Texas-Based Team Seeking Season-Best IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Result in Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix
Lone Star Racing and team co-drivers Dan Knox and Mike Skeen return to Laguna Seca Raceway this weekend where the team will compete in its No. 80 ACS Manufacturing Mercedes-AMG GT3 in Sunday’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race.
Lone Star Racing competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) class in the featured two-hour and 40-minute Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix race that starts at 2:05 p.m. PDT, this Sunday, September 24. Live coverage of the race on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) begins Sunday at 5 p.m. EDT.
Laguna Seca marks the final round of Lone Star Racing’s select schedule of four IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this season.
Lone Star turned the fastest race lap of the three Mercedes-AMG GT3 teams competing in the most recent round of the IMSA WeatherTech Championship last month at VIRginia International Raceway (VIR). Despite the competitive pace, the No. 80 team was unable to finish any higher than 11th after some pit stop and execution errors.
Knox, who both owns the team and drives for Lone Star, will be making his third race appearance at Laguna Seca since May of last year.
“You always have to be optimistic going into the weekend,” Knox said. “In the previous events we have shown our pace but have seen different mistakes and issues. I look forward to showing more improvement this weekend and putting the pieces together as a team. The last race at VIR was proof that you have to be perfect to win an IMSA GTD event. This is a very high level of competition and that is why we are here.”
Knox and Skeen co-drove at Laguna Seca last year in both May’s IMSA WeatherTech race and October’s Pirelli World Challenge SprintX and GT weekend. The team improved its performance by the October event, with Knox and Skeen earning a 2016 season-best finish of second in the World Challenge weekend’s first SprintX round.
Skeen, Knox and their teammates are confident Laguna will again deliver Lone Star’s best finish of the year on Sunday.
“The season has been a quick one for Lone Star Racing but we have had some good performance,” Skeen said. “I hope that we can convert that into a good result this weekend. We have had some disappointments and it would be excellent to end the weekend on a high note.”
Lone Star is campaigning a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time this season.
“Laguna Seca is a very fun track and typically low grip with all the sand,” Skeen said. “Our Mercedes-AMG GT3 should handle those conditions well and really shine on this tight circuit.”
Lone Star Team Manager and Lead Engineer AJ Petersen sees some positives for Laguna Seca in the team’s switch to the Mercedes-AMG GT3.
“I think the downforce of the Mercedes-AMG GT3 will help us a lot at Laguna Seca,” Petersen said. “The car is one of the better ones through the twisty sections of any IMSA event, but we are hurt on long straights with our current BoP. Laguna does have some of these, but luckily they are not quite as straight or as long as VIR.”
The 2.238-mile Laguna Seca circuit offers some famous features and sections unique in North American road courses.
“The Corkscrew is world famous and very fun, but many people overlook how far the track continues to fall through Rainey Curve and Turn 11,” Skeen said. “That whole section is a lot of fun. The biggest challenge on the track is probably Turn 6 because it is so fast. There's a lot of commitment required to thread that needle and get a good run onto the steep uphill straight to the Corkscrew.”
A three-day weekend event, the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix begins today with a pair of one hour practice sessions at 10 a.m. and 2:50 p.m. PDT.
The Saturday, September 23 schedule starts with a final one-hour practice at 8 a.m. before GTD qualifying later that morning at 11:30 a.m. PDT.
Race-day Sunday, September 24 starts with a 20-minute warmup at 9:10 a.m. with the featured Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey scheduled to go green that afternoon at 2:05 p.m. PDT.
The Continental Tire Grand Prix of Monterey can be seen live on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) at 5 p.m. EDT this Sunday, September 24, while international viewers can watch live streaming of the race on www.IMSA.tv.
