Rick Mayer: The Inside Track

Risi Competizione's Rick Mayer gives us an inside look at strategic insight for today's American Le Mans Series Monterey presented by Patrón. The Risi Ferrari F430 GT already has taken pole position in the GT class thanks to Jaime Melo's run in qualifying Friday. He'll drive with Gimmi Bruni - making his first appearance at the track - in today's six-hour enduro.

The Track:
Laguna Seca is 2.24 miles long and the track resides in a state park making it very picturesque. The track has several long medium to medium-high speed corners and a low top speed of 240 kph or 150 mph, one of the lowest top speeds of all the tracks we run. Sections of the track are similar to street tracks, but with elevation changes, including the famous ‘Corkscrew’ turn, a steep drop away over a blind 90-degree left-hand bend that immediately sweeps away to the right. It’s the signature corner complex of the track and a great place to watch the action.

The surface is relatively smooth as the weather is very consistent all year round and the track is not heavily used. The general grip level is typically low. The big issue at Laguna is the sand that surrounds the track edges, as opposed to grass at most permanent road courses. As the higher down force cars run near the edge of the track (or, unintentionally, off it) the sand is sucked onto the surface which makes the track low grip and slippery, and not always predictable. A moderate wind will also bring sand onto the tarmac. Shortly after the start, the track will only have one racing line; it’s difficult for GT2 cars to go off line to pass (or get passed by faster classes) and retain any grip. If you go, or are forced, off line, it takes several laps to clean the sand off the tires.

Setup:
Laguna is typically a low grip under-steer track. The only real change of direction is in The Corkscrew section, but it’s relatively slow and falling away down hill. It’s a unique corner all to itself and you don’t spend any time setting up for this complex, although it does tend to set the minimum ride height for the car; cars usually ‘bottom’ here, i.e. the floor of the car touches the surface of the track.

A moderately stiff setup is better at Laguna Seca. Pitch platform is important for braking and turn-in, and you need support through the long corners which you can’t do with dampers (shocks). This track is hard on brakes. The last corner is very slow - a good exit is important here as this leads to the main pit strait and to Turn 3 which is a prime passing area. The car needs good low speed traction to get off the last corner well for a run down to Turn 3.

The Race:
The GT2 Championship points have closed up a bit now after the results from Long Beach. This is a long race, which is usually to our benefit; it’s a 6 hour race this year (as opposed to 4 hours for the last few years). Low grip translates to low tire wear; the Ferrari should be able to double stint tires if it’s strategically advantageous. There will likely be numerous yellows, often due to cars sliding off track because of the slippery surface, making strategy a bit of a crap shoot. Pit work will again be pivotal for track position. If you go off here you get stuck in the sand which makes for long caution periods; there’s not much recoverable runoff.

The Corvettes, BMWs and Porsches will all be fiercely competitive here. The lack of long straits and several long corners play to the Ferrari’s handling advantage The 62 ran well here the last four years, with two wins and a second. We are hoping the endurance race winning streak continues so we reverse our problematic States-side winning concerns from last year.

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