Last weekend, I was out on the West Coast at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the next round of the IMSA championship. We had absolutely gorgeous weather and plenty of on-track action to keep us busy throughout the event.
MX-5 Cup had rounds 5 and 6, and as we have come to expect, we had a very narrow margin of victory in both races, so we were not disappointed! The two races gave us plenty of on-track shakeups throughout the contest. One aspect that was consistent was JTR Motorsports Engineering, which swept the weekend, including top times in practice and qualifying. The team also won both races, with Jared Thomas and Aaron Jeansonne each taking victory, which allowed new winners to emerge for the season.
It was a big shakeup in the Rookie of the Year points standings, too, with Mazda Shootout Scholarship winner Westin Workman having no luck at Laguna. That allowed fellow Shootout competitor Nathan Nicholson to close the margin and form up what will be a tight battle heading into the halfway point of the season.
The next round for the series will be at Mid-Ohio in early June after a short break.
Another bit of excitement from Laguna Seca is that Elias De La Torre campaigned a Lamborghini in Super Trofeo for the first time. I’ve been working with him in Carrera Cup, and since this weekend wasn’t a scheduling conflict for the two series, he was able to try his hand in Super Trofeo.
Elias did a terrific job with his first outing in the car, and while the goal is always to get top results, every bit of progress we made was something to celebrate, since this was his debut.
By the end of the weekend, Elias was fighting for a podium spot in the Pro class, which was exciting to see. He had plenty of perseverance as he continued to learn the nuances of the car, navigated pit stops—which included in-lap and out-lap performance—and handled the diversity of driving experience across all the classes. With 40 Lamborghinis on a tight 2.25-mile race track, it made for quite a busy place!
All in all, there was no time to rest, at Laguna Seca or after! I came off a busy weekend only to turn around to head to Watkins Glen to join Elias for Carrera Cup testing. After that, I’ll be heading to Circuit of the Americas for the next round of the SRO Championship. I’m looking forward to more excitement!