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Laguna Seca 200 Mile Endurance Feature
Starring:
Special Guest Appearance By:
Special Guest Appearance By:
This famous California racetrack was to be the last stop on the Lotus Elan's tour of America, and with it's deceptively difficult sweeps, tight hairpins and the notorious Corkscrew, it posed the biggest challenge yet to car and driver. This is a circuit I've never really come to grips with. Many of the bends appear faster than they really are, and they tempt me to brake later and get on the throttle sooner than I should, so that I often find myself understeering wide on the exits. A few of the corners are even trickier because they are blind, and then there's the final hairpin leading onto the pit straight - possibly the tightest corner outside of Monaco. I had yet to drive a car here that felt at hom around this fast and technical circuit, but the Elan handles better than most. Judging by the horsepower on display in the competition, I was going to need clean, smooth laps to be able to make an impression.
The Elan came to the circuit with 208 turbocharged bhp, 2382 miles on the clock, and RSH tyres. I ran a pre - race shakedown to adjust the suspension to suit the new rubber but was once again amazed to find that little adjustment was needed. The Elan was quick, agile and surefooted on the same settings it ran at New York, on Sports Hard tyres. The rear end was perhaps a tad loose on the faster corners, not enough to require major correction at the helm, but enough to scrub off a little speed when driven without due care. I could have left it as it was and felt confident with the car, but a small tweak of the rear anti-roll bar was able to tie the back tyres permanently to the track without introducing any unwanted understeer, and the Lotus's handling was transformed from sublime to perfect. It was able to peg the g-meter against the stops for sustained periods, which on RSH tyres was definitely a good sign. The gearing was shortened (!) to suit the track and I was ready to race.
The flag dropped and the Elan crossed the line in 6th place, travelling rather more slowly than the V8 monsters up ahead. At the end of lap 1 I was still 6th, but keeping up with the field. On lap 2 I followed the Ford GT past the Dodge SRT-10 and Callaway C12, with a couple of clean passing moves early in the lap. Notice how small the Elan looks compared to the C12!
On lap 3 I took advantage of the Ford GT's still cold tyres and got the drop on him coming out of the double apex first corner. I was past him by the time we reached the braking area for Turn 2 and, now in 3rd place, set off after the leading Corvette Grand Sport. The 'Vette was just 2 seconds up the road and the flame spitting Protomotors Spirra was right on his tail.
Lotus eases past Ford GT at the entry to Turn 2
Corvette leads Spirra into the Corkscrew
I bridged the gap to the Spirra and Corvette and watched the fascinating battle between the two with apprehension. The Spirra was the guy I had come here to beat. He had beaten my B-Spec Bob in my Ford GT many months ago and was clearly the class act at this circuit. I didn't know how long he could run without pitting, or how fast he would go when his tyres hit their sweet spot, but it was obvious that right now he could go much faster. The Corvette was clearly holding him up. Now was a time for me to make a move. The GT was 2 seconds behind me and the Spirra could make a successful pass at any corner. Now was the time I had to make a jump and then run for it, while the Spirra was vulnerable and reachable, and while I wasn't having to worry about the guy behind me.
Unfortunately the Grand Sport, while holding up the Spirra, wasn't actually slow enough to make this an easy pass for me. I followed the Spirra for a lap but while I could keep in contact, I was not presented with any real opportunities to pass him.
This was as close as I got to overtaking the Spirra on the track. Picture taken on exit to final hairpin, end lap 4
By the end of lap 5 I still could not tell where I had any advantage over the Spirra. He did not leave any gaps for me to sneak through, while still managing to spread himself all over the rear end of the Corvette. And now the Ford GT had caught up, so the first 4 cars in the race were all together.
Heavy Traffic on the pit straight, end of lap 5
The GT's presence was a worry. Now I had to try and find a way past the Spirra, while keeping the faster (in a straight line) GT behind me. Turns out I didn't have to worry for long though. On lap 6 the GT strolled past me on the pit straight, relegating me to 4th.
. Then the Spirra added salt to the wound by squeezing past the 'Vette a few seconds later in turn 1. 🤬 . I managed to retake into 3rd going into Turn 2. 
. On lap 7 The GT passed me again on the uphill section approaching the corkscrew, but I managed to grab the position back on the approach to the right hander before the pit entrance. Meanwhile the red Spirra was rapidly vanishing over the horizon. Battling with the GT was clearly hurting my race, so I carried my momentum into the final hairpin and made a deep lunge past the Corvette in the braking zone. Hard on the brakes and well off my ideal racing line, I wrenched the steering over into the corner, and the Elan's front wheels just bit hard and threw the car's nose at the apex like a guided missile. Back on the power, the rear end soaked up the punishment and the Lotus swept onto the pit straight in 2nd place and showing no sign of losing its composure. Then I looked in the miror and saw the GT diving through the gap I had just left. 
. This was bad news, as I was hoping that having the Corvette between myself and the GT would give me the breathing space I needed to try and stay in touch with the Spirra, which was already nearly 5 seconds ahead.
Unfortunately, the battle for 2nd place with the Ford GT only got more intense. The Corvette was swiftly left behind as the Lotus and the GT swapped places 3 times over the next two laps. It all came to a climax at the end of lap 9. I ended this lap by diving up the inside of the Ford in the final hairpin, to take second place. The Ford, however, had powered back past me by the time we crossed the start finish line. I moved over into his slipstream to be as close as I could through the upcoming series of turns, but then as he braked for Turn 1, I realised I could carry myself past him onto the apex. It was a half chance, but the Spirra was getting away, and I came off the brakes and eased the Elan's nose into the corner. This was make or break. I was now racing the GT to the apex. If I won this little race, he had to give me room. If he won, we would crash, or I'd have to brake, and either way I'd come off far worse. So I squeezed the throttle.
