Monterey Sports Car Championships - Live reporting from the VICI Racing pits

3:30 PM Qualifying has concluded. "I’m reasonably pleased with my qualifying lap though my best lap was slightly compromised by a car in front that got into the dirt so I think in ideal situation we could have got a few more tenths out of it for sure," says Nicky who was entrusted with qualifying duties. "However we are in good shape for the race, the RSR feels good round here and the tires are an improvement, they give me much more confidence."

1:50 PM The temperatures rise steadily though lunchtime and the early afternoon, and by the time Francesco starts preparing to get into the cockpit of the #18 car at 1:55 PM for the start of the hour long practice session it was hot and dry under the clear blue California skies. On the pitwall Roland is preparing for the session.

1:00 PM Ron Meixner is in the paddock being interviewed by a TV crew. At this time of year everyone is interested to hear about the team's plans for 2009. Ron promises an 'exciting' program, but isn't ready yet to elaborate.

10:55 AM Two of the hard working members of the team are André and Guy. André seems to spend most of the weekend under the car whilst Guy, the truck driver, seems to spend most of the weekend cleaning.

10:45 AM The #21 GT2 Panoz Esperante ended up in the tire wall at turn 11 a few minutes ago and this gave the team the opportunity to bring Marc in and Nicky to take over at the wheel. Nicky's back out now and Marc is discussing the car with Roland.

10:20 AM Francesco "The Kid" Pastorelli watches the action from the pitwall. The track went green again at 10:13 and Marc was able to squeeze in one flying lap in 1:26.626, which temporarily put the German at the top of the timesheets, before the #10 P1 Radical stopped out on the course smoking heavily causing the reds to come out again at 10:17.

10:10 AM the morning warm up sees Marc first into the cockpit of the #18 car, the experienced German sports car driver blasting out of the pits in the red, white and grey car as the lights go green at 10:05 AM; however this would be followed immediately by waved reds as the #2 P1 Audi and the #7 P2 Porsche tangled within seconds and he's back in again.

8:00 AM The action on track here gets serious today. It will kick off with an hour long practice session (10:05 – 11:05 AM) open to all classes, before another hour on track, again open to all the classes (1:55 – 2:55 PM) leads to the 20 minute qualifying session (3:05 – 3:25 PM) reserved for the GT1/GT2 cars.