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Turn 5 (Sweeper)
Turn 5 has two forms of compressions to add grip and help ‘catch’ the car. The corner is banked and the road changes from flat to uphill. Both of these greatly increase grip of the car and if used effectively, it will slingshot your car up the hill to Turn 6.
On the infield straight, bring the car back to the right side of the road to line up with the turn-in curbing and brake reference points on the right side of the road. Find a brake reference point, (usually around the 3-4 board) and brake in a straight line. Turn-in early with really slow hands as you get down to the apex. Turn 5 is a late apex so it is important to still be on the apex curbing on the last ¼ of the curbing, but you can get your wheels on the curb as early as the first 1/3. Since it's important to get a good exit to get up the hill, having the car turned and picking up full throttle as soon as you can (and being able to keep full throttle once you've gone there) is very important.
If your car is too loud, the sound station is on driver’s right at track-out. It’s a small wooden building/hut that measures how loud your car is. If you cannot angle your exhaust to the left and if you are well above and beyond the sound limit, just lift and cruise up the hill from Turn 5 to 6. It’s better than losing an entire day. The fog/marine layer seems to make the problem worse. Cars that won’t pass in the foggy mornings occasionally are fine in the afternoon once the marine layer clears out. A tip: Angling your exhaust 90* to the left isn’t always the best because the wall on the left tends to echo the sound right back to the sound station. 45* down or up to the left seems to be the best option.
Turn 6
Turn 6 is one of the hardest corners on the track and has claimed a lot of cars on its inside “Rainbow Wall” before they widened the Rahal Straight and pushed back the wall a good 20 feet. It is still a difficult corner with a dip at the apex that leads you up a very steep hill.
Find a good brake reference point. This will be very important in terms of consistent entry speeds and turn-in points. Trail off the brakes and once you can see the apex curbing (and red ‘bread box’), turn in and pick up the throttle. In lower powered cars, go to full throttle right at turn-in. In higher powered cars, pick up throttle at turn-in and make sure to be full throttle AT OR BEFORE the apex/dip in the road. The most common mistake for Turn 6 is being off throttle when hitting the dip at the apex. This compression at the apex greatly increases grip in the car. If you are off throttle, weight is transferred to the front of the car and front grip is increased while the rear of the car is light. When hitting the compression off throttle, this increased front grip makes the car turn extremely well and can rotate into an oversteer. The car can snap and spin to the left side of the road, and would often end up in the wall prior to the widening of the track. But don’t let the wider track fool you. Doing this corner wrong can still put you in the wall on the inside of Turn 6. This is by far the most common and costly mistake at Laguna Seca.
It is crucial to be accelerating when hitting this compression so that weight and grip is on the rear of the car. Having weight shifted to the rear makes the front of the car light and thus more stable when hitting this apex. If you run out of track at the exit, then you probably turned in too early. If you are forced to drop tires on the exit, it is crucial to just let the car drop 2 tires (or even 4) and slowly ease the car back on the road in a straight line. The runoff room on the right does run out and the wall comes up quick, but it’s important not to panic and yank the car back to the left which can cause a hook-spin and a trip into the wall on the left.
Turn 7 (Rahal Straight)
After tracking out of Turn 6, most people are determined to yank the car over to the left side of the track. After using the track-out curbing, stay on the right side of the road and follow it up the hill. The road will bend to the left then bend back to the right and set you up on the left side of the road on the proper line. This used to be a lot more crucial before they changed the track and the severity of the crest. Once lined up on the left side of the road, the crest is still blind despite the rounding-off of the top. All you can see at this point is the sky and the curbing on the left (where you should have the car positioned) and the curbing on the right. Turn-in from the left side curbing, aim to the right, and brake just before the crest; then apex on the right as you crest the hill.
