Laguna Seca Viewing

[Scott Fisher <sefisher@xxxxxxxxx>]

Iann@domain.elided asks:

> I am wondering whether a true Laguna Seca fan can recommend the 
> best viewing location?  The sheer size of the track suggests it 
> would take several years attendance to locate the best spot.

The *best* view of Laguna Seca is from the track surface. :-)  When that
is not practical, walking around the infield will not only give you the
opportunity to see many of the prime viewing locations for yourself, but
it will also give you a sense of the *dynamic* nature of the track.  But
here's a brief tour of the course, both as a driver and as a spectator.

To the driver, Laguna Seca appears to have four major "chunks."  The
first chunk is the start-finish straight, technically from the time you
accelerate out of 11 till the braking zone of turn 2 (the
horseshoe-shaped left-hander at the bottom of the start-finish hill). 
This has, unfortunately, always been a fairly boring part of the course
for me, but that's because the last time I drove it, I was in a
production-category road race car with about 70-80 bhp and modern racing
slicks; I suspect it's a lot more exhilarating in some of the early
Sixties big-bore race cars with 4 and 5-liter engines pushing cars with
narrow treaded tires.  Still, this is almost completely straight, made
more exciting by the need for hard downhill braking before turn 2.  From
a spectator's viewpoint, there are several good places to watch -- the
bleachers give you a good shot of cars outbraking one another into turn
11 and trying to outdrag or hold one another off as they climb the hill
and disappear into turn 1.  Alternatively, you can stand just down track
from the bridge that crosses the start-finish line, and see the cars
from above and from fairly close up as they reach moderately high
speeds.

The next section of the course is the new infield section, from turn 2
through turn 5.  On track, this is more interesting, at least in a car
with good grip, but still somewhat featureless -- it's too "modern" a
track, with nicely laid out radiuses and no natural anomalies.  Turn 2
is a double-apex, horseshoe-shaped turn where it's possible to set up
for a pass if you've got more grip than someone else, but be careful --
the straight leading to turn 3 is short and you will want to brake for
that right hander.  Between turn 3 and 4, another right hander, is a
tire-shaped bridge that I think now says Michelin, but says Dunlop in
the pictures I have of my car under it.  Cool.  Anyway, turn 4 is a
*fast* right-hander with lots of room at the exit; for the driver, this
means you need to be accelerating early (with luck, on your way *into*
the corner) to carry speed onto the straight leading to 5, and for the
spectator it means you get to see the braver drivers taking some
exciting lines.  There are also bleachers to driver's left on the
straight between 4 and 5, where cars begin accelerating.  Turn 5 is
faster than it looks from the entry, a left-hander that begins the third
section of the course.  Turn 5 separates the good drivers from the
"middle of the road" drivers -- the ones who drive right down the middle
of the road.  The ex-professionals use the whole track surface.  (I hope
someday to use at least 90% of it... ahem.)

The third section climbs the hill from turn 5.  There's a straight from
5 through 6 where your speed is entirely dependent on how hard you were
able to take turn 5; drivers who really carry speed through 5 should be
well at the right-hand edge of the track and moving smartly up the
still-gentle hill.  This is a good place to watch from the infield,
since the track is downhill from the infield (meaning spectators are
above the racing surface and hence safer), and the turns are
left-handers (meaning you're on the inside).  Turn 6 is, for me, the
most intimidating on the course; it's a *very* fast left-hander, but as
you approach it at high speed all you see is the road disappearing into
thin air and the mountains on the far side of Salinas in the distance. 
It gives every appearance of being the kind of place where, if you go
off, your helmet's Snell rating will be outdated before you hit.  The
rest of this section, turn 7, is like turn 1 in being a non-corner for a
car with vastly more grip than power.  In the Le Mans cars on Saturday,
this must have been exciting, and in Indy cars it's breathtaking.  As a
spectator, you can stand on the infield side of the track and get a good
bird's-eye view of the action, fairly close to the cars, especially near
the top of the hill where they brake for the Corkscrew.  (I have a photo
of this section of the track, taken from my tent the year Alfa was the
guest of honor and I luckily had the best campsite there --
http://www.living-history.org/classics/secamist.jpg will take you
there.)

The fourth part of the track is basically a powered bobsled ride,
starting with probably the most famous and distinctive corner in North
American road racing: the Corkscrew.  This is a left-right combination
that drops more than six stories from the top to the bottom.  You have
to start turning the wheels at a point where you can't see the apex (the
inside of the corner, the part you should be aiming at); when you hit
the apex (if you do), you then have to start turning to the right, and
again you won't be able to see the apex -- except it's about 30 feet
below you and maybe 75-80 feet to your right.  It's the kind of place
where you hope the corner workers will pick up your stomach and return
it to your pits after the race.  If you've done the Corkscrew even
almost right, you'll come close to sliding off the track at your left as
you hit third gear, where suddenly the little oak trees are a LOT closer
than they seemed when you were 60 or 70 feet higher up, two seconds
ago.  This is also my favorite place to stand as a spectator, in the
woods to the driver's left, because the cars are bunched up and coming
at you, and it's in the shade.  The rest of this part of the track is
not much less exciting -- turn 9 is another where you aim for something
you can't see and hope it's there when you come around.  It *feels* off
camber but I've been told it isn't.  It's one of the places where sheer
nerve wins out over technical brilliance.  You can stand along turn 9
(called the Rainey Curve now on new maps) on either side of the course,
and it's a good place to watch as you're fairly close to the action and
the cars are moving fast but not so fast you can't see them (Indy cars
and Le Mans cars excepted).

Turn 10 has been changed recently, I don't know what it's like now -- it
appears to be a tighter corner than it used to be, which no doubt gives
modern cars one more passing zone.  Too bad, the old turn 10 was one of
my favorite parts of the course, a *very* fast right-hand sweeper where,
again, nerve could hold off a somewhat faster competitor behind you.  It
also dumped you out into the braking zone for turn 11, a very sharp
left-hander that leads onto the main start-finish straight.  The best
place to watch the turn 10-11 action is either from driver's right just
outside the course at turn 10, or of course from the bleachers.

And that completes our introduction to Laguna Seca from both sides of
the catch fencing.  As for me, I spent Saturday morning wandering the
paddock, watched the first couple of races from the bleachers, and then
went to *my* favorite point for spectating: the Corkscrew.  The cars
close up there, but are accelerating rather than braking, and you're
fairly close to the action.  My wife took my photos in to be developed
today, we should get them back tomorrow and with luck I'll have them
scanned this weekend.  I'll post the URL when I get them on my site.

Oh: my references to Indy cars, above, refer to the CART championship
cars that race there in October, I think, and not to any cars there
during the Historics; the references to Le Mans cars is for group 7A,
the last race on Saturday, where the Porsche 917s were blisteringly
quick.  I haven't been to an FIA Championship race there, but apparently
there have been one or two races using the Mercedes, Porsche and Ferrari
vehicles that compete for the modern championship in endurance
sports-car racing.  

- --Scott Fisher

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