The first two Grand Prix events to be held in the USA were at Daytona in 1964 and 1965. There was a 22-year gap before Grand Prix racing returned to the US – at the Laguna Seca circuit in 1988. With the exception of 1992, a Grand Prix event was hosted at Laguna Seca from 1988 to 1994. There was then a ten-year gap before the next Laguna Seca Grand Prix in 2005, and subsequently every year since.
This will be the thirteenth time that Grand Prix racing has taken place at the Laguna Seca circuit and below is a brief summary of the premier-class race at the previous twelve events:
1988 –Eddie Lawson (Yamaha) won the first 500cc GP at Laguna Seca from great rival Wayne Gardner and in third place was Niall Mackenzie who had been leading the race for the first 17 laps until he was passed by Lawson. Wayne Rainey, who finished fourth, had started on pole in only his second Grand Prix in the 500cc class.
1989 – American riders dominated the event with Wayne Rainey (Yamaha) taking victory in the 500cc race in front of Kevin Schwantz (Suzuki) and Eddie Lawson (Honda). This event is often remembered for the collision between Kevin Magee and Bubba Shobert on the cool down lap at the end of the race.
1990 – The race was stopped after four laps due to an accident to Kevin Magee, who suffered a head injury that ended his season. In the re-start Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz battled it out at the front until Schwantz crashed on lap 26, leaving Rainey to take a 30-second win from Mick Doohan.
1991 – Wayne Rainey won the 500cc race for the third year in succession; leading the race from start to finish having qualified on pole.
1993 – The Grand Prix returned to Laguna Seca after a year’s absence, with the race taking place just one week after Wayne Rainey had suffered career ending injuries in a crash at Misano. John Kocinski gave Cagiva their first ever dry-weather Grand Prix victory. Freddie Spencer failed to make the race after a crash during qualifying and never took part in Grand Prix racing again.
1994 – Luca Cadalora (Yamaha) became the first non-American to win the premier-class Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.
2005 – After an absence of ten years the Grand Prix returned to America and the home riders dominated once again with Nicky Hayden taking his first Grand Prix victory in front of Colin Edwards. This was also the first victory in the premier-class for Honda at the Laguna Seca circuit.
2006 – Nicky Hayden repeated his victory of the previous year on his way to becoming the first American rider to win a Grand Prix world championship on a four-stroke machine.
2007 – The event was dominated by Casey Stoner, who headed every practice session, started from pole and led the race from start to finish. This was the first GP victory for both Ducati and Bridgestone tyres at the Laguna Seca circuit. Chris Vermeulen finished second – the first podium finish for the Suzuki four-stroke MotoGP machine at Laguna Seca.
2008 – After a tremendous battle with Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) won for the first time in America and made it three different winning manu- facturers in three successive years at Laguna Seca.
2009 – Dani Pedrosa (Honda) got a great start from fourth place on the grid to take the lead at the first corner that he maintained to the end of the race to take the victory by just 0.344 seconds from Valentino Rossi who had closed the gap rapidly in the final few laps of the race.
2010 – Dani Pedrosa once again led at the first corner after a great start from fourth place on the grid. But this time he crashed on lap twelve at turn 5 when under pressure from Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) who went on to take a three and half second victory from Casey Stoner.