By the time we made it to the Apex I was a nose ahead. Job done! The GT gave me room and the pass was successful.... apart from one little worry. I was now carrying far too much speed to make it around the second apex. I dabbed the brakes, sawed at the wheel, lifted off then floored the throttle again as I remembered that I still had to come out of the corner in front of the GT, lifted again as I remembered that I also had to come out of the corner alive.
. In short, I was sweating bullets and doing all the things you find in the How To Crash section of a stunt drivers manual. The Elan soaked it all up. It didn't twitch, slide, sneeze or spin. And it kept its momentum. At the exit I ran a little wide but kept the power on as hard as I could. The Lotus didn't even flinch as it bounced over the dirt, accelerating back towards the circuit and following the steering as faithfully as Robin follows Batman. This car is unflappable. But for all the drama, the move stuck. By the end of the lap I had made enough of a gap over the GT to be able to concentrate on fast laps, and the Ford did not threaten my position again in the race. Time to put my foot down.
The battle with the Ford GT for 2nd was as intense as any I've had in GT4
This was the over-ambitious move that finally secured 2nd place
Now that I had a clear track I could settle into a rhythm, and the lap times started falling. On lap 12 I dipped below 1 min 31 for the first time in the race (1:30.905) and this was enough to close the gap to the Spirra by 0.4 seconds. I was now 7.5 seconds behind. The Ford pitted on lap 13, and that was the last I saw of him in the race. By lap 15 the Spirra had really been on it and pushed the gap back up to 9.5 seconds. I kept the pressure on as best I could, and the tyre wear was looking very even front to rear, so I was condifent that the race was still on. The Elan can make a set of boots last forever, so it was down to the Spirra's pit strategy now. Then, at the end of the lap, the gap shot down to 3.5 seconds in a single sector. Later on the replay would reveal that he had made the classic AI mistake after the corkscrew and lost control. He made it all the way to the inside wall before staggering back towards the track with some semblance of control. He carried on for one more lap and then pulled into the pits (lap 16). This gave me a 23 second lead, and since my tyres were still showing shades of green, I decided to keep the hammer down and maximise my advantage while the Spirra was circulating on cold rubber. I only had to make it to lap 18 to require 1 less pitstop over the race distance, and I was easily going to manage that.
The Corvette and Callaway pitted on lap 17, putting them well out of contention too, and then, on lap 20, the SRT10 pulled in for new wheels. The race now looked very good to me. By the end of lap 21 I had exended my lead over the Spirra to 31 seconds, so I effectively had a pitstop in hand on the track. I kept lapping hard while I had a clear track to consolidate my lead, but by lap 25, with the tyres now yellow with a hint of orange but still wearing evenly, I started to ponder the possibility of running a 3 stop race by staying out until lap 30. I didn't think the tyres would quite make it at the pace I was running, so I eased off just a little and started concentrating on conserving the wear rate.
By lap 32 the Elan was on orange rubber but was still perfectly controllable, if feeling a little squirrelly. The car was still perfectly capable of lapping in 1:31.5 or so though, and with the gap at 37 seconds and with no reason to stay out any longer, I took my first pitstop. As I was pulling out of the pits, the Spirra took his second stop, so the gap stayed at 38 seconds, and I was home free.
The rest of the race was uneventful. I had a bit of a tankslapper on lap 45 after getting two wheels on the dirt but kept it all off of the barriers and pointing the right way. On lap 48 I set my fastest lap of the race (1:29.58) The Spirra took his third stop on this lap and after his break I had a lead of 1 min 11 seconds. I took my second and last pitstop on lap 63, during which I took on fuel, and the Spirra pitted on lap 64, which conserved my lead. The Spirra pitted again on lap 80.
Here, out on my own on the circuit, the Elan once again proved its worth as a racer. It makes fast, consistent and accurate laps easy, with balance, agility and grip that never seem to let the driver down. I was attacking the final hairpin in a way that would have buried me in any other car I have driven at Laguna Seca. The harder I pushed into the corner, the faster the Elan emerged onto the main straight. In the end, I was practically braking as I hit my turning point. I could twist the wheel in towards the apex while hard on the brakes and the Elan would just track towards the kerbing with perfect precision. Get off the brakes and floor the throttle immediately, and right on the apex, and 207bhp flowed down onto the tarmac with perfect efficiency. The bumps at the corkscrew could be tackled with similar abandon. Full throttle could be applied at the top apex and the Lotus would skip over the bumps at the bottom while putting its power down, not showing the slightest hint of fluster.
This of course filled me with the confidence and will to push harder and harder. And so it was that in the quest for a better racing line into the double apex Turn 1, my approach had been steadily moving further and further over onto the concrete shoulder on the right hand side. On lap 74 I got far enough over to knock over the 200 metre board. I didn't think much of the incident until lap 75 when, approaching the same corner at over 130mph, I outbraked myself because my brake marker was no longer there.... This pretty much put paid to any more assaults on my fastest lap time and I cruised to the finish and a comfortable win.
It had been an exciting race, and once again Colin Chapman's 40 year old featherweight sportscar had shown modern supercars with more than twice the power the way home.
Final order:
1st Lotus Elan S1 (2 hours 19 mins 36 seconds)
2nd Protomotors Spirra (1:22 behind at last split)
3rd Ford GT
4th Viper SRT-10
5th Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport
6th Callaway C12
Spirra returns to mortality, lap 15
Awesome little race report! 👍
