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.

Near-Win at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill: Team Tazio Ottis Racing's Day-Long Battle

Four days before Friday’s Final Practice, Team Tazio Ottis Racing was treated to a reassuring practice at Sonoma Raceway with Speed SF Track Events. It had been the cherry on the sundae after a successful season in WERC E0.

The second year of competition had given Tazio and his team to sort out their FK8 Civic Type R. Their transmission, the FK8’s weak link, had been fortified with stronger third and fourth gears, which has served them well the whole season.

Concerned for the health of the drivetrain, they decided to cap the power at a healthy and reliable 300 horsepower and seek out more speed by reducing the total wet weight to 2,850 pounds with Seibon carbon parts and a titanium Remark exhaust. Along with that car, they had a team of four strong drivers: Tazio Ottis and Daniel Wu, the team’s regulars, aided by Patrick Chio (Speed SF) and Will Wattawongkiri (WRTeknica) for the 25.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have snagged a bad part. During final practice for the 25, third gear blew. After a successful season without gearbox issues, it came as a surprise.

The team was stretched thin hustling to repair the box with a used third gear—one with eighty race hours on it. The effort took them until 11:30 that night, and the delay had kept them from attending qualifying and relegated them to the last position on the grid. Thankfully, they had a long race ahead of them.

Rolling around to take the green flag in last, Will Wattawongkiri was feeling the weight on his shoulders. All of a sudden, the car wouldn’t move. It turned out the driveshaft wasn’t seated properly, so it came out and they brought the car back in the pits and lost six laps. Clearly they weren’t off the start that they wanted.

There was something to lift their spirits, though: the speed was there. Compared to their main rivals on the DIG Motorsport team, their pace was comparable and so their fuel economy was superior. Perhaps the Mustang’s dry performance was better, but things didn’t stay dry long enough for them to benefit much.

The weather was tricky; starting wet, staying wet, and eventually drying slowly, but the Honda was well suited to these conditions. An OS Giken differential and the added weight over the driven wheels helped when the track was slippery. All this was more impressive by the fact that the hasty gearbox repair kept them from getting a good alignment. As a result, they had to swap the fronts out every two hours.

With a prediction of thirty percent rain a little before midnight, they opted for their grooved Toyo RRs—their dry tires. “The difference in lap times was as much as twenty-three seconds, but it was a little risky to go to dries. The dry line was obvious, but it was extremely cold and wet off-line. Passing off the dry line would result in a massive loss of traction, so we had to pick their passes especially carefully,” Patrick said.

Thankfully, they gambled intelligently. In the slippery conditions, the Civic enjoyed a real advantage over the DIG Mustang, which struggled to put the power down. Additionally, the team’s overall pace—very similar across all four drivers— was not limited by the equipment. “We never had to soft pedal the whole race—we all pushed really hard,” Tazio noted.

TTOR were clawing their way back to the front of their race when the fuel started dropping to a worrying level and the fog rolled across the surface. When the fog was deemed thick enough to warrant postponing the race, they had to park the car on the front straight and leave it alone until the race resumed.

“We were catching up lap by lap until three in the morning when the fog rolled in. We were only two laps down when the race was stopped,” Patrick said.

Around 7 AM, the conditions were deemed acceptable for a restart. The team gathered around their new car and stuck Patrick Chio in the seat.

Their Type R had parked on the right side of the track and DIG’s Mustang had parked on the left. A prototype ahead stalled at the restart and boxed the left lane, though that hadn’t stopped the NASA marshall from continuing to wave the right line to move, resulting in a reshuffling of the grid that didn’t sit too well with the DIG team. However, the Civic needed to refuel and had to pit as soon as the green flag dropped. (Note: During a full course yellow condition, the pit lane is closed, prohibiting any team to do any work on their vehicles).

Around that time, DIG lodged a protest about passing during the restart, which Tazio and the team chose to debate initially, but did not persist in fighting the call. They accepted the compromise presented to them: a half-penalty drive through, which they served an hour afterwards.

Thankfully, they could make up for this minor setback. The similar pace among the TTOR drivers meant none of them had to double-stint. To improve matters, they could lap fast enough to push DIG’s fastest driver into running a triple stint and driving quite defensively. The Type R was catching up lap after lap and finally when, with Will Wattawongkiri at the wheel, they eventually passed the DIG Mustang in the twenty-third hour; giving them the class lead and a ninth-place-overall standing.

The actual action in some endurance races only lasts a dozen laps, but that was not the case here. Tazio enjoyed a multi-lap battle with DIG’s Michael Whelden. “Michael was making his car very wide and I was trying to get in his head by flashing my high beams. Honestly, that whole stint felt like a sprint race!”

Roughly one hundred minutes from the end, TTOR made their final pit stop. While stuck in the pits, the DIG Mustang regained the lead of E0, though they hadn’t yet pitted for refuel and we were aiming to repass them and lead the race til the end. They planned to pass; pace was still very strong—until third and fourth gear broke . They had to back off, using fifth in most places, minding the car, and watching their delta grow and grow.

Fifty minutes from the finish, they had to make a decision. “We could have continued running in fifth gear, but the transmission was making a lot of noise. We wanted to avoid blowing up the gearbox and leaving oil all over the track, so we decided to retire the car,” Patrick explained.

“It just made sense. Plus, we wouldn’t have been able to make up the deficit. It was the right thing to do at that point,” Tazio added.

“While we spent many hours in preparation for the race, picked great endurance components, hired a lineup of strong drivers, our team executed perfect pit stops, the 25 was not guaranteed—it never is. The mechanical failures during the last hour made our hearts sink, and we still feel the pain of losing—we were so close to crossing the finish line in first place,” Patrick reflected.

“We couldn’t have done it without our excellent crew and our sponsors. We’ve learned a lot about the car and the competition, and we’ll come back stronger next year.”

Thanks to all who supported TTOR:

Aventon E-Bikes

Honda Performance Development

Toyo Tires

Greddy

Seibon

Inozetek

Titan 7 wheels

Paragon Performance Brakes

Clutch Masters

Hybrid Racing

PTP Turbo Blankets

OS Giken

APR Performance

Remark Exhaust

Student Driver

Speed SF

WRTeknica