Paver Sets Slowest Lap Time in Track History as Laguna Seca Is Reborn

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca is getting a total makeover: new pavement, a new pedestrian bridge, and some new buildings, as part of an approximately $20 million renovation. The pedestrian bridge at start/finish was torn down last November and replaced with an all-new structure for both pedestrians and golf carts. Repaving is going on right now, as a giant steam roller slowly circles the historic track laying down nice new asphalt for you to race on.

As you can see in the above video of the paver dropping down the Cork Screw, that work progresses at a snail’s pace. Watching the video, and assuming the width of one of those red and white curbing panels is, say, two feet, and it takes maybe 30 seconds to pass one curbing panel, and the track is 2.238 miles long (doing math) that would give the paver a lap time of 49.236 hours. The official course record for Laguna Seca was set by Alex Zanardi during the 1996 CART race at 1:10 in a Reynard 961. Your lap time is probably pretty close to that. The paver, less so.

Much work still lies ahead.

“There’s a ton of drainage and site work (to do), and erosion work has kept everyone busy,” said track spokesman Barry Toepke. “I’ve been told by Granite Construction that as of last week, more than 4000 truckloads have come and gone.”

The shiny new facility is on track—so to speak—for racing action to resume this summer.

“Work is on target to host MotoAmerica July 7-9,” Toepke said.“SCCA is on track at the end of this month to put some rubber down. We’ll have the grand reopening on July 7 during MotoAmerica’s lunch break.”

You can get tickets to events on the track’s website. Here are the events scheduled for 2023:

July 7-9 – MotoAmerica Superbike SpeedFest at Monterey
July 14-16 – AHRMA Classic MotoFest of Monterey
August 12-13 – Monterey Pre-Reunion
August 16-19 – Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion
August 20 – Corkscrew Hillclimb & Community Day
September 8-10 – Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey (INDYCAR)
September 28-October 1 – Porsche Rennsport Reunion 7

See you there!