We end March with another endurance race and this one will come from the West Coast of the United States. Laguna Seca gets to host its first major event of the year with over a dozen GT3 cars with some of the top names from motorsports heading to the famed circuit.
What is this event?
It is the second race of the 2019 Intercontinental GT Challenge season. The season started almost two months ago at the Bathurst 12 Hour and there are three races after Laguna Seca. The next race will be the 24 Hours of Spa on July 27-28th. Suzuka will host a ten-hour race on August 25th. The finale will be the Kyalami 9 Hours on November 23rd.
This is the third California 8 Hours. The Intercontinental GT Challenge is sanctioned by SRO Group, which runs the litany of Blancpain GT Series around the globe including the recently rebranded Blancpain GT World Challenge America series.
With this race being in the United States, what Americans are in it?
Not many. In fact, all the American drivers are in the GT4 class and we are guaranteed to have Americans sweep the podium.
There are only three GT4 entries and all three have three Americans in the driver lineups.
PF Racing will run the #41 Ford Mustang for Jason Pesek, Jade Buford and Chad McCumbee. Buford won at St. Petersburg in the opening weekend for the GT4 America sprint season.
TRG has entered the #67 Porsche Cayman for Spencer Pumpelly, Chris Bellomo and Jason Alexandridis.
RHC Jorgensen/Strom by Strom Motorsport is the only team in this class that ran the Bathurst 12 Hour and it has entered the #113 BMW M4 for Daren Jorgensen, Brett Strom and Jonathan Miller. Jorgensen and Strom were class runner-ups at Bathurst.
This seems underwhelming.
Yes it is and that has been the theme of this race since its inception. Does taking place in the United States and running in conjunction with an American-based series the American teams do not turn out and it is disappointing.
There is no K-PAX Racing, which would have been a great addition with at least one if not two Bentley for Álvaro Parente, Andy Soucek and Rodrigo Baptiste.
It would have been great if Real Time Racing entered an Acura with Dane Cameron and Bret Curtis and maybe the team drafted in a Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Graham Rahal, Marco Andretti, Zach Veach, Takuma Sato, James Hinchcliffe, Sébastien Bourdais or any other Honda IndyCar driver that would benefit from extra track time at the place that will host the season finale and has not hosted an IndyCar race since 2004 and if a Honda IndyCar driver was not possible then Ryan Eversley would have been a fan favorite addition.
GMG Racing is not there. Alegra Motorsports is not there. R. Ferri Motorsport is not there. Risi Competizine is not there. All would have been great additions and filled out this lineup with local drivers and teams to pull for against the mercenaries of the GT3 world.
So none of the top American teams showed up?
No, two did. Park Place Motorsports and Wright Motorsports are fielding the Porsche factory efforts with Bathurst winners Matt Campbell, Dennis Olsen and Dirk Werner in the #912 Porsche for Wright Motorsports.
Olsen does run with Wright Motorsports in World Challenge America but not included in this race is the other World Challenge America team for Wright Motorsports that include defending series champion Scott Hargrove and multi-time champion and Porsche's go-to American driver Patrick Long. You would think Porsche would have thrown a bone and made sure those two were in this race or at least the organizers.
Park Place Motorsports will operate the #911 Porsche for Romain Dumas, Matheiu Jaminet and Sven Müller.
Other than these two entries, what does the top class look like?
The GT3 class has 16 entries, which is actually pretty good. There are 20 entries, the 16 GT3 cars, the three GT4 entries and one GT Cup entry.
Who is doing well in this championship heading to Laguna Seca?
The #999 Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing Mercedes-AMG of Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Götz and Raffaele Marciello are second in the championship on 18 points, seven points behind the Porsche of Campbell, Olsen and Werner.
Third place in the championship is not here. The Australian lineup of Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen are not making the trip to America.
Fourth place in the championship is here with Augusto Farfus, Chaz Mostert and Martin Tomczyk in the #42 BMW Team Schnitzer BMW.
Maxime Soulet is fifth in the championship and he will have two different co-drivers in his Bentley at Laguna Seca. Lucas Ordoñez and Markus Palttala will join him in the #108 Bentley Team M-Sport Bentley. The #107 Bentley has the lineup that is seventh in the championship of Jordan Pepper, Steven Kane and Jules Gounon.
