Sea Slaughter

Laguna Seca.
Man does that name bring back memories. This is the first time I had been to Sea Otter. I have heard about it from day one, if not before. Seems to me I was reading
about it long before they say it's been around but at my age...well, the memory apparently isn't what it used to be.
So anyway, this was the first Otter. It was pretty much what I expected it to be,
although I was impressed with the amount of cars in the parking lots on Sunday. Of
course, when I've been there previously the parking is where the expo was and on the
hill where the short track was as well, so there may not have been any more folks than usual.
OK, OK, back to the story...When I was a wee little one my dad raced a Lotus 7 and one of the tracks he raced on was Laguna Seca. It was different then as the hairpin
wasn't there; it was a left hand sweeper that swung around to where the hill starts
after the start-finish, so for autos, you would be screaming fast approaching the hill. I saw many "firsts" there as a kid...Sterling Moss making his only appearance
in a Lotus Elite (or was it an Elan? I was really young), Carol Shelby debuting the
King Cobra, Jim Hall debuting the Chapperal ( that was the one that introduced the wing on the back )and a few others as well.

When I was a young adult, my brother raced, among other things, Porches at Laguna.
There I saw Mario Andretti race in a Can Am car for the first time, Gene Hackman
(the actor) roll a Datsun(?) just past where the hairpin is now, (that sweeping left
hander), and a much younger Paul Newman in the Bob Sharp Datsun 240Z. My older bro'
would kill him every time!

Then, about six years or so ago, Micah and I would go down there and watch the American Le Mans boys in their factory sponsored Porches, Vetts', Ferarri's, Audi's
Beemers and so on. Always camped in the same spot overlooking the course, which is the same spot we camped in at Otter.

So then Micah starts bike racing and his coach Mel says that the juniors are going to
Sea Otter to race. And he does. And each year he gets better. But I have to work every time and can't make it. Except this year I'm able to get the time off.
So this is it: My dad raced that course, my brother raced that course and my son has
raced that course. This leaves me no option, I MUST race that course. So I did. And I
finished. Right behind the only other 55 plus guy in the 40 plus race. AND we finished ahead of a fair amount of younger 40 plus dudes, even though we were dropped
on the first climb and lapped by the field. But I raced it and that was all that mattered, and I can now boast that there are no more males in the Herman family that
haven't raced Laguna Seca, and that's a good thing.

One last note. There's no need to go into the weather as everyone knows about it. BUT, I must
say that the Pro women were right after my race so I was at the start when the rains came. So
as I turn to leave who should be behind me straddling a Schwinn Stingray with plastic flowers
in the basket on the handlebars but none other that Mike Hernandez! I look up an him and just
about fell over...that just really made my day! The only thing missing was the bumble bee outfit!