Blog: MotoGP on the Cheap, Part 2

A few hours later, with qualifying all done, The All-American Rejects were about to get on stage to do a concert. Before they got on stage, Colin Edwards was shooting T-shirts out of a gun.

When he got off, everyone started cheering because the band came on, but I said, “To hell with the band—I’m going to run around back to see if I can catch Colin before he leaves!” I ran around and through a whole crowd of people, and by the time I was getting around the back of the stage, I could see Colin signing a few last autographs and getting in the car.

I got there just as the car door was closing and the security guard pushed me out of nowhere and said, “No more autographs!” Colin saw it, and he opened up the door and told the guard that he wanted to autograph something for me. I passed him my hat, wished him luck, and thanked him a bunch for the autograph. Colin was great about it and just happens to be my little brother’s favorite, so I was really happy to get that autograph.

The next day, I tried to get a good seat at the Corkscrew to watch the race, but there was no room. I tried to get a ticket for the grandstands, but they were all sold out, so I ended up watching the race close to Turn 1 (the kink in the main straightaway). It was awesome watching Hayden kick butt again and do his victory dance, but it wasn’t cool watching Rossi park his bike on the side of the track after his engine blew.

All in all, it was another great MotoGP race, and again people started leaving right afterward. Not me. I stayed around and watched the rest of the racing, with the AMA classes. Before I left the track, I made sure to borrow a marker and make another cardboard sign with “San Jose Airport” written on it. I watched cars go by, one after the other, and no one stopped (although Marco Melandri and his crew drove by and gave me a wave, which was pretty cool).

I decided to catch a shuttle bus out of the track to a parking area and try my luck there. I was on the last bus with the last group of people, and no one was going my way…except the last two guys. They both lived in San Jose and told me that I could stay at one of their houses that night and I’d get a ride to the airport in the morning. We went to KFC for dinner, and they hooked me up with some food while I answered all of their questions regarding MotoGP, AMA, and racing in general.

We finally got to one of their houses, and one guy left to go to his house. The other guy set up an inflatable mattress for me and offered me a shower, which i gladly took. I later found out that they had showers at the track and felt even worse for all the people that had to sit next to me on the plane, bus, car, not only that year, but the previous one as well. I must have smelled really, really funky after an entire weekend out in the sun, walking up and down and all around the track.

The next morning, I got a ride to the airport. The guy giving me the ride was going be late for work from giving me the ride, but he called the office and told a little white lie about how his dishwasher had blown up and spilled water all over the place. His lateness was excused, and I flew back happy, yet sad knowing it would be a very, very long time before I would be able to see another race. All in all, it was a great experience.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to my stories.

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