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

3:25 PM A brilliant start - sadly - soon goes wrong for Nicky, who was posting impressive lap times, as the #45 Porsche, which was on the outside going into turn 3, touched the rear wheel of the #18 car in what was an entirely avoidable incident. There was no opportunity to pass at this point and the incident was completely the fault of the other car. It's a tough end to the year, but that's motor racing, you take the highs and lows. There's no looking back: tomorrow we start preparing for 2009.

2:35 PM One of our guests here this weekend, soaking up the atmosphere on the grid, is Thomas. Like the rest of us, he's looking forward to the race getting underway.

2:30 PM Happiest mechanic on the team is Daniel, his face is plastered - as usual - with a big grin as the clock ticks down towards the start. He loves this job, but is totally professional, and an expert in his area.

2:25 PM Laguna Seca, with its superb viewing positions for the spectators, not to mention its famous and demanding ‘Corkscrew’ turn, is one of the most popular dates on the ALMS calendar every year. And so a huge crowd of fans descended 'en masse' into the paddock all day, spilling out onto the grid as the cars were positioned for the traditional line up. Crew Chief Alex is sitting on the pitwall, the car is ready to go, and although he's smiling he's totally focused. He's one of the best crew chiefs around in top level motor racing and his dedication and attention to the very last detail is unmatched.

1:00 PM Meanwhile inside the truck, Technical Director Roland Wall is engaged in last minute calculations. Vitally millionths of a second are won or lost from the laptop calculations of the technical staff.

12:55 PM Our three drivers and our team are new to the series this year, and all season the fans have been getting to know our drivers and getting up to speed on our team and our objectives. They seem to know us pretty well now and the drivers are kept very busy. By the time the session ends Nicky, Marc and Francesco have autographed nearly 500 "hero cards", by far the most this year.

12:20 PM The driver autograph session is well underway now in the paddock. This seems to be the busiest paddock this season and the ALMS fans, probably the most knowledgeable about, want to know what is going on with the team, what our chances are for the race.

10:00 PM For the first time this week fog and dark clouds shroud the paddock this morning as the teams prepared for the 25 minute warm-up session, though by the time the session went green a few minutes ago most had lifted. Roland has called for a short 5-lap session to confirm race set-up, and Marc has been entrusted with driving the #18 car.

7:30 AM It's race day at Laguna Seca. It's early but the paddock is already a hive of activity. Today's itinerary will see the race warm up session (9:55 – 10:20 AM) taking place before the Monterey Sports Car Championships, the final round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series gets underway. The four-hour race into darkness is scheduled to start at 2:45 PM with the checkered flag scheduled to be waved at 6:45 PM