A Verbal In-car Video of Laguna Seca

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As you feel the right attitude, you smoothly roll off the brake onto the throttle and the car smartly catches its rotation and starts to dig into the hairpin. As you feel that grip, you roll more and more onto the throttle, rapidly getting to the floor as the steering unwinds straight..

In second gear, the thousand-pound racer blasts onto the straight, 137 horsepower pressing you back into the hard seat. Every element of this minimalist car roars and rattles but you don't hear it, other than noting the engine sound as it approaches the 5000 RPM limit set for you. 5000, and the crashbox four speed pops itself magically into third with a flick of feet and wrist -- just a barely perceptible blip in motivation as the throttle stays flat. You shake out of concentration long enough to check the flagstand on the pit lane -- no messages.

The Start/Stop bridge is screaming at you now, and you adjust slightly to center the car under the "N" in the HONDA sign across it. Beneath the bridge, the road disappears into the sky, glaring afternoon sun blurring everything. No cues from the road beyond -- it's under the horizon. The "N" is your only guide to avoid disaster into the unknown terrain beyond. The car continues to accelerate to 5000. Pop! Fourth and top and still flat out as you crest the hill. Still no road, but telephone poles pop out of the ground as you start to fall. Second pole -- aim for the second pole... Suddenly the apex of Turn 1 is in view, and Turn In for 2. At Turn 1 you are diving, starting to free fall at 100 miles per hour at an increasing slant. Full throttle to the turn in, your instructor said. The left verge of the track at Turn 1 apex is a little rough, off of the smoother track surface. But you need every inch of the line to make this turn. At this speed, the downhill ending at Turn Two is rushing you, unnerving you and weakening the calf muscles mashing the throttle into the floor. The rough surface makes the car buck and yaw subtly. You just can't make yourself make it go faster, but the hill is insistent.

Before you can grab control of that throttle you are at Turn In on the right side of the track. You can see the two connecting 95 degree turns that make up the Andretti Hairpin, the very technical Turn Two. At 100 you have only a split second to turn the car 15 degrees to point at the wooden box on the hill. Brake! brake!brake! Left front wheel stops in plain sight and acrid smoke pours around it. ease! ease! the car hauls in at threshold as you pop! pop! double clutch heel and toe the non-synchro third then second gear into play. Can you stop? the lockup will have lengthened your path. Apex 1 Turn 2 is here and you ease the brake and turn in left, easing off the brakes to leave some trailing into the turn. You can feel the rear tires slipping, slipping around. This is really rotating the car quickly! You look left, down toward the Track Out past the apex -- or try to, as the brakes come off and throttle starts rolling in. The rear end hardens and sticks well. You have rotated enough that there is plenty of room for throttle and you start to feed it in. Have you entered too slow? The car tracks through, maybe nibbling at the road a little as you hit Track Out. The wheels rumble a half second on the white curb as you reach full throttle and blast toward Turn 3, a righthander. 

Laguna maintains very good, clear brake markers, and you pick the 2 to aim for. Pop! third and floored, ease into line with the left track edge at 2 and touch the brake, but get right back on a little throttle -- "about 2 out of 10" said the instructor, and the Turn In comes up at once -- at marker 1, since at Laguna for these Skip Barber cars the 1 marker is the perfect turn in point. Right, and rolling the throttle in, now to level 4,... 5,... you clip the apex and have just a little room to unwind as you reach Track Out. Boy! Straightening the wheel really lets the car jump! 5000 RPM and fast under the bridge. Dunlop? Michelin? No, it's just a dark thing over your head. There is just the road.

Turn 4 bends right ahead, and it's a power turn. A brief brake at level 2 to 4, then on the gas a little before Turn In. 70 MPH is a guess -- there is no speedometer -- as you bend right, too. Throttle rolls in more as you feel the car grip, and you reach flat out at apex, and again the road stretches out ahead, warped right, and the car screams by Track Out to eat it up.

Pop! Fourth! Flat again in an instant. BOSCH BOSCH overhead, it's the bridge! and brakes to Turn 5 as the car slows for a half second and Pop! Instant double clutch and throttle blip in a blink. Faster than possible! How can I do this? I guess the Jaguar practice for years has helped. But the transmission is making it happen. Newer than the Jag gears, this box is made to be shifted fast. The dog rings pop in and there is no graunch of gears. All this in a half second and throttle in again at 2 before Turn In for left uphill Turn 5. Roll in throtttle to apex and flat by Track Out, screaming uphill in third. In this car, the hill is a visual change in attitude, not a dragging force on the car. The car continues to accelerate under the main entrance bridge, for you just a darkness. 4.. 3.. 2.. 1 placards on the right for zoomy uphill Turn 6 coming up. 

Six is a real power turn, but if you get in hot and lift you're into the tire wall so very quick.. This car will be stuffed into that wall later this day, thankfully your co-driver is unhurt but the car is seriously bent!   Brakes to 5 at about marker 3, then throttle again to 2 about halfway between markers 2 and 1 to settle the car for the turn. Wheels touching the right curb line at Turn In -- marker 1 -- accelerating some as you dip toward the apex. The camber holds the car, and you roll on more throttle till you get flat out halfway to Track Out. Some rumble from tires on the curb as you blast up the back of the Corkscrew hill. Pop! fourth and flat.

Nothing can be seen but a light standard over the hill, looming over the track. Aim for the yellow light box and have faith! Faster, faster into the unknown. The hill rolls down and you see Turn 7 Turn In driver's left of track -- adjust to hit it and stay flat! stay flat! Don't worry about the cascade facing you unseen beyond. The hidden gravel and wall just beyond -- somewhere. No cues, but hair stands up on your neck as the engine screams and only the shortness of time keeps your brain from getting the command to your foot -- lift! lift! There's a 3 marker above the hill, a 2 starts to appear. "Turn 7" is no real turn, just an underline on "Turn 8, Turn 8A!" to emphasize the exclamation point already on it. Brake, but soft. You are at 4200 RPM in fourth, but the road is dropping away as you crest the hill. No grip for your tires, you slow agonizingly. Then you see everything all at once 3..2..1.. Road comes up and presses your suspension down, your chance to slow. Pop third pop second, still too fast at Corkscrew Turn In, but you should trail brake here. You can almost see the first apex, but beyond is blackness. Trees -- three oak trees. Point at the third through the first apex, faith in tradition again, but it pays off. You dive into a twisting Yosemite Falls of your car, just at the second apex thanks to the tree, powering, powering down and out to Track Out. Pop! third!

Still further the falling track flows and eddies under yet another darkness -- bridge? and you swing right and brake a little, then power on through the deep Turn 9 apex on the left. Watch it! Are you too fast to make the Track Out? Don't lift... More power, feather it on. The car adds the grip of RWD under power, and you make the edge by inches. Pop! fourth!

Now a short hop across the track to the 3..2..1 of Turn 10. They say Mario Andretti brakes from 158 to 134 for this turn, but you are not that fast yet. You lift a little and power up before turn in. Ten has a deep apex, and you can depend on it, but watch the Track Out! Later today you will taste the dirt of the opposite shoulder after trusting it too much. Right there you see the 4..3..2..1 for Turn 11. Flat, flat to marker 3 and a half, then Brake!brake! Pop three pop two, trail brake into turn 11.

Then do it all again...