Why does Sears Point seem to get ignored for Laguna Seca?

Just got the most recent issue with the Epic Tracks article, and (of course) saw Laguna Seca.

Am I the only one that thinks that Sears Point is a better track? Does it just come down to the damn corkscrew or are their other things that set it apart?

Good question.

I've never driven either, but have watched races at both...

They're both interesting tracks, but the non-corkscrew bits of Laguna Seca don't seem as interesting to me as Sears Point, and the surroundings are prettier at SP...

And maybe the drive to watch MotoGP wouldn't get hosed by the Gilroy Garlic Festival if it were at SP. IIRC it took four hours to drive back to S.F.!

Maybe I just imprinted on Sears. A friend of the family took me to watch my first-ever in-person road race there around '83. Trans Am, supported by Formula Atlantic, IIRC, as well as what I recall as being an all-Renault Le Car race...

I believe Infineon is more of a technical track and laguna is a faster track. The corkscrew makes laguna, just like the mulsanne makes la sarthe, Canada corner makes road america, etc....

I've driven Infineon in the pouring rain and blew up my motor in the first session, but it was fun

Now I just need to make the trek to Mazda Speedway to compare

I think the infamous corkscrew is what makes it so memorable and popular.

Never been within 200 miles of either one, but I will say, from various racing sims, Sears Point is one of my favorite tracks of all time. I used to like watching the real-life NASCAR boys give it a whirl, too.

Nothing against Laguna Seca, I just really find Sears Point more interesting. If I ever hit the lottery, I'd spend days driving there. Laguna Seca I would drive for the experience, but Sonoma is where I'd be buying the trackside condo.

Duke wrote: Never been within 200 miles of either one, but I will say, from various racing sims, Sears Point is one of my favorite tracks of all time.

I agree with this.

I have never been to Laguna or Sears Point but I've driven them in sims. Sears is fantastic. Laguna is boring except two turns.

Now, you might say - but, but, but... it's not the same! You are playing a berkeleying video game you asshat! Hear me out. My other favorite sim track was Mid-Ohio. More than the Glen, Summit, Lime Rock, or either course at NJMP. I've sim and real life raced at all of those and finished my season in Lexington with 4 sprint races and a 90 minute grand finale there this fall. The sim does not lie. Mid-Ohio was better in real life too. An amazing track. Pretty close to the iRacing version except better when you can see the elevation changes.

I expect Sears Point is a fantastic place to go race but the 7000 mile round trip tow keeps me from getting there any time soon. Maybe I'll add a race car rental to my "If I get terminal cancer and don't give a berkeley how much it costs anymore" list of places to visit :)

Having driven both, I prefer Sears Point as well. But you can't really go wrong, and with Thunderhill a few miles further North, we make up for our lack of autocross sites in Northern California with three bitching RR tracks. The fact that Laguna is associated with the storied Monterey scene helps it's cachet.

But it's not like Sears is off the radar the way say, Buttonwillow is. There's a ton of great events there including NASCAR and Top Fuel in addition to the usual SCCA/NASA, et cetera. It's also less expensive to rent, so track days at Sears are more reasonable.

+1 for Thunderhill. It's a shame they don't have the spectator capacity, else I think it would be a much more popular track.

You should see the expansion plans they have. The amount of track they're looking to add is about 2-3 times the area that the current track takes up; if they can get it done it'll be like a Northern California Nordschleife

Someday I want to drive Thunderhill with the bypass. I've never liked turn 5, but the bypass looks wicked.

I had driven Laguna Seca in Gran Turismo before I got seat time on the real thing - and I have to say, the sims don't do it justice. There's a lot more elevation involved, and turns 5-9 are a great section. But yeah, once you hit 10 it does get a bit so-so until you get to turn back up the hill. It's better in a high-power car, because at that point you discover that turn 1 is real and takes some stones.

Never driven Sears other than in a video game.

I've driven all three (nice thing about living in the Bay Area). IMHO, Sears is the most interesting to drive, but also the one that will bite the hardest if you screw it up (the least runoff and most walls). It's also the hardest to one to get track days at -- not sure why, but there just seem to be a lot fewer days available. Thunderhill is the second most interesting to drive, although I don't like the bypass. Laguna is the least interesting to drive, although I wouldn't call it boring -- it beats the hell out of going to work! :) It makes up for the less interesting corners by being the closest to my house. Sears and Laguna are expensive, a day at Thunderhill is about half the price.

Laguna Seca is a one-trick pony if you have a low-powered car, the rest of the track is so open that unless you're doing Ludicrous Speed it's boring (as racing goes ). Road America has the same problem.

I don't think I've even driven Sears Point in a video game or sim, is it that obscure?

GameboyRMH wrote: I don't think I've even driven Sears Point in a video game or sim, is it that obscure?

No, it's just a big track to model, and not that famous, so the ROI is lower. It's in most of the NASCAR sims (and those cars are a huge amount of fun there), as well as GT4. Sadly, it was dropped for GT5.

GameboyRMH wrote: Laguna Seca is a one-trick pony if you have a low-powered car, the rest of the track is so open that unless you're doing Ludicrous Speed it's boring (as racing goes ).

This is true. Laguna definitely gets more interesting with horsepower.

Slightly off topic, but I'd like Sears Point to host Autocrosses. There aren't any real big parking lots, but I've seen the the North lot host drift classes, so why not? It'd be a service to the community, and promote the idea of parking lot racing being related to big track racing.

Slightly off topic, but I'd like Sears Point to host Autocrosses. There aren't any real big parking lots, but I've seen the the North lot host drift classes, so why not? It'd be a service to the community, and promote the idea of parking lot racing being related to big track racing.

Duke wrote:

GameboyRMH wrote: I don't think I've even driven Sears Point in a video game or sim, is it that obscure?

No, it's just a big track to model, and not that famous, so the ROI is lower. It's in most of the NASCAR sims (and those cars are a huge amount of fun there), as well as GT4. Sadly, it was dropped for GT5.

It's in Forza 4

Trust me when I say that list led to a lot of heated discussions while it was being compiled. And, honestly, if the sole criteria was the actual driving excitement generated by the track it would be a very different list. But our criteria of "Epic" took into account many more less tangible factors like history, location, variety of events, etc.

Still, you can make a fair argument for several more tracks and won't get much disagreement from any of us.

There was almost a sidebar to that story but we just flat ran out of time and resources. We wanted to compile a list of the most epic "unknown" tracks—ones that may not host a pro event or be otherwise highly visible. Hallett and Thunderhill would top my list of those, but there's a ton of other tracks that are just flat awesome but may not have the exposure for whatever reason.

As to Sears vs. Laguna Seca, for me it's a bit of a tossup. For me Sears is more fun to drive on, but Laguna is more fun to race on. Laguna has more classic set-up and take-down passing opportunities, whereas at Sears many passes have to be really forced.

jg

GameboyRMH wrote: I don't think I've even driven Sears Point in a video game or sim, is it that obscure?

It's listed as Infineon in GT4

You mean Sonoma Raceway right?

http://www.racesonoma.com/