Written by This year my dad, my great uncle, and I went to the Indycar race at Laguna Seca. Laguna Seca is the most famous track on the west coast and is super fast and technical for the drivers. The track is home to a section of track called “corkscrew” which features as 6 story drop from the entrance from turn 8 to the exit of turn 8a, and a further 40 foot drop from the exit of turn 8a to the entrance of turn 9. It doesn’t look like much from a camera view or racing sims, but when you are there, you can tell just how much elevation change there really is.
On Friday morning, me and my dad drove to folsom to pick up my great uncle and then we started driving to the circuit which is between Monterey and Salinas. We stopped at my great uncle’s house in east bay so he could pick something up. From there we drove the two hours to the race track. When we got to the track we went to the parking area and we were directed to the wrong area. This meant we had to walk almost a mile to the corkscrew where we were going to sit. We parked and when we started walking, the porsche sprint challenge usa west(one of the support categories for the weekend) started their second practice session.
Race cars are very loud, and watching races on tv doesn’t give you an idea of how race cars actually sound. Race cars are essentially chassis that have been stripped of every unnecessary part, and have a massive engine strapped on. They don’t have mufflers or anything to dampen the noise. The Porsches were the loudest cars of them all during the weekend. When we walked to our spot at the corkscrew, the noise became much louder. This was due to the corkscrew lying between two hills which means the sound echos.
After the porsches finished their 2nd practice, Radical Cup NA did their final practice session. There is always about 20 minutes between sessions where the track staff sweep the track. The radicals went out, and in my opinion, they were the coolest cars at the track this weekend. Radicals are very interesting race cars. The radical sr3, which is one of the most popular race cars on the planet, has two engine variants. These are the 1340cc and 1500cc variants. The radicals use modified motorcycle engines and in the end, they are about the same speed as the porsche cups where. There were also radical sr10s which were about 4 seconds faster than the porsche cups.
After the radicals, indy nxt went out which is the highest level feeder series for indycar. They were the second loudest car because, like the porsches, they also have v8s. They were setting about 1:12.2s for their fastest times, and like the other categories, they seemed to really like going through the gravel trap at the corkscrew. After this practice, we walked down to the paddock area which anyone can access. We first walked through the radicals pits. They let you walk right up to the cars. Theres not even a rope or anything to stop you. Then we walked through the indy nxt pits. They didn’t let you get as close, which is probably due to how fragile open wheel cars are. Then we went to the porsche pits which is roped off but you can still get very close. On our way out of the paddock area we stopped to use the bathroom, where we saw the safety car for the porsches. The safety car was a porsche 911 turbo r. We then walked back to our spot at the corkscrew and watched indycar practice 1 which had started while we were still in the paddock. Despite being the fastest cars at the track for the weekend, the indycars were the quietest. This isn’t to say they weren’t loud, but they were about 5-10 db quieter then anything else we saw. They also like cutting the corkscrew and causing red flags. In practice the race directors will throw red flags if someone spins and is waiting for everyone else to go by. They only caused two during p1, but they did cause a few more later. After them, indy nxt went out again and they were clean for the whole session. Then porsche went out and did their qualifying, and radical did as well.
After the racing action was done for the day, we went to dinner at a mexican place called peppers in pacific grove. I got the tacos al carbon, which were very good and after we drove to our airbnb in salinas.
