GTPs and the GT Daytona and GTD Pro production-based cars. Now these cars run the same GT3 spec with only driver experience dictating class. Most of the GTD cars have technically amateur drivers who took to racing after successful business careers.

Pit Bits

• The new pit straight spectator bridge is NOT ready for use so it’s best to park on the hill leading to the Corkscrew or inside Turn 5 to have easy access to the paddock.
• One of the favorites in Saturday’s race is former IndyCar driver Robert Wickens who lost the use of his legs in a violent, 200-mph crash. He will share a Hyundai Elantra N fitted with hand controls. Wickens and co-driver Harry Gottsaker have already claimed victory in the TC class.
• Tiburon’s Memo Gidley claimed a pair of victories in the SRO GT America series on the NOLA road course near New Orleans, boosting his lead in the season championship.