There’s something very unappealing about a race track in a desert. It’s an arid look with dust, dirt and sand mixed with hot sun and eventually wind. Then there is Laguna Seca in California, Spanish for dry lagoon. Where once was a lake, the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Raceway was built around a dry lake bed. It’s a drivers track, built for speed and some of the best banking corners in the business, espeically the famous Corkscrew.
Laguna Seca is classified as an FIA Grade Two circuit and has hosted just about every major race category outside of Formula One. USRRC, Can-Am, Trans-Am, Formula 5000, IMSA GT, CART, Indy Car, American Le Mans Series, Grand American, Monterey Historic Automobile Races, Speed World Challenge, AMA (American Motorcyclist Association), WSBK Superbike World Championship and MotoGP motorcycle races.
The ‘Corkscrew’, the famous Turn 8 and 8A combination, is considered one of the motorsport world’s most challenging turns mainly due to the 18-metre drop in elevation as well as its blind crest and apex on the uphill approach.
Teo Fabi won the first IndyCar race back in 1983. Colton Herta – who won the most recent race at the track in 2019 – and Helio Castroneves – who won at the track in 2000 – are the only former winners entered in this year’s race.
This weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey will be the 24th INDYCAR SERIES race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, but just the second since 2004. Drivers face 95-laps of the 2.258 mile road course with 180 feet (55m) of change in elevation. Should be a good one.
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