A new feature at Laguna Seca gives fans (including this writer) a bucket list experience.

I think my speed peaked at 100 mph, although it’s not that you really check. Besides, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca demands more than flat-out, throttle-down driving.

Dave Faries here, ticking an item from my bucket list thanks to the Porsche Track Experience.

I’ve been a motorsports fan most of my life. Beyond the action, I appreciate the grasp drivers have of their equipment and the tracks they run on. Listening in on Monterey County native Ernie Irvan’s communications with his crew chief during a race decades ago, I heard the team explain just why his car was acting up in the corners—they blamed the sun—suggesting slight change in spring load as a solution. Without hesitation, he responded that if they did that, he wanted a half-pound of air out of his right side tires. Keep in mind all of this was happening at 190 miles per hour.

The Porsche Track Experience is a new feature at Laguna Seca, allowing people to pilot a Porsche around the track—with some guidance, of course. And there is, as I mentioned in a feature story in the current edition of the Weekly, a lot to process.

After a brief lesson on the friction circle, an instructor recognizes several blank stares. “You are moving traction forward or backward. There is only so much grip,” he points out. “Do you agree? Everyone nod like you agree.”

Tearing around the track is—and isn’t—like driving on the street. Except for braking (racing drivers don’t often bring their cars to a stop) and steering (shuttle, with hands at 9 and 3), the same techniques apply. But you have to execute them in a staccato rhythm.

Laguna Seca is tricky. In 45 minutes of lapping, I may have hit my marks in the hairpin three or four times. Miss the second apex and you mess up the exit. Mess up the exit and you are scrambling to get the car in position for turn 3. The Corkscrew happens in a blink. You throw the car into the turn, the track disappears, you find the second tree from the left as a reference, the track reappears, still falling away from you, and slithers right, left, right—and so on, lap after lap.

No, the instructors did not bring us up to race pace. They know better. But it is still quick, and the day ends with a ride at full tilt, with the Porsche in the hands of a true race car driver attacking the corners.

There is more to the experience than testing yourself on track. Spinning a $200,000 Porsche on the slick skidpad is a lot of fun, as well. But there is a point. Through each drill, you learn to coordinate those classroom details, such as weight transfer and active vision.

Of course, my group hit the track first, followed by the driving exercises. Now that I know more, I think a few more laps around Laguna Seca are in order.