<< The next morning (Sat.), our neighbor asked for a ride to take his rental car back to the airport. I took him down in the Alpine, and we got caught in the traffic jam going into the track. We were going uphill in stop-and-go >>
Rex,
More like stop and wait.
I was visiting family in the valley and had an unexpected chance to get a ride to Laguna Seca on that Saturday [8/22]. Since you had posted your plans I hoped to spot you and your Alpine but the traffic jam you described killed us.
Just a warning to anyone going there: Don't follow the "Race Traffic --->" signs.
Like fools we thought that the "Race Traffic --->" signs would lead to a route to the track. In fact they divert you from the main highway that fronts on Laguna Seca [#68 I think] and put you on a two lane road through Fort Ord. At 10:15 a.m. we were at a dead stop and it took just over 2 hours to reach the top. There another similar back road met with ours and cars were being lead alternately toward what apparently serves as a "parking lot". In reality it is the tops and steep sides of hills with the brush mowed for the occasion.
A cop told me that the traffic jam on the other road was "4 to 5 miles long". When we left we measured the distance down to where we began and found our line had been only 3.2 miles. We decided if we entered the "parking lot" we would never get out so we went back. At 12:30 midday the line was 2.7 miles long! [Well they at least had a shorter line than us].
Does anyone know how the traffic was at the main highway entrance? Since they sent hundreds [maybe thousands] of cars into the hills of Fort Ord it must have been fairly light.
Sorry I missed you Rex. Maybe you were one of the several people who walked past our car as we waited.
Rob Carpenter Series V Seattle [where the road to the raceway actually can handle the traffic]