Speed SF Challenge Laguna Seca: New Surface, New Records

Ideal weather and a massive turnout of thirty competitors at the last round of the Speed SF Challenge guaranteed some action. Sure enough, we saw new records in several categories. Though some of the newfound speed was due to the recent repave, our Challenge drivers were in stellar form that weekend, and their onboards prove that.

In S1, Steve Melson and his Audi R8 broke the S1 record that had been standing for five years, set back in 2018 by Andrie Hartanto in a C6 Z06. Steve took advantage of the stellar weather and logged a 1:34.081 — a new record that any driver should be proud of—in a car that looks nearly stock. Such is the performance of the second-generation R8.

In S2, Kai Anderson reset Peter Hsu’s Chevy Corvette record by seven tenths. Anderson ran a 1:34.8 to Hsu’s 1:35.7, but not before suffering through a few frustrating sessions. By the end of the day, he cooled his jets long enough to find a gap and avoid slower cars. “My main challenge was recovering from a poor qualifying. There was a good turnout for this event which was great, but it meant the morning sessions were a little crowded, so I ended up only qualifying 7th fastest overall. I recovered to 4th fastest overall in the Challenge session, so mission accomplished, but my fastest lap didn't come until lap 5 because I kept having to abort laps due to catching traffic.

I didn't really have any specific goals for the weekend; mostly just evaluating what is still a relatively new car to me on a newly resurfaced racetrack. Overall, I was impressed with both. I think the changes to Laguna really inspire confidence to push for that optimal lap without creating a different line that requires total abuse of track limits.

The Camaro is perfect for Laguna, with prodigious power, cooling, and brakes to match. There is definitely still some laptime to come from this pair. Crossing my fingers December is dry!”

In S3, Spencer Kimball put in a serious effort to try and beat Kevin Schweigert’s S3 record of 1:36.0.

“I went into this event with some reservations knowing that my M3, with limited torque, was not at its best on Laguna’s straights. Laguna is also the one local track that I drive the least, but I made sure to try and get some practice in before the Challenge weekend. I lucked out and a friend lent me his pass for an event the weekend before, where I ran a low 1:37 after a year-long Laguna hiatus. I looked over my data and saw that a mid-35.xx would be possible, but I went into the Challenge event with the goal of breaking into the 36s. 

I knew that I had my work cut out for me as my main competition, Legend Brandenburg in his A90 Supra, benefits from ~200 more ft/lbs more than my E92 has. Luckily I was able to run a mid 1:36 during sessions 1 and 2, which put giving me a good spot for the challenge session. I studied my data to figure out where I needed to commit, and it was clear that the faster corners were where I could push harder to find somet time. I ended up running a 1:36.5 in the Challenge by carrying more speed through T5, T6, and T8, which was enough to make me the fastest in S3.”

In the end, Kimball was just 1/2s off of Schweigert’s lap, which Schweigert set in a car weighing 500 pounds less with comparable power levels. Not too shabby.

Gary Wong still has a little bit of work to do in the Supra to find the second between him and Dave Colbert’s 1:31.5 Group X record. The infamous purple Supra had its engine tweaked slightly to reduce power cuts, but heat is still an issue which Wong has to deal with. Thankfully, the team has a solution—though they won’t be able to use it until the next weekend.

“It was a fun weekend. I mainly wanted to sample the new track surface and see where I could push more than before. Because of how bad the stupid bump at T1 is, I wasn’t able to hit our sub-30 target times, although that had something to do with to traffic and some electrical gremlins. Because of some overheating issues, we had to lower the power level to complete the full lap. Thankfully, we know the issues and the solutions and we’ll come back stronger.”

Gunning for the S4 record, Nate Hackman’s put in an incredible 1:39.7, less than one-tenth off of Sean Yepez’s record, in what appears to be a very mildly modified car without any aerodynamic goodies. The primo parts are under the skin, though: his Ohlins TTX coilovers help his S2000 handle better than most. A last-minute setup change reduced some of the oversteer in the car, so Hackman could commit to the faster corners easily.

“Up until that weekend, I had only mustered high 41s at Laguna. With the repave running faster and a few changes to the car I figured I'd run a second or two faster, but tried not to overthink it with goals and just go have fun. Luckily, I was able to cook off a number of 39s with some definite room for improvement. I was still a tenth off Sean's pre-repave lap record which was a little disappointing, but I knew he'd come back and crush any record I set, and was still very happy to crack into the 39s with no aero and take home a win with an underbuilt car.”

