Orbit Racing - Laguna Seca qualifying

past peak

Orbit Racing will start Sunday's American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca 
Raceway from sixth and 16th on the GT grid.  Peter Baron, who drives the No. 
43 YES Network Porsche 911 GT3 RS with Leo Hindery, qualified sixth in class, 
with a time of one minute 28.188 seconds on the 2.238-mile road course.  He was 
hindered by tires that were a few laps past their peak performance because 
they had been used in the previous session.

"We had a problem in the session prior to qualifying, so we had to use the 
tires that were marked for qualifying to sort out the car," Baron explained.  
"Unfortunately, it put some [heat] cycles in the tires before qualifying, which 
took a little bit away.  We would probably have had it right around that third 
spot for qualifying.  But the car is easy to drive, so it should be okay for 
the race."

first start

Jay Policastro qualified 16th on the GT grid (1:29.832) in the No. 42 Classic 
Industries Porsche he shares with his father, Joe Policastro.  The ALMS race 
will be the pair's first Laguna Seca start.

"Qualifying was okay," Jay Policastro said.  "Unfortunately, we're in the 
back half of the pack.  With the level of competition here, it doesn't really 
help that it's our first time at the track!  I think we have a good car for the 
race, but we just couldn't get it done in qualifying."

born-on tires

Michelin offers Orbit Racing and other teams an ever-changing array of tires 
to match track and weather conditions at each race location.  Michelin's ALMS 
operations manager, Jerry Rinaldo, explained why the manufacturer doesn't 
maintain a large supply of any particular tire compound or construction.

"We always have something different because there's always ongoing 
development, from what we learned last year at the track and also what we learned at the 
previous race," he noted.  "The reason we don't have a lot of tires or a big 
inventory is because we don't build them for the whole year; we build them for 
each race.  It's like the Budweiser 'born-on' date - the tires are always 
fresh."