With the iconic WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca returning to the Verizon IndyCar Series calendar in 2019, the nostalgia of the track’s most famous moments overcame the racing community. Perhaps none were more excited than Alexander Rossi, whose journey to IndyCar started at the Monterey, California course over two decades ago.
“I’m super excited, I was thrilled to see it added to the calendar,” Rossi told Motorsport Week. “My introduction to open wheel racing was at Laguna Seca. I went there eight years in a row as a kid with my father. To be able to go back there next year and actually be racing will be a really cool thing for me, and have my journey and career come full circle.”
A California native, the home track of Laguna Seca became a regular stomping ground for a young Rossi. While attending CART races with his father, his mind was set on his eventual career path.
“As a fan, I went from when I was four years old all the way up to when I was 11,” he said. “That’s really where I fell in love with racing and wanted to start driving go karts.”
At only 26 years old, Rossi came of age too late in the IndyCar Series to experience the heyday of the course behind the wheel. However, while the sport’s veterans such as Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan may have experience at the track across various series, there is no course the young Rossi is more comfortable with.
“That’s the one track that I probably have the most amount of laps on, believe it or not,” Rossi said. “I raced there quite a bit in Skip Barber, which is obviously quite a step away from an IndyCar.”
“I spent many a winter there, let’s put it that way,” he adds.
The track has been alien to the series since the last event there, the 2004 Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey with Champ Car. With the new IndyCar aero kits debuted in 2018, there has been a considerable visual and operational callback to the cars at the height of the CART and Champ Car era of the sport.
For the series’ return to the track, this similarity will be paramount to team preparation.
“It’s definitely moving in that direction,” Rossi explains. “A lot of the philosophies from set ups, raceability, and driving style we take from the earlier years. We don’t look at videos from really any time prior or past 2014, so we’re always looking for pre-2014 event stuff. For sure when we are looking to prepare for Laguna, some of the old footage will be true. Some of those characteristics will be the same.”
Laguna Seca’s signature is the infamous corkscrew – a sharp blind corner with an 18-metre drop often considered one of the most challenging and intimidating turns in all of motorsports. With the return of the track to the series comes the return of the challenge of the corkscrew.
Already having a considerable amount of times through the treacherous turn under his belt, Rossi looks forward to seeing those of his competitors who will be taking it on for the first time.
“I think they’ll love it,” he beams. “It’s pretty intimidating the first time just because it’s so blind in a very unique way… It’s a pretty cool, obviously iconic corner. I think it will blow people away how quick we’re able to go through there.”
For those IndyCar drivers who have yet to face the corkscrew, Rossi offers this advice:
“There is this one oak tree that if you aim the front of the car for, you can make it through okay,” he explains. “I think that oak tree is a reference point no matter what race car you’re in.”
