Packed House, Nine Races, Nearly 200 Cars At Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Paddock and pit road space is at a premium this weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, which means there will be no shortage of competition for the Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix powered by Mazda.

Nine races will be run over the course of three days (Friday-Sunday) on the famed road circuit (2.238 miles, 11 turns) located on California’s scenic Monterey Peninsula. Seven of those races will be sanctioned by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), including Sunday’s headlining, nationally televised (FOX Sports 1) TUDOR United SportsCar Championship doubleheader.

Mid-week, the entry lists illustrated the packed-house situation, with a total number of 193 cars – 165 for the IMSA-sanctioned events. The breakdown:

· 60 entries for Saturday’s IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race;

· 56 entries for Sunday’s TUDOR Championship doubleheader consisting of one race with Prototype Challenge and GT Daytona cars, the second combining Prototype and GT Le Mans classes;

· 34 entries for the two Sunday races in IMSA’s Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama;

· 15 entries for Saturday and Sunday races in the IMSA-sanctioned Lamborghini Super Trofeo series;

· And in the Sports Car Club of America-sanctioned Mazda MX-5 Cup, 28 cars for races on Friday and Saturday.

“We anticipated and planned for this kind of turnout, but to have almost 200 cars in the paddock is a welcomed reality for IMSA and exceeded our original positive expectations,” said IMSA Vice President of Competition and Technical Regulations Scot Elkins.

“From an IMSA standpoint, 165 cars across seven events is simply an outstanding number. All of this is made possible by the incredible group of stakeholders, which includes our drivers, teams, tracks, manufacturers, sponsors, suppliers, media partners, and most importantly, our growing fanbase.”


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