Last week we asked for readers to send in their stories from past Laguna Seca races. Here is the third installment:

I was in the Air Force and stationed at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey from 1981-82. My unit was asked to provide volunteers for SCRAMP for the AMA motorcycle races. I had no idea what that was but I knew I wanted to see motorcycle racing.

So in exchange for watching the pit gate every 2 or 3 hours at the then Turn 9, we had full access to the entire track. I didn't know any of the racers except for Kenny Roberts and the only thing I knew about him was that everybody said he was the best. I remember watching people going up to these guys who were just kids, no older than me, asking for their autographs and generally making a big deal out of them. I remember reading "Spencer", "Lawson", "Luchinelli", "Filice" on the back of their leathers and wondering..."Who are these guys and why is everybody making such a big deal out of them?" Then the racing started and I immediately understood. Wow. I was mesmerized by the speed and enthralled at the sounds. I loved everything about it. I remember Eddie Lawson running away from everybody on his Superbike with Jimmy Filice giving chase in a futile attempt to catch him. I remember walking by the Yoshimura pit and some guy handing me a free Yoshimura t-shirt. I couldn't believe I just got a free t-shirt! It said "I've got the Power!" on the back. I loved it and still have it.

The biggest memory I have though is what launched me into the world of sportbikes and road racing. I was walking by the Kawasaki pits and saw this little guy pulling off his leathers. He was the same size and build as I was and yet he was racing a Superbike! Until then, I had always thought I was too short to ride anything bigger than a 250. Of course, it was Jimmy Filice. I had already been impressed that he was the only one able to even sniff Lawson's bike but there he was, no bigger than me! When I got to my next duty station several months later, I went out and bought a Kawasaki GPz550 for my first bike and I haven't been without a bike since.

Mario Baroz

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I have so many: Wayne Rainey's last ride, perhaps the most impressive ride at Laguna ever, so precise, purposeful, almost mechanical, and so very very fast. Or 'who the hell is this Freddie kid', watching Freddie Spencer at the top of the hill braking for the corkscrew, his silver Honda tying itself into knots, the back wheel trying to pass the front. King Kenny doing the longest wheelie over the turn two hill setting it down and smoking the front wheel, for the most part just entertaining, having fun, until the last lap that is.

My best photo at Laguna of Eddie Lawson going down the hill out of turn 9 on a 250 Kawasaki. Or was it the bad memories; Bubba's carrier ender. Or Akira Yanagawa getting launched over the concrete K railing into the Laguna's logo cypress tree at the top of the corkscrew. Thank god the only thing that died was the tree, removed for more run-off room.

No, my favorite story is the first one for me: Just got my license to drive (no street bikes yet), it was 72-73 not totally sure, Kawasaki sponsored race. Yvon DuHamel was winning going away on a Kawasaki. Few laps from the finish he fell. He waved to Gary Nixon on the second place Kawasaki that he was ok, no worries please continue. There was also a third Kawasaki, not sure who it was. With the first trip I was hooked.

Michael Chordas

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Surviving the early 80's camping at Laguna Seca!

For those of us that were lucky enough to see the USGP at Laguna Seca in the 80's, this was the decade to be an american motorcycle race fan. My first race was the 1983 USGP at Laguna Seca. We were camping on turn 9 at the bottom of the corkscrew. The biggest fun back then was after the races we over! I was only 19 years old then and holy shit could I drink a lot of beer! Back then alcohol, among other things flowed through the campground areas pretty well with everybody parting pretty hard all day and night. There was no security and no police in the campgrounds then and it was beyond wild! As soon as the races were over people with liquid courage would take there motorcycles and tear ass all around the campgrounds in some sort of drag racing, flat tracking, tire burnout macho right of passage. It was the funniest damn thing to watch. People would get run into, crash into the fence and loop the bikes all the time. They would do tire burnouts till the tire popped and you couldn't see anything from all the smoke. We were just getting started. Once it got dark everybody would through their mini bikes, 10 speeds, skateboards or whatever over the fence on to the race track. Then clime the fence and start tearing around the track in the dark! I got hit in the foot and ribs a couple of times by a 10 speed,(I think).

When we were walking around the racetrack you could barely see, so you walked to the left or right on the race track and the bikes tried to go down the middle. You would here people wiz by you and never see them. (I am laughing out loud writing this). You could stand in the middle of the cockscrew and it would be pitch black and hear people crashing at the top of the entrance of that turn, we could here, "woah, woah", bam, metal scraping followed by a lot of cus words.

After we climbed back over the racetrack fence and returned to our campgrounds the fireworks would start, Roman candle and Bottle rocket wars, You had to stay low! The funniest thing I remember that night is this guy who was trying to light his barbeque,big weber charcoal type,(beer and fire don't mix). He was at the top of the hill on turn 9 we were at the bottom. He flooded it with lighter fluid and was trying to light it. He finally got it lit and then proceeded to fall over into it setting his shirt on fire and sending the BBQ rolling down the hill on fire. It must have rolled through 5-6 other campgrounds sending lit charcoal and embers flying through the air and he was screaming at the top of the hill trying to put his shirt out. When Revelry went off the next morning as it always did to wake everybody up. There were bikes, people, broken bottles, beer cans all over the hill and the smell of bacon being cooked!

