#lag89

Laguna Seca made its debut on the calendar the year before, and was met with widespread criticism for its poor facilities. Little had been done to doll up the Californian venue in the time between, with a bit of resurfacing the only change, while a pit complex was absent. As a result, teams were forced to operate out of tents as if they were racing a club event at Cadwell Park, rather than at a supposedly-world class circuit in one of the most prestigious championships in motorsport.

The weekend was to be farcical, and the tone had been set on the run-up to the event. A strike from air traffic control workers in Australia meant the paddock's machinery only arrived at Laguna Seca three days before practice was due to get underway.

Doomed From The Start

The 1989 USGP was, in retrospect, doomed from the start. The 1989 Grand Prix series featured an amazingly aggressive schedule—it listed a Grand Prix at Phillip Island on April 9, and the USGP on the very next weekend—April 16, meaning that the entire GP circus would have to get their men and machines from one hemisphere to the next and be ready to start practice in just five days time. Even in those pre-9/11 days, when customs officers would help a racer in need if you found the right one, shipping planeloads of crates from Sydney to San Francisco and having them out of customs and at the track in five days was an impossible goal.