At 3.6km, it may be only the same length as the perimeter of Safa Park, but the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track in California, used for both auto and motorcycle racing, certainly boasts a few rather more testing corners than our beloved jogging strip up the road. In particular, the famous Corkscrew on turn 8 and 8A. With 11 turns in total and a 91m elevation change, it's been tricking the world's best drivers into unforeseen errors ever since it was constructed in 1957. It cost a cool $1.5 million (Dh5.5 million) to build and much of that money was raised by local businesses.
The track was developed after the Pebble Beach Road Races where some of the world's best drivers pitted their skills on the winding, public roads through the Del Monte Forest. People loved the cars, the drivers and the action, but pretty soon the event had become too big for the Monterey Peninsula and it needed a new venue to accommodate the thousands of fans in a safe environment. The local authorities didn't want the event to move to another town or they'd lose out on the revenue it generated. That's when they founded the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP) and sanctioned a world-class, purpose-built track near a dried-up lake at Ford Ord and named it the Laguna Seca — which actually means ‘dry lake' in Spanish. Pete Lovely, the legendary Formula 1 and sportscar driver, was the winner of the inaugural race at the track on November 9, 1957 and soon after, the cream of the crop, including Roger Penske, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones and Valentino Rossi competed there. But it wasn't just home to racing greats. Hollywood heart-throb Steve McQueen raced at the track in a Lotus Le Mans in 1959. Jim Clark made his one and only appearance there in 1963, while Jackie Stewart, an unknown driver back in 1965, finished 13th overall in a Lotus Cortina.
During the Sixties and Seventies, the Laguna Seca became home to the Cam-Am and Trans Am racing series. Then in 1981, it held its first Nascar race, followed by Indy Car Racing and Grand Prix Motorcycling in the Nineties. The more recent MotoGP motorcycle races have been a phenomenal success at the track, while it was brought to the big screen in The Love Bug and its sequel, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.
In order to meet safety homologation requirements of the FIA, the Laguna Seca has changed over the years but the Corkscrew section, where the turns are like no other racetrack in the world, remains as difficult as ever. It drops 18m between the entrance of Turn 8 to the exit of Turn 8A. The elevation falls a further 33m, roughly the equivalent of a 10-storey building, from Turn 8A to Turn 9. Manage to get through this unscathed and you'll be telling the story for years to come — if you negotiate the blind crest and apex on the uphill approach.
The Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca hosts five world-class race weekends every season, bringing around $200 million to the local economy.
