Laguna Seca Raceway, located between Salinas and Monterey, CA, is a great all-round race circuit. The sight lines for the fans are wide and undulating. The track is relatively safe. The layout is interesting for both riders and fans. It has the one great corner -- the Corkscrew -- every superlative course requires. Laguna also looks good on television, unlike some of the bowl tracks with their empty seats and monolithic concrete walls.

Dan Murphy's production companies, first FAST and now RACE, have promoted the Laguna Seca WSC races with success. The combined WSC/AMA format has been popular with fans. Although the future of WSC has dimmed the pairing somewhat, big crowds where present for last year's event, which also hosted the first AMA Supermoto race.

While the history of the Laguna races might not be as rich as the Daytona 200, but motorcycle racing at Laguna is a proud one. There are several recent WSC races which must be considered classics, like Bayliss v. Edwards, the Vance and Hines surprise and Gobert and Kocinski squaring off. King Kenny, Lawson, Spencer, Schwantz, and Rainey all raced (and won) at the Laguna Seca.

Some believe Superbike racing sprang from some production races held at Laguna, the first of which was won by Yvon DuHamel.

Infrastructure has been the weakest part of the Laguna equation. WSC teams have decried the lack of permanent garages and the track responded by building new garages with suites. The press corps have been housed in a large tent the past few years.

The new track in Birmingham was created to be the best in America but only time well tell if George Barber's racing Mecca can manage to wrest the crown from Laguna.