DeltaWing: Consistency, reliability and managing traffic keys to the race at Laguna Seca

Monterey, Calif. – The Claro/TracFone DeltaWing Racing Cars team set its best time of the weekend during this afternoon’s qualifying session and will start sixth in today’s Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, race four of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.

Drivers Katherine Legge and Memo Rojas worked on setup throughout the two days of practice, bringing the DeltaWing Coupe up to speed on Mazda Raceway’s challenging 11-turn, 2.238-mile layout. Legge took the wheel for qualifying and worked hard to create a gap between her and the eight other cars in the Prototype class in order to get a clear lap. On lap six of the 20-minute session, she set the team’s quick time with a lap at 1:20.504, putting the team on the outside of the third row for today’s two-hour and 40-minute event.

The Continental Tire Monterey Grand Prix Powered by Mazda will be broadcast live on FOX Sports 1, from 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. ET .

Katherine Legge: “We can go quicker, but the key for us in the race will be consistency and reliability. Managing traffic is always a priority, but especially here. The good thing is that there are so many places to pass here, but the problem is the passing areas are usually the places that end up with debris – during qualifying, there was a good deal of sand accumulation on the exit of the curves. The car handles differently here because of the track surface and the sand, so you have to manage that. Of course, it will depend on how many people go off during the race as to how much sand is on the track, which always makes it interesting. The team has done a good job; everyone is so invested in the program, so hopefully we’ve put our gremlins behind us and we can go get a solid finish tomorrow.”

Tim Keene: “We’re happy with top six qualifying position, though I think we expected a bit more speed. But it’s a long race. There are some things we’ll try tomorrow to get more outright straight-line speed and try to gain some more time there, but overall, we’re happy. Katherine did a good job getting a clear lap and the team has done a good job setting up the car. We’re looking forward to a good race tomorrow. We know it will be difficult; you’re not going to get a clear lap, you’ll be in some kind of traffic the whole race. We may do some things strategy-wise to gain track position, work the race backwards, outsmart some people. If we make good decisions in and out of the car, we can get a good top-five finish.”

DeltaWing Racing Cars