Some pics from my day at Laguna Seca a few weeks ago. Perfect weather, great run groups, and an amazing experience. I've been to this track quite a number of times to watch events, but am always taken away by how massive the track is. If anyone ever has a chance to visit or even do a track day there then DO IT.
There were a number of surprises that I did NOT expect about the track itself:
Turn 1 - Fucking fast blind uphill with a slight left turn. I am hitting just about 100mph on the straight leading up to this.
Turn 2 - I didn't realize how much banked this hairpin was. Double apex here and is quite difficult to get right.
Turn 5 - Another banked turn. It's also a brutal climb for underpowered cars.
Turn 6 - It's not just a simple left turn. Theres a slight kink and off cambered to set up for the Rahal Straight.
Turn 7 - Braking zone for the famous Corkscrew. All you see is the sky! You will have climbed about 5 stories up to this point
The Corkscrew/Turn 8a & 8b - This is a ridiculous 3 story drop, almost like a roller coast ride. Since you really can't see the road you gotta aim for the tree to hit the apex.
Turn 9 - This is insanely more banked than I anticipated. I believe this is the hardest turn on the track because of how much speed you're carrying and depending on what time of the day it is, you can get blinded by the sun.
Some pics my friend took to show the scale of the track.
Turn 3-4
Straight from 4-5
Straight 5-6 hill climb
Corkscrew. Hard to get a shot here unless you have press/photo pass. But this is just HALF of whats shown as the gutter/blue NSX is the apex.
Straight from 10-11
Some of me driving
and then this happened at the Corkscrew…