Star Road

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’ve been lucky enough to have two “home tracks”. To the north is Sonoma Raceway, and to the south is one of the most famous tracks in the world: Laguna Seca.

Meaning “dry lagoon” in Spanish and lovingly called “Laguna” by fans and locals, possibly its most distinctive characteristic is here: The Corkscrew. Along with Eau Rouge at Spa and the hotel hairpin at Monaco, this is one of the most famous turns in the world.

Back in 2011, I laser scanned this track for the game Simraceway. We used our own cars to move around the track, so while I couldn’t go flat-out, I did get to cruise around and pose my car when I had a free moment. That’s when it was called Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and I thought the blue curbs looked rather nice, especially next to my Mariner Blue Miata.

This may be a bit of an old man comment here, but I miss when the edge of the track was just dirt. Now the track is a lot safer, but the extra margins mean the track is significantly wider and therefore faster. For example if you scroll down a bit and compare the modern photo of myself in the Corkscrew, I’m driving with my right wheels just to the right of the white line–which would have been two wheels in the sand back in the day. And that’s not even nearly as far as you can venture over these days, such is the runoff on the inside.

Speaking of old men, even my dad’s done a track day here. This was back in the 80’s on the ultra fast old layout, before they added the inner loop around the lagoon. Most of the old track still exists in the infield; I keep meaning to take some photos of curb that still exists, but it’s pretty far out of the way and I always forget.

Laguna Seca has been featured in countless video games through the years. Remember on Top Gear when Jeremy Clarkson drove an NSX in Gran Turismo 4, then tried to match his lap time in a real car? Laguna Seca is one of the free tracks in iRacing, and it’s used quite often for every type of race car on the service. I joined iRacing in 2012 and have raced at Laguna dozens of times. In the video above, you can see a fun “Week 13” multi-class race between the Skip Barber F2000 and the Ray 1600 that I did a couple years ago.

It’s not like I dislike performance driving, or never go to the track. I used to autocross a lot in college, then when I got my FR-S I took it to Thunderhill East.

I’ve taken the BRZ to Thunderhill East as well, plus a couple years ago we rented Thunderhill West for Chris’ birthday (orange FR-S above) and had our own private track day. Overall though, I spend way more time visiting tracks as a spectator or driving in a sim than actually driving on track in real life. Before last weekend, I had still never done a track day at either of my two home tracks! And then Chris asked me if I was going to be in town on December 28th, because he was spending that weekend at Laguna Seca. Alright, time to check that box.

Of course, I can’t take photos of myself while driving. Luckily the official track photographer for SpeedSF is a local dude named Trevor Ryan who takes great action shots. Look how much droop there is in the suspension. The negative then positive g-loading of that turn is super fun.

I think most would agree the photos are not cheap, but for me they were easily worth it. Look! There I am, at The Corkscrew! Not just parked there, but driving flat out–which these images capture very well. As a photographer myself, I know there is a lot more that goes into photography besides just standing there, pressing the shutter, then uploading the contents of your SD card later.

Great photos capture real events in a beautiful way. The skill and artistry that goes into motorsports photos like these is something that can never be entirely replicated by “AI” image generation. Sure, you could render an amazingly lifelike portrayal of a World Rally Blue Subaru BRZ going through the Corkscrew, but it’s simply impossible to replicate the visible light reflecting off my car and the environment while I am out there behind the wheel. The excitement I feel looking at these photos is one of the emotions I hope to generate when people are looking at my photography as well.

One of the reasons that I stopped doing auction photos is that very few people see the value. Most don’t understand exactly how much work goes into those shoots (even if you try telling them), and nowadays everyone is carrying a pretty high quality camera in their pocket, which has definitely degraded the merits of professional photography. That’s why I no longer shoot for a living, but I definitely applaud those who do, and I make sure to support them when I can.

I know a lot of people who don’t like driving at Laguna Seca. People say it’s too simple and boring, the sound limits are too oppressive, the track days are too expensive, and I’ve even heard people say they don’t like it because their car is too slow for the track. Well, I don’t agree with any of that. I did five sessions of 25 minutes and I still didn’t get enough; I’d say that was worth $227. My car has a stock exhaust so a 92dB day doesn’t worry me. And even with only 205 horsepower, this track feels fast because every turn requires you to carry a good amount of speed. I get to the top of fourth gear in two places (before T2 and T5), and there are three fourth-gear turns in my car that require either minimal or no braking (T4, T9, T10). This is a big balls track!

Like Othello, Laguna Seca is easy to learn but difficult to master. And now I know that for a fact based on real-life experience. The clip above is my fourth session of the day, where my lap times were in the 1:50 range. Unfortunately, I did not press Record on my GoPro for the fifth session where made some adjustments and ran in the 1:49’s. However, I know there is at least a couple seconds more to pull out from my car as-is, just with some better driving. I could have entered every turn with a bit more speed and then subsequently gone faster down the next straight.

These are my tires before the first session of the day. They were Chris’ old take-offs, Kumho V730’s in 245/40/17, flipped backwards on the wheel to utilize all the tread. They’ve been heat-cycled to death; they were already old when I last used them at Thunderhill in 2022, and they’ve been sitting in my garage ever since. Plus, my alignment, with only -1.5 degrees of camber up front, is not enough to utilize that wide tire. Yup, even amateurs like me have racing-driver excuses, even though most of my speed will come from tightening the nut behind the wheel.

On proper tires and suspension, with a bit of lightweighting (no rear interior), and some aero (front lip, big wing), Chris has done 1:44’s in his 2013 Scion FR-S. That’s five seconds faster than my current personal best!

Based on all the criticism I’ve heard through the years plus my own hours in video games, I figured I would do this one track day, check the Laguna box, and move on. Instead, I had way more fun than I expected: not only was I challenged, but I found the track thrilling in a way that I’ve never experienced in a video game. Before I went to Thunderhill West I learned it in Assetto Corsa, and I find that track super fun in both the sim and real life in equal measure. By contrast, I found Laguna Seca much more fun in real life than I ever have in a sim. I can’t wait to go back, push the car more, and go even faster.