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Laguna Seca Datsuns


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Wheres the rest of the pictures of the Coupe?

 

Weeeeeell if you pushed yourself away from your internets for a day and venture out into the "real world"  you might get to see it for yourself someday..... or climb a tiny bit ,, under it..

 

 

 

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Back in the last century... before the time when fun was cancelled... there was the Triple Crown. Sports car races in the Spring, motorcycle road race nationals in the summer and the big guns, the Can Am Grand Prix in the fall.

 

LagunaArchive1_zpse0568ea8.jpg

 

Shots from the time when men were men, gas had lead in it... and the official on track utility vehicle was a dark blue 620 4x4 with roll bars and fog lights. The old laguna sports car logo painted on the door. 

 

LagunaArchive2_zpsa1d2514b.jpg

 

The most terrifying part of the old 1.87 mile track was right here, blowing past the flag stand stomping shifts... cresting turn one, about to dump it into top gear... it's fucking blind, and you gotta crank on it to hit your apex, steer out of turn one, shift and crack the throttle. Look at all that Armco!!! AHAAA! 

 

You know what is spooky? Right over that hill in the back there, was where I learned how to shoot an M60 Machine gun... tracers in the night ops class... heh, heh. The Laguna Seca property was given to the Monterey County Parks by the Federal Government about 1957 as a replacement venue for the sports car Grand Prixs that were originally held along the 17 Mile Drive in Monterey. Fort Ord was a basic training facility until '75 and it covered hundreds of square miles.

 

So Indy have you seen the Freddie Spencer Explains Vid? There are some classic shots of Laguna when it was really a "Dry Lake". I was here all the time through this period. I did Keith Code's California Super Bike School for the first time in 1980, so I rode the old dogleg turn two on A KZ550... hahahahahaha! I rode the new GP length track on the first 600 Ninjas in '90. All these shots are just like home movies for me because I was there somewhere, camped out on the hill at the bottom of the Corkscrew or over in the old turn nine... which is ... uh... like nowhere... anymore! The places we use to camp or spectate are in the middle of thin air now. They have bulldozed so much land that you only might recognize a few of the signatures features of todays Laguna circuit in the video.

 

It's kinda cheezy but, hey the 1980s were fucking cheezy. Freddie was a total baddass man. The only guy to ever contest and win the 250cc and 500cc World Championship in the same year... that's claim to fame right there. In the '80s, racing was mostly flying under the radar for most people. I talked to Freddie a couple times and just hanging around the paddock on Friday or Saturday mornings, riders and teams would be going about their business and you could find stars sitting on their pit bikes swapping stories and laughing an shit. Dude, what did you do this week end? Oh, man I talked to Freddie Spencer and Kenny Roberts this week end in the paddock!!! OH, who are they?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyapTAgAyOk&list=PL25D38F40849FD94E

 

Anyway, I could go on and on about this. Kenny Roberts, Randy Mamola, Mike Baldwin, then on into the modern era I saw all the GPs Rainey, Lawson, Gardner, Doohan... Valentino Rossi on a 250!!!  and All the WSBK rounds... GEEEZus so much fastness.

 

There were a few good car races too. I was standing up on the outside of the track on the little short shoot right as you crest the hill before the left into the top of the Corkscrew. You can see racers coming up out of turn 6, as well as the pit strait, flag stand, turns 2, 3, 4, and part of the 4/5 straight. For me it is the best pace in the track to watch races, because you can see what goes on before the Cork. There are kinda really only two passing zones going into the last corner onto the front straight and top of the hill.

 

When Zanardi made "THE PASS", I was right there. Me, my friend two corner workers with flags and the TV cameraman on a man lift. We are in this clip at 3:02, partly hidden by the PPG banner.  I had binoculars and looked down into the infield where they had a big screen TV set up for the turn 4 grand stands, to catch the TV replay from the camera that was 15 feet over our heads for the stuff that happened seconds later through the Corkscrew. We couldn't believe it.

 

We were up there jumping around when Zanardi and the guy who got snookered big time, Brian Herta came by on the cool down laps. It was just the 2 of us and the corner workers waving and going nuts. Zanardi stuck his glove out of the cockpit and waved right at us. A couple years later my friend won an insane oil painting of "THE PASS" at a Laguna charity auction, and eventually a few years later we got to meet Alex Zanardi and Alex autographed his painting. A few months later he had that horrible crash in Germany.

 

 

 

 

Toys... expensive dangerous toys... or is that dangerous expensive toys?

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the not so mintyfresh zone

Unprovoked attacks now? Man, you must really like my attention. I'm flattered you have a crush on me, but I'm not interested.

 

Feel free to keep searching for young boys with their pants down, apparently that's what you're into.

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I just stumbled upon this thread....soooooo bad ass!!!

 

 

I've been to a couple of these events over 13 years ago...

 

 

.....sadly....my pics were hoarded by the ex......

 

I gotta look these up and get out there....

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