Today, I was at using Google Street View for work when I got a lil bored and decided to type in some local race tracks. Streets of Willow was my first attempt since I have actually been there. Unfortunately, it didn't work so I tried another nearby track: Laguna Seca (Mazda Speedway) up in Monterey. It worked! Super Cool! Not only do you get to move through every inch of the track but they even have names for all the straights and turns. Albeit, not all of them are cool (the back straight is simply called "straightaway"). The funnest part is that there are race cars flanking the camera van the entire time! 360 degree views of race cars, how sweet is that? It musta been a blast driving in that van that day followed by an entourage of porsches, corvettes, and those space ship prototype cars.
Apparently, the Google team was there on a race weekend w/ what appears to be the American Le Mans race. They don't just wander the entire track, but also capture all the walkways, the pit area, and paddock areas. There are a lot of strange looks at the camera vehicle as it passes through the visitor areas though. Kinda amusing. I get those looks all the time. You get used to it after a while.
Another interest find: Google uses tricycles to get the pedestrian areas. I wandered around the track long enough to see what it looks like through the shadow. Kinda dorky looking, but hey it gets the job done. Unfortunately, tracks like the Nurburgring, Fuji Speedway, or Silverstone Circuit are not available in street view... If anyone finds any other cool racetracks, please post in the comments!
