How do I reset the turtle's orientation without resetting the colour?(python turtle)

I'm working on a simple racing project where 4 turtles race on a track and at the finish line when it starts lap 2, it goes forward 1 to exit the point where it counts the lap. For some reason, the turtle's orientation is ever so slightly off 0 degrees, therefore the int() function rounds it to 0 and re-counts the lap. If I use the reset() function, it resets the colour.