No, it wasn't Laguna Seca in 2006. Or some race at Willow or Phoenix or Las Vegas. If you ask a veteran mechanic what the hottest race he can remember, chances are it might be the Road Atlanta race in 1994.

Soup editor Dean Adams recalls the temperature being 111 at Road Atlanta on Saturday that year.

Joining Road Atlanta in the mechanic's nightmare weekends are the race at Gateway in St. Louis in 1995 and a Road America event during that period. Unbelievably hot and humid, those events are the benchmark.

"Those three races are what we rate anything else by," said veteran crewchief Tom Houseworth.

Two factors helped the increase the misery back in those days. Few tracks had garages, leaving the mechanics to roast under the tents they call "sweat boxes". And the teams' hospitality areas as we now know them did not exist. The mechanics usually got their food and drinks from a concession stand when time allowed.

Houseworth recalls the misery of the 1994 Atlanta race, one that was made even worse by what happened on the track. "I remember loading the truck so we could leave on Sunday and it was like a furnace," said Tom, who worked for Vance and Hines Yamaha then. "Jamie James was riding for us and we had just lost the championship by a point. So it felt even hotter than it was."

Scott Russell, back from Europe, won that race and Troy Corser took the title on an Eraldo Ferracci Ducati.

This year's heat wave has generated concern that this year's event might be even hotter, but the trend in Braselton has seen temperatures drop from triple digits last week down to 90 today.

It will be hot and humid at Road Atlanta, but maybe not 1994 hot. The forecast is for temps in the high 80s this weekend.