Laguna Seca Blowing Both Hot And Cold!

The weather conditions from Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca will present an enormous challenge for the teams this weekend, but rather than the conditions in the sky, it will be the ones on the surface that teams are concerned with. While there is no rain in the forecast, there are temperatures ranging from the high-30s F (0 degrees C) to the mid-70s F (20 degrees C) predicted for race day.

Today’s temperature range, which will be similar to tomorrow’s range, saw a 32-degrees Fahrenheit swing in the track temperature from the first Free Practice session in the morning to the second Free Practice session in the early afternoon. That will make finding the ideal car setup very difficult for the teams, especially considering the next session is qualifying.

“We’ve got a tough job tonight. You’ve got to have a qualifying setup for the cooler conditions and then you’ve got to take into account the change of temperature throughout the day,” Oliver Jarvis said.

Jarvis was the fastest DPi driver in the two Free Practice sessions on Saturday. Unlike in GTD and GTLM, though, his fast lap came in the hotter afternoon session. Turner Motorsports’ Bill Auberlen explained that when the sun comes out and temperatures jump, lap times can be up to two seconds slower.

A car setup that factors in the temperature change is “something we’re going to have to sit down and really focus on tonight,” Jarvis said. “We need to make sure we make the right changes at the right time,” he added.

“Everybody’s in the same boat – you’re going to be making educated guesses and just doing the best job you can,” Jarvis added.

Turner Motorsports spent most of the Free Practice sessions working on their race setups but Auberlen explained it would be a mistake to completely abandon a qualifying setup. The veteran-BMW driver cited track position and the difficulty of passing around Laguna Seca as important factors for the race, meaning a good starting position could be crucial to determining the outcome of the race.

“It’s a fight here, you have to bump and grind,” Auberlen said of the kind of racing necessary to be successful at Laguna Seca.

When Free Practice 1 started on Saturday, the track temperature was around 56 degrees F (13 degrees C). By the end of the session, just one hour later, the track temperature was approaching 90 degrees F (32 degrees C).

With just two practice sessions all weekend, teams will have to jump straight into qualifying on Sunday morning. All of that makes the window to get the car setup right smaller than it otherwise would be.

Auberlen said that they will opt for what he called a “pointy” setup for qualifying tomorrow, explaining that the setup will allow the front of the car to be more responsive and agile at the expense of tyre life.

In qualifying, “Robby [Foley] only has to hang on for two or four laps,” Auberlen said.

Track position could be important, but tyre life will also be crucial. We saw in the Michelin Pilot Challenge race on Saturday that teams on new tyres could set lap times a second or more quicker per lap than cars on older tyres. Factor in Laguna Seca’s famously low grip nature which drivers have been mentioning all weekend and it gives teams a considerable engineering challenge.

Pic: Copyright Mazda Racing

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