KCMG will have Alexandre Imperatori, Oliver Jarvis and Edoardo Liberati in the #18 Nissan and that lineup is sixth in the championship. KCMG has also entered the #35 Nissan for Katsumasa Chiyo, Alex Buncombe and Joshua Burdon.
What can we take away from the previous California 8 Hours?
Audi is two-for-two in this race.
In 2017, the #44 Magnus Racing Audi of Kelvin van der Linde, Pierre Kaffer and Markus Winkelhock took the victory and last year van der Linde won with Christopher Mies and Christopher Haase in the #29 Land Motorsport entry. In fact, in both years Audi has gone 1-2 in this race with Land Motorsport finishing second in 2017 with Mies, Haase and Connor De Phillippi and last year with Audi Sport Team WRT with Winkelhock, Dries Vanthoor and Robin Frijns.
Audi has two entries in this race and it has split the deck. Van der Linde, Mies and Winkelhock will be in the #29 Land Motorsport Audi with Vanthoor, Haase and Frédéric Vervisch in the #10 Team WRT Audi.
Who can beat Audi?
Besides the two Porsches, Mercedes is probably the best bet because of power in numbers.
Besides the #999 Mercedes-AMG, Team GruppeM Racing has entered the #888 Mercedes-AMG for Maro Engel, Yelmer Buurman and Luca Stolz. The two Team GruppeM racing entries were 1-2 in Wednesday's test session with the #888 Mercedes of Engel leading the #999 Mercedes of Marciello.
Strakka Racing has entered two cars with Christian Nielsen, Adam Christodoulou and Dominik Baumann in the #43 Mercedes-AMG and Lewis Williamson, Gary Paffett and Tristan Vautier in the #44 Mercedes-AMG. Nielsen has won at Laguna Seca before. She won in IMSA's GT Daytona class in 2017 and she finished second at the track in 2016. Vautier ran last year's California 8 Hours and finished third.
Is there anyone we are missing?
Yes! Honda has entered a Honda NSXs and while it is neither Real Time Racing nor features an IndyCar driver it does has brought together Bertrand Baguette, Mario Farnbacher and Corkscrew legend Renger van der Zande in the #30 Honda Team Motul entry.
Walkenhorst Motorsport has entered a second BMW for this race with Christian Krognes, Nicky Catsburg and Mikkel Jansen in the #34 entry.
HubAuto Corsa has entered the only Ferrari in the field and it has brought over a few Australians. Nick Foster and Tim Slade will run their second race in the #27 Ferrari but it will have Miguel Molina in the car for Laguna Seca.
The lone GT Cup entry is the #88 ARC Bratislava Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo for Miroslav Konopka, Andrzej Lewandowski and Zdeno Mikulasko.
What should we expect?
Early signs point to Mercedes-AMG giving Audi a run for its money at Laguna Seca. Last year, Mercedes-AMG Team SunEnergy1 Racing qualified fifth and finished third while Strakka Racing had three cars finish in the top ten after having a car qualify on the front row.
Wright Motorsports finished fourth in last year's race but the best starting Porsche was fifth. Porsche had not won an Intercontinental GT Challenge event until it won at Bathurst last month. German manufactures have won seven consecutive Intercontinental GT Challenge races and nine of 11 all-time IGTC races.
Honda did not enter an NSX in last year's California 8 Hours but Real Time Racing finished fourth in the inaugural event with Cameron, Eversley and Tom Dyer, one lap down. What should give Honda confidence heading into this race is that the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX of Katherine Legge and Andy Lally won in the GT Daytona class at the Laguna Seca IMSA race last September and the year before that Legge and Lally finished second.
Bentley has finished sixth in the last three IGTC races and it has not finished on the podium in the IGTC since the 2017 24 Hours of Spa when it finished second. Bentley has yet to win in IGTC.
Ferrari has one IGTC victory, the 2017 Bathurst 12 Hour with Maranello Motorsport and Craig Lowndes, Toni Vilander and Jamie Whincup.
What is the timetable?
There will be a test session later today at 12:20 p.m. ET with the first free practice scheduled for 2:35 p.m. ET. Pre-qualifying will take place at 6:05 p.m. ET.
Qualifying will start at 2:20 p.m. ET tomorrow. The session has been broken up into three 15-minute parts with each driver from each entry participating. The top ten cars will advance to the pole shootout scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET.
The California 8 Hours will start at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday March 30th.
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