Friday favourite: How Laguna Seca charmed an IMSA rookie

A Macau Grand Prix and Sebring 12 Hours outright winner, who also has a Le Mans 24 Hours class win on his CV, Alex Lynn isn't lacking for big results on some of the world's most famous circuits. But it's an American classic he's only raced at once that earns the Briton's pick for his favourite track

It was love at first sight for Alex Lynn when he pitched up at Laguna Seca back in the spring of 2022 as part of his maiden and so far only full season in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.

“Most drivers know immediately, on your first laps, if you are going to click with a circuit,” says the Brit. “And I loved it straight away.”

Lynn’s debut at the 2.24-mile Laguna Seca Raceway came during a season aboard a Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing Daytona Prototype international. Then as now, the World Endurance Championship regular with the same team was paired with Earl Bamber, a driver familiar with all the circuits on the North American sportscar trail after his years as a Porsche factory driver.

“Earl was always my primary reference, and Laguna was the first track I’d been to that year where I was on his pace from the outset,” says Lynn, who put the Ganassi Caddy DPi-V.R third on the grid behind the two Acuras that went on to finish 1-2 in the race. “I thought, right, I’m there, okay this is going to be a good weekend, and it kind of just flowed from there.

“It was really a special time for me. After the previous race at Long Beach, I’d road-tripped around California with my girlfriend, taking in all the sights. I fell in love with everything about Laguna: it’s a special track and a special place — it’s beautiful — that holds some great memories for me.

“There’s a real flow to Laguna; it’s about the radius of the corners and the element of banking to a lot of them. And then you’ve got the fast section out the back leading up to the Corkscrew. The fast left, Turn 6, going up the hill before it is a proper corner.

The left-hander before the Corkscrew is a turn that Lynn singles out as a Laguna Seca highlight

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

“It’s quite a lift, and in quali trim with the ride height really low you’ve got a bit of touching, it’s tap, tap, tap with the splitter. You chuck it in hoping you are going to miss the sausage kerb on the apex. And then there’s no run-off on the exit. It’s definitely quite a challenge.

“Then you’ve got the Corkscrew... There are so many great corners at Laguna. The track feels fast in a prototype, so it must be crazy in an IndyCar.”