IndyCar, IndyLights and USTCC at Laguna Seca 2022

Published on Jan 17, 2023. Event was held at Laguna Seca (WeatherTech Raceway) on Sep 10, 2022.

#cars #Indycar #Laguna Seca #photo gallery #racing #USTCC

Let me start with a confession — I don’t follow Indycar closely and this race happened a while back. I do remember that it was a very hot day, and next time around I will bring an umbrella to protect myself from the lovely Californian sun. Also, I was there on Saturday only.

United States Touring Car Qualifying and Race 1

USTCC has four classes defined by the power-to-weight ratio: Sportsman, Touring, Super Touring and GT. All these classes race together — slower packs trailing faster ones at the start.

To me this is the most relatable series of all — cars look familiar and there was some close racing within classes. It was fun to watch GT and ST overtaking slower cars in the turn two — either by getting ahead of them before the braking zone or over-braking them into the turn.

The red NSX looks sooo good! Definitely the eye candy of the event.

Also, check out the MFG Motorsport car combining elements of IndyCar, Silver Crown (ovals warrior) and dirt car wings. Not sure what it is called, may be the Road Course Sprint Car?

Racing Ambition Acura NSX - GT class

Racing Ambition Acura NSX

MFG Motorsport Road Course Sprint Car

Coolboxx Audi R8

Even though overtakes were plentiful, most classes had a car (or two) leading the whole race:

GT: Kip Olson in Driving Ambition Acura NSX
ST: Viktor Czapla in Cool Boxx/034Motorosport Audi R8
SP: Matt Million in Palomar Racing E36 BMW M3
TC: not sure if he led all the time, but Gary Trudeau in Red Panther Motorsport Hyundai Genesis came first

Touring Car class Race 1

Sportsman class Race 1

GT class Race 1

Palomar racing — Super Touring and Sportman classes

Touring class followed by Sportman class cars

Bob Accardo — Red Panther Motorsport

Spec Racer Ford Qualifying and Race

Caleb Shrader in Flat Out Racing car #99 comfortably led the race with Federico Mosconi coming close second in #00 car.

It appeared as if #00 had an issue with brake bias throughout the race — rear brakes were locking wheels in turn 2 every other lap.

Spec Racer Ford — Caleb Shrader, Flatout Racing

Spec Racer Ford Race 1 start

IndyLights Qualifying and Race 1

Sting Ray Bob took the pole position and comfortably led Saturday race. Christian Rasmussen came second with Hunter McElrea third.

Sting Ray Bob — Andretti Autosport

IndyCar Qualifying

IndyCar has an interesting qualification format: two initial rounds with half of the grid each, another round were top 6 from both rounds compete (12 in total), and the final one — between the top six drivers.

Top three qualifiers were Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean (didn’t crash the pace car this time around) and Will Power who later proceeded to win the 2022 Championship (but not the race) on Sunday.