By 1956, the annual Pebble Beach Road Races had become a fixture on the SCCA calendar, both as a racing and social event. From very humble beginnings in 1950, the event had grown in stature and, by 1956, was attracting close to 50,000 spectators along with racing entries from around the country. There were, however, some very serious problems concerning driver and spectator safety.
A tragedy at LeMans in June 1955 had made every racing organisation more aware of the need for spectator and track safety and it was in these areas that there was serious cause for concern regarding the Pebble Beach circuit. When the San Francisco region of the SCCA took a close look at track and spectator safety, some major questions arose. Spectators were much too close to the circuit and there was no safety area between the circuit and the many pine trees and drainage ditches that lined the road. The lighting conditions in the forest, the quality of the road surface, the width of the circuit, and the lack of escape roads were all very serious questions that needed to be immediately addressed. In spite of the potential for disaster, the races went on as planned in April 1956. It didn't take long for reality to set in. In the practice session, Warren Frinchabey left the road at Turn 3 and hit a tree. It took over an hour to free him from his Triumph TR-3 which was nearly split in half by the impact of the crash. Frinchabey suffered major injuries but survived the accident. On Sunday, during the main event, well-known driver Ernie McAfee left the course at high speed and hit another tree, killing him instantly. That tree was all that stopped McAfee's Ferrari 121 LM from careering into an area crowded with spectators. It was decided that the Pebble Beach circuit was no longer safe to continue racing on and that a new site needed to be found if the Monterey area was to continue hosting racing events. As one competitor commented after the race, "It became a case of too much car and not enough race course".
The popularity of the races and the financial impact on the community had impressed the military authorities at Fort Ord and they expressed interest in picking up where Pebble Beach left off. Running races on military reservations was nothing new since road racing and drag races had been taking place at Air Force and Navy bases since the early 1950's. The Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP) was a group of civic minded businessmen who were willing to donate their time and money in an effort to keep sports car racing alive in the Monterey area. In mid 1957, they began negotiations with the Army to build a race track and a site at Laguna Seca was selected. Lou Gold, the first president of SCRAMP, and his group, negotiated a five year deal and paid $3,000.00 to the Army for use of the land. The lease was signed on August 7, 1957, but several hitches developed, however, and it wasn't until the first week of September that track construction could begin. While the lease negotiations were proceeding, other members of the SCRAMP organisation began the process of raising the $125,000 that it would take to construct the new track. After some tough bargaining the money was raised and construction was started during the first week of September 1957. The track was completed a mere 60 days later, just in time for the first race to be held on November 9 and 10. A remarkable feat by any standards. When Major General W.M. Brackenridge cut the ribbon on the new facility, 35,000 spectators and 100 entries had showed up. The success of this inaugural race sealed the future of the Laguna Seca race track.
