When drivers from the Historic Motor Sports Association showed up at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last weekend, they saw something new—an electronic flagging system. This week track officials told the Monterey County Board of Supervisors they planned a long-awaited repaving of the track surface in the fall. And the track’s manager, John Narigi, announced that ticket sales were soaring.
So the 2020 racing season is off to a fast start, even though action on the track won’t really heat up until the beginning of May.
Sales of season passes for the seven major events on this year’s schedule are up 400 percent over the same period last year, while sales for the Trans Am series races May 1-3 jumped 200 percent over last year’s pace. Single race ticket and parking sales climbed a more modest 10.5 percent.
Electronic flagging is a safety measure for the drivers, one found at most tracks. The LED system allows for improved visibility when caution flags are waved. A donation of $74,162 from the nonprofit Laguna Seca Raceway Foundation will help cover the cost of the project.
“There are many projects on the table,” Narigi said in a press statement.
Repaving may be one of the largest and would involve closing the track for at least a month. And although the project is only in the planning stage, Narigi estimates that costs could exceed the $1.8 million set aside in the track fund.
If it goes forward, repaving would begin following the season-ending IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
The track is in a sweet spot for racing at the moment. After last year’s IndyCar race, Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud called it a perfect surface. “The biggest thing this track has to do is absolutely not repave the track,” he told reporters afterward. ”It creates the perfect racing because there's some tire degradation.”
That allowed for some tight racing in 2019, but the surface is not going to improve. The last time it went through a major resurfacing project was in 2007.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.