IMSA Race 2023 MOTUL Course de Monterey Powered By Hyundai (Laguna Seca)

[Adam43]

Some race facts:

Laps:102
Longest Drive time: Albuquerque 2:20:56 (86 laps). Taylor did the first 16 laps and then it was Albuquerque the rest of the way.
4 yellow flags (59:48 minutes). 1:41:15 green.
3 retirements (+2 cars finished in the pits)

LMP2 winning laps: 102
GTD winning laps: 97
GTDPRO winning laps: 97

And Alex Sims did a 64 lap stint at the end!

[Adam43]

A quick look at (some of) the battle for the lead.

I chose the winner (01), the Porsche that challenged at the end (6) and Acura that led (60).

I love how you can see the leader hit the traffic on the chart.

The Acura pace is interesting - super quick at the beginning, but losing out later. Any reason for this?

[Adam43]

Here is the Fastest, average of the top 10, 20 and 40 laps for each of the GTPs:

Average Lap time

Rank	Car	Fastest	Top 10	Top 20	Top 40
1	01 Cadillac	1:16.742	1:17.389	1:17.674	1:18.106
2	31 Cadillac	1:16.438	1:17.550	1:17.741	1:18.381
3	6 Porsche	1:17.380	1:17.542	1:17.806	1:18.236
4	60 Acura	1:17.025	1:17.617	1:17.937	1:18.374
5	25 BMW	1:17.354	1:17.744	1:18.021	1:18.562
6	10 Acura	1:17.125	1:17.826	1:18.119	1:18.473
7	24 BMW	1:17.554	1:17.955	1:18.144	1:18.512
8	7 Porsche	1:17.480	1:17.907	1:18.161	1:18.691
9	5 Porsche	1:17.999	1:18.341	1:18.510	1:19.054

Porsche had the beginning of the weekend. Acura had it's moments at the begining especially, but then seemed to drop off. BMW seemed to be always the same whoever was in the other positions. Cadillac had the race though.

[Adam43]

Early in the race Keating bossed it. Chatin/Jensen was a tight battle until lap 80 and then Jensen pulled out a relatively comfortable lead. I wonder if there was a reason for that?

[skycafe]

I don't believe this was mentioned during race coverage, but Farano landed in hospital as a result of his off.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/f...guna-accident/

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by skycafe

I don't believe this was mentioned during race coverage, but Farano landed in hospital as a result of his off.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/f...guna-accident/

RLM mentioned it, but I don't think we ever got an update past he was going.

Tower twitter only has "Farano was alert and responsive when taken out of the car... taken to local hospital for further assessment". 2 hour ago.
https://twitter.com/towermtsprts8/st...yWILSZ0DMY7C-g

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Adam43

RLM mentioned it, but I don't think we ever got an update past he was going.

Tower twitter only has "Farano was alert and responsive when taken out of the car... taken to local hospital for further assessment". 2 hour ago.
https://twitter.com/towermtsprts8/st...yWILSZ0DMY7C-g

https://twitter.com/towermtsprts8/st...j6eBMuiRu0YfKw

He’s fine.

[Coach Ep]

I didn't see a replay of the crash, just a somewhat right front damaged car sitting up against the messed up tire barrier. Was it ever shown?

I'm a little concerned for Farano going to LM that despite the whole rookie procedure, it can bite hard (as we've seen on a number of occasions, especially with amateur drivers).

[joeb]

Wanted to mention it was great to see the Riley Porsche win in GTD with a couple of drivers who "graduated" from the Porsche Cup series over the past few years. Van Berlo is a talent, but for Mehtni to do his part and keep it in contention was cool. Has to be something the Porsche Deluxe Carrara Cup can use to attract talent. Demonstrates its usefulness as a proving ground for young drivers who are looking to advance.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

I didn't see a replay of the crash, just a somewhat right front damaged car sitting up against the messed up tire barrier. Was it ever shown?

I'm a little concerned for Farano going to LM that despite the whole rookie procedure, it can bite hard (as we've seen on a number of occasions, especially with amateur drivers).

I didn't see a replay either, but the aftermath didn't look awful. What did look awful though was the crash in the MX-5 race, lots of rolls and flips.

https://youtu.be/xfb_KmxlugA

Driver was ok.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by joeb

I didn't see a replay either, but the aftermath didn't look awful. What did look awful though was the crash in the MX-5 race, lots of rolls and flips.

https://youtu.be/xfb_KmxlugA

Driver was ok.

Pea Soup!

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by joeb

Wanted to mention it was great to see the Riley Porsche win in GTD with a couple of drivers who "graduated" from the Porsche Cup series over the past few years. Van Berlo is a talent, but for Mehtni to do his part and keep it in contention was cool. Has to be something the Porsche Deluxe Carrara Cup can use to attract talent. Demonstrates its usefulness as a proving ground for young drivers who are looking to advance.

And here's how they did it. Metni grabbed the lead in the second FCY. After the third FCY Van Berlo was behind the 92 sister car. He closed and was less than 1s for a long time. After the final FCY Can Berlo was behind the 44 Aston - again less than 1s for ages. Then grabbed the lead and pulled out a good lead.

[Adam43]

Now the second of the two GT classes.

I did two scales so you can see the it where Pfaff lost nearly a lap because of the red light.

It was a tense battle for most of the last stint. Although in the last few laps Weathertech just decided to pull away a bit winning by a whole 8s in the end!

[Adam43]

In conclusion - what a fun race! Was chatting with a friend over in Germany who stayed up for it. We both couldn't believe there weren't more accidents in the last part of the race. It was intense with all that lapping amongst the classes.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Adam43

In conclusion - what a fun race! Was chatting with a friend over in Germany who stayed up for it. We both couldn't believe there weren't more accidents in the last part of the race. It was intense with all that lapping amongst the classes.

Agreed! Great to see the coverage pickup up on some of the lapping craziness, something that often gets lost with the focus on the leaders. This is exactly what you'll witness trackside (either from the stands/spectating areas or, like me, flagging from the sideline). And it happens pretty much everywhere around the track.

Having nearly 40 cars on a 2-and-a-quarter mile track didn't hurt either! (and just to put that CPM (car-per-mile) ratio in perspective: it would equal 143 cars at LM!!)