In S5, Tony Rodriguez’s 1:45.2 record seems untouchable. Maybe we need another all-out MR2 to chase Rodriguez’s old S2000 down. In the meantime, we’ll have to tip our hats to our talented drivers taking advantage of the new pavement and pushing themselves hard enough to keep all the Speed SF Challenge competitors on their toes. When times continue to tumble like they have been, none of the Challenge competitors can coast, boast, or rest on their laurels.

Steven's McLaren 675LT: Hardly Fair Anymore

Four seconds faster. A whole four seconds faster after a couple sessions. That’s the amount of time Steven Melson cut off his previous best, set in a V10-powered R8, just after getting acquainted with his new car.

It was his coach who had been gushing about the McLarens he and his clients had been driving in recent months. Steven, though he hadn’t come close to purchasing a car of that caliber before, was beginning to wonder whether he should add one to his collection.

It took him over a year of maybes, mishaps, and genuine frustration—culminating in a trip to Texas to test one at COTA to get a feel before pulling the trigger. The car he was supposed to test, a Papaya Orange 675LT, was crashed by its owner just minutes before Steven was supposed to take it for a spin. Some would’ve given up on the idea then, but Steven’s coach had convinced him that one of these cars was worth holding out for.

A week later, the listing for another 675LT, this one finished in Chicane Grey, popped up in his inbox courtesy of a supportive friend. It didn’t take long before Steven made a decision.

At just 2,950 pounds, the 675LT is nearly a half-ton lighter than his Mercedes AMG GT and four hundred pounds lighter than his Audi R8 V10. Compared to the Audi, which now wears a set of Penske racing shocks, the McLaren is much more alert. “The weight difference is obvious,” Steven began.

Thanks to the carbon tub and the active suspension, the grip and lateral support is much better than the Audi’s, if maybe coming at the cost of a slightly duller feel. To improve matters, the McLaren’s quicker steering and sharper front end, as well as a more stable rear at higher speeds bolster Steven’s confidence and encourage him to push.

And its urgency is only part of its appeal. The power is savage, relentless, and genuinely shocking—I remember the first time I drove one, and I had to let out a few expletives after the boost hit. It can spin the wheels easily in third and sometimes fourth, yet the power is somehow controllable.

There aren’t many cars which will out-accelerate this surprisingly exploitable supercar.

Despite making the sort of power that few track cars can, the delivery is fairly linear and very controllable. “I don’t get the feeling of ‘Oh God, now the boost is on!’ Really, it’s not that intimidating,” he professed.

What does surprise him is the way which the McLaren decelerates. “The stopping power is amazing—so far beyond the Audi or the Mercedes. I’d usually overstep the mark in those two cars, but I haven’t found the limit yet in this. Every time I try to push the braking point later than what feels comfortable, it just stops,” he laughed.

And despite the systems providing him some form of safety net, the McLaren is exacting—so much so that he’s started augmenting a few mistakes the plusher, less demanding Mercedes let him get away with. “My coach told me to try and get back to the throttle earlier and earlier; it just takes it. In fact, it’s helped me work on my bad habit of coasting mid-corner,” he admitted. To get the rear settled early and softly has opened his eyes up to the dynamic differences between a hard-edged car like this and his relatively plush German machines he’d gotten used to.

To get a better sense of how these three differed, he took them all to the McLaren’s inaugural track day at the Thunderhill Bypass last December. After one day of familiarizing himself with the new car, Steven put in a searing lap of 1:51.5—four seconds faster than the best he’d managed in the Audi. That’s with an indicated 154 miles an hour on the front straight and a lot of mud on several parts of the track. If that’s not an indication of accessible speed, I’m not sure what is.

Being as quick as it is, he hasn’t really considered toying with the suspension much. He has, however, decided to extract a little more power from the M838 motor with a set of catless competition downpipes from Soul Performance and a tune from M-Engineering. On 100-octane fuel, these goodies should make another hundred wheel horsepower—another hundred wheel in a car which runs 10.3 in the quarter bone stock. “It’s probably all I’m gonna do for a while—I just wanna learn to drive it better, have fun, and beat some X records,” he admitted.

Sounds like a reasonable plan of action.