A Weekend at Laguna Seca - Unlimited Sound

It’s not often you see an open decibel Laguna Seca track day that you can just sign up for. Most of the time, these occurrences are given to race weekends for IMSA or special events such as the Rennsport reunion, but rarely ever do you see a track day organizer selling tickets to an unlimited sound day. We were lucky to jump on the event before it was completely sold out - which was the case a week prior to its start. The WRTeknica team took the opportunity to bring out as many cars as possible, including it’s very own customers that have yearned to drive the historic Monterey track for years but were limited due to the restrictive decibel limit. Among the cars that went were a C8 corvette that we aligned and performed a ride-height adjustment on, both WRTeknica & Kenny Shak’s GT3s, Abdul’s Mariah racecar, two Mclaren 720s that came in for AP Racing brakes, and Legends Media creator Dustin Williams’ Honda S2000 Spoon build. 

The morning after we arrived in Laguna Seca, we set-up our canopies and prepared our equipment; ready for the fast-paced pit environment for the day ahead. After the morning driver’s meeting, we had our own team briefing with our track-side support crew to make sure a seamless flow of activity would ensue in the pit-lane. Checking tire temps, tire pressures, making sure each car is sound and ready to go after each hot-pit is crucial for data gathering and for maintenance of vehicle performance throughout the day. 

Off we went for the first session, which was subsequently black-flagged due to a vehicle that had a mechanical failure and stopped in an unsafe area. If you experience an issue that requires you to immediately pull off always be conscious of where you are pulling off. Do everything you can to make sure you stop in a safe area ideally near a flagger station. You never know when someone might overshoot their braking zone and you don't want to be in the area they need for run off. You also don't wanna be "that guy" that causes the whole session to be black flagged for everyone else. 

After the black flag incident, the rest of the sessions in the day went without incident. There were a lot of really fast cars, in particular some McLaren Senna's that were great to benchmark against. Will and Kenny were both running Nankang AR-1s of their GT3s. Not the fastest tire but a great tire for consistency with very little drop off in grip over the course of a track day. On this tire Will was able to do a 1:35.xx fast enough to play with the Sennas for a bit before their overwhelming aerodynamic and power advantage showed just how much faster they are. Kenny wasn't too far behind with a 1:38.xx in his GT3. 

As the day wound down and the last sessions were finishing up we began to close up our pit area. We went over everyones data from their SOLO 2 DL and SmartyCams. Reviewing exciting moments in their footage, but more importantly analyzing where they can improve and how they felt about their cars dynamics in areas where they seems to be lacking pace. Data is invaluable at the track, it helps you as the driver to know where you can do better and it helps us know how to set up the car better based on how you're driving it. In classic WRTeknica fashion, we all went out for a big feast at the local hand-crafted Pasta spot and indulged ourselves for the night. A relaxing and low-stakes environment was what we needed after a day of adrenaline and high average beats per minute. We went back to our hotel in Monterey and knocked out for the night. 

Onwards and forwards to day 2, where our newly acquired data from day 1 would be improved upon and put into use for the sessions that day. All of our customers set personal best lap times, even with worse track conditions than day 1. Adjusting, readjusting, testing, and so on and so forth, we saw massive improvements in our customers driving capabilities and their potential to understand and implement the data that Will interpreted to them. Though our newly installed Nankang AR-1s were gone by the end of the weekend, they were well worth it. We had consistent grip on both GT3s which led to consistent lap times through the sessions - allowing the drivers to focus on improving their times rather than their cars working against them. 

We packed up the trailer after a long and eventful weekend of testing and data validation, and caravanned back to Los Angeles. For the following weeks, we will focus on the weak-points that we noticed in our customer cars to prepare them for the October 17-18 Speed District event, another unlimited sound day and the last one of the year.

Keep scrolling for bonus pictures from the weekend courtesy of Imola Media