Paul J. Eischens
San Jose

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Well growing up in Monterey my whole life, and being a huge racing fan, Laguna had always been a huge part in yearly outings. Some of the most recent and my most favorite memories don't even involve racing, although Ive seen hundreds of races and ridden the track many times. At the time my employer had a booth set up at the races so that meant I would be working for the GP, since that was the biggest race of the year of course. So during the course of the days you tend to make a lot of friends, some more beneficial then others. I happen to meet a guy working with Ohlins. Well anyone who has been to the races has probably seen these guys cruisin' around on their 'Ohlins' scooters. Just after the last practice on that saturday we got to take out a few of the scooters and do 'hot laps' around the track for as long as we wanted. Theres nothing like coming up over the top of the corkscrew with the gas pinned and flying down so fast the speedometer maxes out passed 50mph, Or coming into the hairpin doing your best Rossi impersonation. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole time I was out there. Of course I was supposed to be working at the time, but you cant pass up an opportunity like that!

Matt Hamilton
Monterey

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Me and my best riding buddy were sportbike enthusiasts that just had discovered roadracing.

We were hooked, and became big fans. We learned about the different riders, politics and machinery through rags such as Cycle and the like.

We booked Laguna for the '93 USGP. We went there to see our American warriors Schwantz, Kocinski and Rainey.

When we got there on Friday, it was weird...

No sight or mention of Rainey.

This was pre-internet, and we were new fans that didn't know about weekly rags like Cycle News.

Eventually, we heard the news by Saturday's qualifying.

Things were somber.

It kinda took away from what should have been an otherwise amazing weekend.

We feel slighted and saddened that we never did get to see one of our early influences/heroes do his business.

Even to this day.

Wayne, you are missed.

-Rossano Baldassarra

-Hartsdale, NY

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As Friday practice for the 2005 MotoGP began, my friend and I settled in a few spectator rows back from the fence up by the corkscrew. In about a minute we would see and hear the 990s for the first time. I had heard that these bikes were quiet loud, very loud in fact, so I pulled a set or orange squishy ear plugs from my pocket and began putting them in my ears.

My friend looked at me and said, "What the hell are you doing?" I explained to him what I had heard. He motioned to the distance between us and track, then scoffed, "How loud could they be?"

Off in the distance, a deep rumble began to make it's way up the hill, a distant thunder approaching. And then the bikes began to tilt over the crest of the Corkscrew, and then get on the gas, "BRAAAAAP!" One after another they went by as my friend sat in defiant adulation. Suzukis, Yamahas, Hondas, and especially the Kawasakis and Ducatis. BRAAAAAP! BRAAAAAP! BRAAAAAP!

And when the last one had gone by, my friend turned to me and said, "You have any more of those earplugs?"

Dennis Presiloski
California

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I've been going to Laguna since the GPs in the late 80s. Not constantly, but often. I've always had a great fondness for Laguna. Thankfully, my wife is similarly smitten by Laguna.

Beyond the pure excitement of the Corkscrew, watching the bikes shoot out from under the bridge as if from nowhere and over the hill in to turn 2, or doing the "Corkscrew Shuffle" to follow the race, the best memory of Laguna Seca is all thanks to the track, to Yamaha, and the 2005 GP.

That was simply the finest motorcycling event we've ever been to. It had everything going for it.

First, we arrived at around 10am on Saturday, with GP Practice just getting underway. We crossed the ridge up by the turn 9 bridge. What did we experience? The Sound. The Sound of the GP bikes. It is indescribable. The whole valley that the track sits in was literally glowing with the Sound. I can not forget that Sound. Or later, being between 4 and 5 when Caparossi ripped by and almost took my eardrums with him as I struggled to get my ear plugs in. I've been to NASCAR, and the Long Beach Gran Prix, but neither has the sonic power of the GP bikes on track.

What a treat it was to be there with Yamaha and their celebration. The yellow and black livery of all the bikes on all the teams. Being able to meet all the older Yamaha racers, who seemed to be hitting on my wife. My wife got to meet Wayne Rainey, and she was thrilled.

Equally thrilling was to see Nicky Hayden win his first GP, on home soil, finally. He grabbed the lead and ran away, "rocks in the Corkscrew" and all. He punctuated his win with victory lap with his Dad. Then him taking the podium with his "Nicky Dance", only to be followed up with the National Anthem as sung by the Turn 11 Grandstand Choir and Chorus.

We were excited to see Eric Bostrom put the Ducati on the top of the box. He seemed equally thrilled when he celebrated up in the Corkscrew with the screaming fans.

And, finally, of course, who can forget watching Jason DiSalvos trophy get dropped and broken on the podium.

The crowds were insane (it took us 45 minutes to get from the inside of the Dunlop Bridge to the turn 11 Grandstands, and we almost missed the GP start), and the traffic horrifying (3 hours to get out), but the whole weekend was just a spectacular, once in a lifetime experience that only Laguna could have provided.

Regards,

Will and Kim Hartung
Tustin, Ca

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