Arrive and Drive at Laguna Seca

How many people can say they’ve been to a wine tasting atop the famed Laguna Seca Corkscrew?

Well, if you were part of our recent trip to Laguna Seca, you could boast just that.

As you’ve probably figured out, we just returned from Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. The event we were part of was a three-day race weekend hosted by the Porsche Owners Club (POC), with a driver education and lapping component independently managed by Speed Ventures. Of course with it being a POC weekend the paddock was full of incredible Porsches … everything from 997 GT3 cup cars to 356’s. What a delight for the Porsche enthusiast.

We’ve done events with Speed Ventures before, and they are a great group to run with in part because they have liberal open passing rules and they allow passengers in the car. Last year I was able to take my cousin, who at the time was living about two hours away in Walnut Creek, for an experience she will never forget … after thousands of laps around Laguna Seca on her PlayStation, she was finally able to experience the corkscrew for real. This year, my wife was along for the weekend and she enjoyed an afternoon on the track as my passenger.

This is the first event we invited all the wives to attend. Wives are always welcome, but frankly wives aren’t usually the track junkies in a family.  Of course they didn’t spend every day at the track … Monterey is a wonderful place for shopping and sightseeing and dining. But if one is married to a track junkie, one doesn’t come all the way to Monterey and not see the track. So on Saturday afternoon all the wives arrived at the track, got to ride for a few laps and experience the corkscrew at speed, and then attend the POC charity wine tasting that really did take place atop the famed Corkscrew. The picture above is Margaret riding her scooter-equipped wheelchair down the corkscrew following a few glasses of wine. Yes, she missed the apex by just a bit … probably it was the wine.

Something tells me this will become an annual event.

P.S.: Did you know you can actually buy a Laguna Seca corkscrew in the gift shop?  They make a great conversation piece.