Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127127
Laguna Mecca By William Edgar Sometimes you gotta do it your way, and say the hell with everything else. This kind of subjective slant usually starts heating up a month before an event. As the weeks shrink to da ys, your inner fires begin burning O U l of contro l. You ca tc h yo u r se lf read i ng th e weather page, buying road accessories o n lunch-brea k. Yo u 'r e sti ll in the garage af ter mi d nigh t fixin' and a-cleanin ' and - well, th ere's j us t no "ra tio na l end to it. Getting rea dy for a mo torcycle weekend, th a t' is. Ge tting read y to go see T he Races! T he ca ll this time is no t AMA Natio nal actio n, seductive eno ugh in its own right. In stead , it's "The Biggie" - FIM (Federation Internationale Mo tocycli ste) Wo rl d Champi onship Road Racin gSeri es st uff! Both 250cc and 500cc! The Uni ted Sta tes G rand P rix ! Run in this cou ntry for th e first tim e in more th an two decad es, at th e roa d racer th rill cou rse tha t sta rts where much o f this land's best publ ic pavement ends. Lagu na Seca Raceway o u tside Monterey, California. Come o ne! Come alll Make,th e pilgr image now! I call it Laguna Mecca. Let's sa y it 's been n ine long months since you were here for last July's AMA National double-double feature that Shobert and Kocinski and Polen a nd Lucchinelli took home in cas h. You loved it , rig h t? And if you're like me you got to Laguna on something featuring onewheel -drive. My ticket to ride was a brand new Ducati Pa so. H ooking up with a Hurricane a nd Ninja, couple of tuned Beemers, a GSXR750, a no ther (tricked ) Paso, we got a Friday early sta r t out of Los Angeles and 30 miles into ba ck roads before our first stop. Unscheduled. One of o u r BMWers overcoo ked a tricky lefthander and stood it up, a te a culvert, " fracturing a leg and his ba ck. Bearing nasty ground scars, his helmet obviously saved hi s head . It was th e kind of mortal omen th at irons everyone's leathers. We tailed h is ambulance to the local eme rgency body shop, sti cking around through X-ra ys and a docto r 's disdainful looks. It was traumatic. Unerasable. One great line came out of it , though. While o u r Beemer pal wa s still wri th ing in pain back there in the dirt, a paramedic kn eeled to as k him if h e had an y specific d is ea ses. " Yea h," mourned ou r humiliated victim, " I'm a n asshole!" Swear to God. Laguna Mecca! The Big Sur California Coast was our approach, and we rode it with that get-o ff quip in mind. Passing distant H ea rst Castle, a red-tailed hawk flew from a fen ce a nd beat north alo ng th e shore, our hi ghway chasi ng its flight. Highway One. Then came those brea thtaking bursts, th e good- times rock-&-roll of the coas t ro ad. And fleet glimpses frozen like dolla r post cards - a lone horse galloping , cows graz ing hi gh o n a tree-studded hillside. A grea t big sign saying C UR VES N EX T 63 MILES. Pure verse for the rider! But take heed. There are pl aces where the flat Pacific is a th ousand feet down pas t sweet succ u lents a nd sheer fall , a nd you wick your scoot acco rdingly. Go in g north isn ' t so bad , you're on the feel-safe mo u ntain side. Head ed south it's Drop O ff City wi th no re turn. Ei ther way, you can ro u nd a ben d a nd . Iind a m ulti -wheeler co mi ng, some ape at the h elm suc king a can. It' s your competi tio n up there - The E nemy. Road Warrior R evisited! Bu t more than one pa th lead eth to Mecca . Inl and to the eas t, up and over th is voluptuous coas t range, J ol on Road is im p ul sive a nd lin ear an d wha tever you ma ke o f it , though be m indful o f the eye in the sky. And there's 198 and In d ian Canyon, or across the Temblor Valley o n a Du alP u rpo se, the terrain a rid ing buddy, Ri ch Eichner, lo ves, a nd wh o swears "real mot or cycle road s have no lines at all." And fu rt he r north, a ll uring Arro yo Seco - a nd th at 10-on-a-1O as p ha lt sna ke pu rsu in g Carmel Valley. Or, com ing down from San Francisco , th e Bay Area' s best exits: Skyline past Alice's Restaurant, and Route I. Then ! Just over the lovely peninsula hills , betw een Monterey " and Salina s o ff Hi ghway 68 -:Laguna Seca l Fi rst time I la id eyes on th e place was in another life, three decades ago (Su nday, No vember 10, 1957) a kid come to wa tch sports cars dice on a brand new tra ck, the same racing year H ero J o e L eonard o n his H arl ey-D a vid son swe p t Da ytona, Laconia, San J ose and Springfield. At virgi n La guna Seca , 60,000 curious first-timers showed up that da y to watch what th ey ca lled " The Del Monte Trophy Ra ce" - and on the pole in a growling three-liter Maserati roadster m y father fielded was yo u ng a nd restl ess Carroll Shelby. My memory of Shel back then is black-&-white, like fanning old photo album pages. In his trademark overalls he was potent and defiant, and he flat ruined his tires trying to straighten the Corkscrew, finishing fourth behind Paul O 'Shea's opencockpit Mercedes 300SLR. A gentleman named Pete Lovely won that inaugural 53 laps driving one of the earliest Testa Rossa Ferraris. What outstanding theater it was! Instantly! Penske raced here. So did the great Phil Hill and Dan Gurney. In the glory days of original Can-Am, Pe ter Revson and Jackie Stewart drove a smoking duel to a finish still argued. And wh en motorcycles finally arrived in 1972, Cal Rayborn on his . -H ar ley was Laguna Seca 's first bike victor. Gary Nixon piloting a Kawa sa ki won the year after. It was the perfect venue for a torrid new brand of motorcycle road racing. And with as much impact on his sport as Arnold Palmer and Muhammad Ali had on th eirs: Kenny Roberts hung his fanny off his Yamaha and won three Laguna years straight - seven times altogether. " King Kenny" and the annual summer road racing show became a m ust for thousands of ridein fans of" Laguna's new combat. Some hack with a nose for wonder blurbed, " N ot since Napoleonic warfare has th e battlefield so emotionally occupied everyone present." Laguna Mecca ! Born a non-profit, mostly volu nteer orga nizatio n with donations aimed at Monterey Peninsula charities, The Laguna Legend got wings. Driving seminaries took off. Superbike school reincarnated alread y-keen stree t riders as K.R. and R.M. quasi-clones. And on th e flip side of this Laguna-Bik e-O-Rama, Indy Car racing collects big bucks for SCRAMP (Sports Car Racing Associ ation of th e Monterey Peninsula), th e area's charity funder that