Andrew Phan's Laguna Seca Drive

I was at Laguna Seca all weekend for a track event, so I would have been unable to make it to Slush Round 6 anyway. I must say, the CART series, LeMans races, and the SCCA World Challenge, whether you watched each series on TV or at the track, does not do the track justice until you actually get to drive on the track yourself. None of the Gran Turismo games even come close when it comes to realism. It is truly a world class race track. I drove down Friday morning as there was a Donutz Racing/Subaru I-Club track day, and I had a few friends instructing at that event. It was quite cold and windy. I got the chance to ride in Gary Sheehan's US Touring Car Champ Impreza WRX race car. That car is just unbelieveably fast! Others were telling me, "Riding with Gary is going to make you feel like you're a really shitty driver." Boy, were they right. The car was amazingly neutral. I now know what a 4-wheel drift feels like, and it's the fastest way around a corner. I was kind of freaked out at times as a result of paying too much attention to the walls and how close they are to the track itself; and I only rode in the car for 3 laps! Sheesh!

Saturday and Sunday was the SpeedTrialUSA track event with the final USTCC race of the season on Sunday. I had originally signed up for the Advanced group, but after running at Buttonwillow a few weeks earlier, I requested to be moved down to the Fast Intermediate group, as the Advanced group is way too fast, and I wanted to be able to drive slower than 8/10ths to be able to learn the track. Unfortunately, they had each group capped at 25 cars (as requested by the Laguna Seca track officials). The only group that had room was the Beginner group, so I ran in that group for Saturday. Thankfully, I was on street tires, so the car's limits are lower than if I had race tires. I had trouble trying to heel-toe downshift early on as the brakes were real mushy. I later realized that I had forgotten to put on my track shoes, and things went smoothly from then on.

For Sunday, I mounted up my race tires, and successfully lobbied to be put in the Fast Intermediate group. I felt I had already built up enough confidence from Saturday to be able to push the car a little harder. I bled my brakes on Saturday night, but the pedal was still a bit mushy. I was probably used to the firm pedal that I get when running my street pads (Axxis Metal Master). The goal for the day was to break 2 minutes a lap. The fastest cars were running in the low 1:50's-high 1:40's, while the fastest USTCC cars were in the low 1:40's. I was timed on my second 20-minute session on the track, and pulled a best of 1:58.5xx on my last lap before the session ended. I had met my goal in the morning, and decided to focus on trying different lines/brake zones for each corner throughout the day. Here are my thoughts/pointers for each corner of the track.

Turn 1: Slight left-hand kick on the main straightway. In 4th gear with speeds upwards of 90-95mph. Other cars were well over 100mph.

Turn 2 (Andretti Hairpin): Hard braking zone, single apex line. Corner entry is slightly downhill; corner exit is flat. I had originally downshifted to 3rd before entering the corner, and exiting the corner still in 3rd (on Saturday). I felt I had enough power coming out of the corner that I would not have needed to drop into 2nd. It was a different story on Sunday. Dropping into 2nd gear before corner entry really helped with the added power exiting the corner.

Turn 3: Flat and sort of off-camber; in 3rd gear. Must take a really late apex.

Turn 4: Very fast. On street tires, I would just tap the brakes to set the car, then enter the corner, trying to come out in a smooth arc to set up for Turn 5. On race tires, I didn't have to brake.

Turn 5: If I come out of Turn 4 fast enough, I'd have to shift to 4th between Turn 4 and 5. I should be in 3rd entering this corner as it begins to go uphill. I brake just before the #2 marker. FWD cars could benefit from trailbraking.

Turn 6: Very fast, very scary. For a moment, you cannot see the corner as you go under the bridge, causing some to brake earlier than necessary. A banked turn; I only had to stab the brakes a bit and I'm back on the throttle as I initiate the turn. This is where it's fun. The incline is a lot more pronounced than shown on TV and video games. Light cars with lots of power have the advantage coming out of Turn 6. Quite a few cars who were far behind me, were right on my tail just before Turn 7.

Turn 7: Slight right kink before the Corkscrew. Like Turn 6, it is blind as you go over the crest. I stay a bit to the right, and brake right at the crest (#3 marker). I was braking much earlier while on street tires. I downshift to 2nd in preparation for the Corkscrew.

Turn 8/8a (Corkscrew): It is very hard to see where you are going as you're going down this turn. You start off going left, but it's very hard to see Turn 8a until the very last minute. Elevation change is so great that it felt like my stomach went up to my throat!

Turn 9 (Rainey Curve): Downhill sweeping left turn. This turn, for me, was the most fun. Coming out of the Corkscrew, I upshift to 3rd. The apex is near the end of the curbing on the inside of the turn just past the bridge. Early on, I was tapping the brakes to settle the car for this turn. I later realized I didn't have to. I just lift off the throttle, then begin to modulate the throttle, and swing wide to the right after hitting the apex. Quite a few cars fell way behind me after this corner.

Turn 10: Nothing special about this 90deg right-hander. Slightly banked, but going downhill. Still in 3rd gear.

Turn 11: Hard brake zone, downshifting to 2nd gear, then entering the main straightaway.

I must say, the Axxis Ultimate brake pads I used are awesome! They are a street/track pad, and are fairly inexpensive ($50 for the fronts). Unfortunately, I abused them way too much this weekend that one of my pads lost about 1/5th of its pad material off the backing plate. Scary thing was that it occured sometime during my 3rd session, and I continued to drive during the 4th and final session (didn't know what happened until I took the pads out at the end of the day).

As you can tell, I had an awesome weekend... Too bad I couldn't get any in-car camera footage. No camera. =(

--Andrew Phan