Monterey, CA --- If you were to paint the perfect racing storm, it would include cool weather, frequent restarts, a track surface seemingly forever covered with gravel, and darkness. That was the recipe at the season-ending Monterey Sports Car Championship that include 12 yellow flag periods and 120 of 241 race laps run under caution.

"Laguna Seca has been modified to accomodate the Moto GP safety needs, and so if a car steps just a few feet off the track you end up beached in deep gravel. If the air and track temperatures are cool, as they were, one yellow just breeds another, and that's exactly what happened all day long," said team owner Michael Lewis.

Autocon continued to come to grips with the capability of its new AER-powered Lola B07, and by qualifying on Friday the team was feeling as buoyed as ever about how competitive the new package can be, and will be for the 2009 season.

"We've closed the gap on the front runners significantly, and we are still learning the car. Where we used to be 5-6 seconds off the manfufacturer's pace, we've cut that to 3-4 seconds, and all the drivers are seeing that can come down to 1-2 seconds with a little more time in the car," added Lewis.

Driver Chris McMurry got dibs on qualifying and turned in a 1:14.5, the fastest Autocon has ever gone at Laguna, and good enough for a starting position of 15th. 

"I'm pretty sure we would have been in the 13s on the next lap, but we had to cut the session short when an oil alarm came on," McMurry said. "Getting the speed was very much about making commitments, and realizing that the car responded positively when pushed beyond what seemed possible. I really love this car."

McMurry continued, jokingly saying that the race went great until the exit of turn one on the first lap. "We really got a great start, passing the 14th position Creation right away. I tried taking the Mazda on the outside of turn one, but didn't fair so well with massive understeer. So, I gave back the position to the Creation."

The first yellow came out just a few laps into the race, and almost the entire first hour of the race was spent under caution, with one off after another. "It was impossible to keep the tires warm under caution, and the push was massive for one or two laps on every restart. It wasn't a lot of fun, which was too bad because we were feeling pretty racey coming into the race."

The onine bulletin boards and chat rooms were full of suggestions about how to avoid repeatedly and prolonger caution periods. Some were even saying the ALMS shouldn't race at Monterey any longer unless it is during the mid-day hours when it is warm.

"I don't know if it is true or not, but it seemed that this season there were more caution periods and laps than I ever remember in any prior ALMS season," said Lewis, noting that 31% of race laps for the entire season were under caution. "Part of that, I think, is that the racing is much more competitive with so many manfuacturers battling for bragging rights. Car counts were up, too, as was the general quality of the entire field, and so there is more at stake than ever."

Driver Tony Burgess braved the second half of the 4-hour race, which was with the sun dropping in the sky and the coolness that happens most every evening on the ocean-facing Monterey Pennisula. Temperatures dropped into the low 50s.

"Post race we have discussed conducting an off-season test in a cold climate specifically to help the team find a good set up for these scenarios, since Monterey is on the schedule for 2009," said Burgess. "For the most part, all the ALMS races are in warm climates during summer time heat, but Monterey in October is always cool and we want to be sure to be more competitive there."

Autocon finished the race 31st, after a 45-minute pit stop to fix a clutch issue during the third hour of the race. But, the team did finish 3rd overall in the P1 championship points for the season. "We're very excited about 2009 because we've never been so decided in terms of our car and drivers this early in the off season," said Lewis. "If 2009 started tomorrow, we'd be just about ready to go. It's just about 3 months until the first official series test at Sebring, so we're using the time to conduct a couple of testing sessions, to learn more about the car, and to fine tune."