Grandstanding

In the past couple of weeks, a couple of Road Racer X readers have sent in reports on their recent experiences as race spectators—one at the Red Bull USGP and another at the soggy Donington MotoGP. We decided to post them here.

MotoGP is For Me!
By Karen Jenson
(Click here for Kevin Wehr's Donnington experience)

I was told that if you really want to see something fast , you have to go see MotoGP!  So I asked my hockey-head husband if he wanted to go to the Red Bull USGP with me a couple of weeks ago. “Well,” he said, “What I’d really like is to play in the Charles Schultz/Snoopy Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa the following week so how about if I watch the kids for you while you go to the USGP, and you watch them for me while I take a week for a hockey tournament. I agreed.

So I got my ticket and waited a couple more weeks before booking my room. Well, that wasn’t such a good idea, because I ended up paying $100 per night … to stay all the way up in Gilroy! With MotoGP sold out, prices were soaring for everything, and availability was limited.

Because my truck is old and gas is expensive, I decided to rent a car with which to make the trip, and I chose a sporty car whose rear window I adorned with a MotoGP sticker. I was ready and pumped up to hit the road and see some incredible racing.

I left early Friday morning. A friend had offered me a pit bike with which to get around the track, but because my chiropractor had said walking would do me some good (I’ve been recovering from a mysterious back problem for six weeks or so), I declined.

I cranked the music on the drive up, and with a triple-shot latte in hand, I was getting pretty hyped for MotoGP! Having not been on my bike in a while, I was going through withdrawals, as a parade of bike riders streamed past me, waving as they headed up to the race. Suddenly, my rental car didn’t seem so sporty.

The scene at my Applebee’s dinner that evening was all about the race, as everyone there seemed to be a motorcycle fan. I thought I had found an exception when the guy next to me asked to show me photos of his children on his mobile phone, but all six of the kids were pictured sitting on two-wheelers. Turns out he was from Georgia and had planned this trip for a long time. Unfortunately, he went from friendly to obnoxious the more he drank, and I had to call his son back at a campground to come pick him up, because his phone battery had gone dead as he tried to impress me with his pictures.

On Saturday, I awoke at 4 a.m., as I didn’t want to take a chance with a parking nightmare. I was the first customer at Starbucks, and I got a great spot in the parking lot, where I then sat for two hours and watched the show. No, not the race, but a river of bikes and cars. And what bikes! Helmets, too. I regard helmets like most women regard shoes, and there was an endless display of skid lids with cool colors and designs. I couldn’t get over it.

Before the AMA Superbike race, I was walking back to my car and talking with a few folks, when out of the blue, standing right in front of my ride was Mark from my motorcycle club, the Ventura County MC! Now I had someone with whom to watch the race. Mark had brought a mountain bike, and when my back eventually started aching, I decided to sit on a rack on the back, only to nearly cause a wipeout when I jumped off on a climb and caught my shorts on a bungee cord. Watching this race certainly entailed a lot of walking, and I was wishing I had brought my own pit bike.

At the end of the day, I was exhausted and trapped in the parking lot as bikes snaked all the cars at the exit. So we stayed parked and watched people and bikes. Still, there was good energy, and I didn’t see any fights or accidents. Mark stayed at the track in his truck that night, eating donated hamburgers and talking bikes with his neighbors. Meanwhile, I drove all the way back to Gilroy and was too tired to even eat dinner!

Sunday morning I did the same thing—first customer at “Fivebucks”, and off to Laguna! This time, I parked where I could see the track and the huge-screen display. It was a beautiful day, and you could even see the ocean from the parking lot. Mark showed up a while later, and it was another great day of amazing racing, with a record crowd. Helicopters were continuously flying fortunate people in and out.

MotoGP racing is beyond impressive, and it’s mesmerizing to watch. After American Nick Hayden won the race, excited fans stormed the track like in Spain or Italy! It made me want to go buy a street bike.

Leaving the track on Sunday took me three hours, but the people next to me were nice enough to offer some of their gourmet BBQ. I learned a lot for next year, when the race will run on July 23. For example, I want to get a campsite on turn 9 or 10 and bring a pit bike! Campsites are available starting September 1, which is marked on my calendar.