A Tale of Two Tracks

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Same but different? The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and the TireRack.com Monterey SportsCar Championship (let’s call them “Long Beach” and “Laguna Seca” going forward here) both have eleven turns and are both early stops along the thirteen event IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship season. And that’s about where the similarities end.

Laguna Seca is a full-time race track (and camp ground!) with plenty of run-off space.

After attending both races in the same month earlier this calendar year, I was amazed at how different (yet both awesome!) the events were considering there were, at least from a sportscar racing perspective, mostly the same drivers in the same cars for the same race teams. There isn’t a right or wrong, a better or worse. It’s similar to when your friend presents two cars and asks “which one would you want?” and the answer is a clear…“yes.”

Long Beach, with its temporary walls winding around existing landmarks, creates a narrow course without much room for error. (Justin Rothberg here had very few errors in a two-win weekend.)

Right off the bat, let’s look at attendance. Long Beach has been setting records in recent years and eclipsed 200,000 attendees this year. It might have to do with location, too. Laguna Seca doesn’t come close to that, but Long Beach’s track literally winds its way through city streets and includes both IMSA and IndyCar, among others.

The track in Long Beach is surrounded by fourteen packed grandstands and countless other places to catch the cars whizzing by.

To get to Laguna Seca, it takes specific effort and while you can get back to your hotel or home easily, lodging doesn’t loom over the track as it can in Long Beach. Yet for a unique twist at Laguna Seca, the race also encircles an active campground.

The tents on the surrounding hills remind attendees that Laguna Seca is an active campground.

Long Beach is an event that has racing.  Laguna Seca is a track you visit to watch racing. Long Beach has a central exhibit hall that does triple duty as a large vendor hall, an air-conditioned respite from the usual high temps, and the actual paddock for the GT America cars.

At Laguna Seca, you do have as many amenities and resources as you’ll need. And ease of access is relatively simple.

Laguna Seca has a few places to buy food.  Long Beach has few places where you can’t buy food. Long Beach wraps up its evenings first with the Super Drift Challenge and concerts well into the evening. Lagnua Seca usually goes quiet by 7:00pm, allowing the neighbors who have built their homes by the track some respite from the sounds of race cars.

Super Drift is incredibly popular as the sun sets Friday and Saturday evenings.

Both environments provide extraordinary access to the cars, teams, and drivers.  At both races, if you are in the paddock, look both ways or else you might get much closer to the cars than planned. BMW CCA local chapters at both tracks coordinate with the teams—usually Turner Motorsport, RLL, and Paul Miller Racing—for Meet and Greet events where the team owners, managers, drivers, and strategists share (some of) their secrets for and about the racing that weekend. You’re actually surrounding the racecar as the team scrambles to get it ready the forthcoming race, sometimes merely minutes following the gathering. If you seem too interested, they might hand you a tool and put you to work.

In addition to the IMSA racing, which includes GTP and GTD racing at both events, both weekends incorporate other racing groups or organizations. At Long Beach, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is sort of second fiddle (yet a large fiddle!) to the aforementioned Indy racing. There’s also an Historic Formula Exhibition, GT America races, Stadium Super Trucks (replete with ramps brought out onto the track mid day!), and Super Drift.

At Laguna Seca, in addition to IMSA’s Weathertech Sportscar Championship, you can watch IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge and Mustang Challenge, and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo.  Both events provide great visibility to more types of racing to the fans of the other types. But if that wasn’t enough to sway you, Laguna Seca’s event hosted BMW parade laps around the track on Saturday, too. Come for one race, leave loving more racing.

Sure, it might not have been pushing the limits, but a parade lap on race weekend at Laguna Seca seems to bring out plenty of smiles.

As for track and racing comparisons, the best folks to provide that input are the ones racing.  “Long Beach is a really short race. There’s not a lot of driving, but it’s really intense, lined with walls with zero room for error,” BMW Factory and Turner Motorsports driver Robby Foley says. “The surface is unique with some pavement and some other concrete areas, but it does have a lot of grip. Our environment is tough. There isn’t a lot of space in the paddock or the pits. But it’s a really special event. I look forward to it every year.  You feel the heritage and passion from everyone there. You can also tell it’s a party for the fans, right there on the water. It’s special to be a part of it.”

Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley pause (and maybe pose) during the Fan Walk at Long Beach during this year’s 50th Anniversary.

As special as Long Beach is to Foley, Laguna Seca has also captured a good part of his heart. “This is the first place I really drove,” Foley explains. “I did a racing school here when I was fourteen and have had a lot of success here with our Turner team. It’s also a beautiful place. I like the area in general. The track walk is incredible, giving us a chance to see some incredible views. TV does not do it all justice. It’s amazing to look at and a lot of tracks don’t have that surrounding beauty.

“There’s a lot of elevation change at Laguna Seca, especially compared to the completely flat Long Beach course,” he continues. “The Corkscrew is technical, but the rest of the course is not as much. You do have to be precise with where you place the car entering the Corkscrew; being off by a couple of feet at the top will really affect how you end at the bottom. Laguna is a little smoother with longer and definitely more open corners. At Long Beach, corners are more rushed but slower. There, they’re all second gear corners except the hairpin but most at Laguna Seca are third and fourth gear corners.”

Always nestled around the racecars, Will Turner and the Turner team host Meet and Greets at both Long Beach (seen here) and Laguna Seca.

Nothing ever wrong will Foley’s input, but we figured we’d get some input from the team principal Will Turner. His team has raced at Long Beach for more than ten years but he has personally raced—and won—at Laguna Seca. “There’s a very different feeling with these two tracks,” Turner says. “For me, you get a quality track at Laguna Seca and then amazing energy from fans at Long Beach. From a track perspective, the traditional course at Laguna Seca is more forgiving. Over the years, they have modified the track with gravel traps or at least room you need for run off. With Long Beach being a street course, there isn’t room for error. Long Beach at 100 minutes is a lot shorter. This usually means pit as soon as you can. At Laguna Seca, tire degradation has historically been the issue.”

Even while focusing on racing, it is difficult for the teams to not recognize the atmosphere at a race. “Long Beach seems to be all about the fans. They’re everywhere and we get motivated by their energy. The grandstands are full all around the track. With Laguna Seca, it’s almost like a secret. There isn’t really a centralization of fans at Laguna Seca. But, there is simply more room in the paddock for us and the fans up north. Fans can get closer to the cars and there is a little more flexibility in the schedule. The Meet and Greet events with the BMW CCA are great at both races. Those are a little smaller lately, especially at Laguna Seca, but we’re always excited to talk with members and fans.

“Between the two tracks, there couldn’t be any greater differences but both are so fantastic!” Turner summarizes.