Friday at The Races – MotoGP 2008

Friday was the start of the races. I opted out of watching some of the qualifiers and ran some errands for things I had forgotten. Dropped by REI, Target & Best Buy. I failed to pack any T-shirts, toothpaste, or a headset to talk on Skype with (I had intended to get a little work done on the down time). I also figured out that if you buy a Starbucks gift card you can get 2 hours of free internet a day. Not too shabby (Again, thought I would get some work done).

Kevin and Karen

I grabbed some lunch and thought “Hmm, Santa Cruz BMW is close” So I hopped on the bike to head up there. It was about 14 miles away up in Watsonville. On the way up Kevin called so I pulled over on an onramp to talk to him for a few minutes. In the three minutes we talked about nine CHP on motorcycles went by. As I discovered five minutes up the road they were staging for a speed trap. There were between six and ten CHP sitting on the backside of the ramp with one on top of the bridge radaring people. DOH!

Rolled up to Santa Cruz BMW and took a look around. My only complaint about my GS is I get a lot of turbulance off the stock windscreen. And, non of the San Diego dealers have aftermarket ones laying around the shop. But! SCBMW did! So, I looked at a couple, picked one out. They graciously offered to ship my stock one back to house after I took it off my bike. There was the trick. I left my tools back at camp. Their service department wouldn’t let me borrow any. And all their tools on the sales floor were off at the BMW rally in Gillete Wyoming. Fortunately I begged tools off a fellow rider who was fixing his bike in the parking lot.

Price's foo foo drink

Motored back on down to the racetrack to meet Kevin and Karen when they arrived. Pretty mellow ride back watching for speed traps along the way. Rolled into camp and waited around for about 30 minutes and K2 showed up. Helped them get their camp setup and we set off to grab some food down on Cannery Row. We parked the bikes and did the obligatory walk down and back looking at all the bikes. Amazing some of the stuff people will do. The pumpkin bike stood out the most to me.

Dinner turned into a mass meal event. Everyone we were camping with showed up five minutes after us and sat down with and next to us. We of course had to help Price get his foo-foo drink. And the heckling amongst friends ensued.

Then, we were all off to a good nights sleep. (Except me, I forgot my ear plugs)

Saturday at The Races

Edwards in Turn 3

Saturday we watched some of the preliminary races and checked out the vendor booths. Kevin was quick to point out that I have the same pumpkin tent as Charlie and Ewan have in Long Way Down. Wasn’t planned that way, it was on super sale at REI. Watching some of the races I fell asleep up above turn 1 for a while. Then Kevin and Karen went to go watch the last race of the day from the Grand Stands. I found Bill and gang and was given an extra super paddock pass! Then went up to the turn 4 Grand Stands to watch the last two races of the day. Pretty laid back day over all. For dinner we went to Fisherman’s Wharf and had Italian food.

Race Day – Sunday

Sunday is the day of the big race. We planned to leave right after the GP race so we got up and packed up our campsites. Kevin and Karen had paid for Grand Stand seats so they went off to get their good seats while I wandered around looking for a good spot to watch. On the way up the Corkscrew I ran into Oz and Sully with a few of their friends. They had an extra ticket for the turn 4 Grand Stands so I chilled with them and watched the Red Bull Challenge racers and the final GP race.

The Red Bull Challenge races are pretty cool. Basically they and KTM setup teenagers with a bike a gear and they get to travel and race around the USA. Very nice!  I also got within 10 feet of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards!

The GP race was very exciting. I’m not going to bore you with the details. Either you like racing and watched it, or don’t and don’t care. Rossi and Stoner put on a great first half. Very exciting indeed! Afterwards we headed back to the bikes and geared up to hit the road. We were originally going to drop Karen off in Bakersfield then move on to Kernville. That plan didn’t make much sense as we wanted to complete an Iron Butt the next day. So, we got to Bakersfield and all stayed in the hotel to get a good nights rest. I have to admit, I’ve been eating so little fast food the Carl’s Jr we had for dinner killed my gut.

Next installment. Iron Butt Run or Not?

The Photoalbum