Before and After at Sonoma – Laying Down Rubber

In looking back through a few shots at Sonoma, I happened upon two different photos of the same car in the same corner (Turn 9).  One was taken on the first lap of practice on Friday and one during the second race on Sunday.

Friday welcomes drivers to a clean track.  Sunday bears the scars of a weekend full of racing with multiple cars across multiple classes and multiple races.

Friday shows very clean yellow and blue curbing but Sunday shows a heavy layer of tire rubber – evidence of many cars bouncing over the curbs in search of the fast route through the quick right-left combination.

The Sonoma Grand Prix weekend hosted IndyCar, Pirelli World Challenge (two classes), and an open wheel support series.

What’s the fastest way around Turn 9?  Apparently, it is to use the curbing liberally.  Our tour guide for this set is Ryan Eversley in the Realtime Acura.  The Acura TLX program was winding down in favor of the brand new and highly anticipated NSX GT3 car for 2017, but Eversely (and team-mate for the weekend Peter Kox) was still hustling.