Superfan: Chuck’s MMP Blog, Part 1

By Chuck Forquer

Day 1
AJ and I arrived in Salt Lake on Wednesday. My VIP for the weekend, Mom, picked us up from the airport around noon. Mom’s an LDS member (i.e., a Mormon), so for her to visit Utah and see a World Superbike race was the equivalent of “doing the double.”

So our first stop? The bar of course! No, we weren’t going there to have a Guinness, but we did have some business to attend to. With all the hard work that the SBK racers and crew put in over the weekend, we wanted to make sure they had a place to get together and unwind Sunday night. We snapped a few pics, talked to the manager, and presto…the party was set!

Our next stop was Miller Motorsports Park. We took a quick trip through the late Larry Miller’s incredible museum and drooled all over the Cobras and GT40s. This experience is more than just cars; there’s vintage memorabilia to check out as well. Can you imagine lapping MMP in a GT40 MK IV?

Coming to the track early is a really fun experience. You get to see all kinds of things that aren’t possible on race day. Teams and crew are busy assembling bikes and setting up their garages. Jonathan Rea was learning the track by jogging with his buddy. Shakey Byrne’s race bikes were fully assembled, and others were in so many pieces, I couldn’t tell what make they were. Riyuchi Kiyonari chatted away with Ronald Ten Kate, and there were many more familiar faces strolling around. Having my buddy AJ there was like bringing a kid to the candy store. One second he’s standing next to you, the next he’s over the start-finish line waiving the checkered flag!

The evening was relatively tame by our standards, as we checked out the sites in Salt Lake. Race weekends are so full of events that you must do your site seeing while you can. In Milan about a month ago, I spent a whopping four hours checking out the city, and the rest of the time was at the Monza track! Although Salt Lake City doesn’t emit the same sort of class that Monterey did years back, it’s really nice to see families walking the streets with big smiles.

Day 2
After a good night’s sleep, AJ, Mom, and I head straight to the track on Thursday morning. You’re greeted with huge flags, and the official SBK pace car was parked right next to us. It’s crunch time now because the bikes will be on the track tomorrow. We spent the day figuring out how and where to place our banners in the final corner, which is named “Release.” An MMP worker named Todd stopped by in a golf cart. We tried to get some input regarding the placement and height of our banners. Todd shrugged us off and told us that no banners were allowed by the sanctioning body, while his buddy laughed at us. Since I’m not a racer, I figured the rules didn’t apply to me and we pressed on!

The local festivities started at the Utah State capitol building. There was the meet-and-greet with many of the top racers, and a few words by the Lt. Governor. Right before it began, the Utah Jazz mascot was hopping on motorcycles! Noriyuki Haga watched the bear a bit and was probably wondering what was going on, but he made the mistake of turning back around and continuing his conversation. The bear came from behind and scared poor Haga-san half to death!

After the meet-and-greet, the riders hopped into their leathers and rode their actual superbikes down from the capitol building down to the Biker Bash at the local sports arena. I couldn’t stay for the fun, as my other friends Morgan, Rome, and Misa were arriving that evening. Morgan and I drove out to Bobby Dahl’s house (bassist for the band Poison) and borrowed his truck. We’re all on a tight budget here, so we do what we can to cut costs. Bobby would have come to the race with us, but was gearing up for a tour with Def Leppard. Rome and Misa landed really late and went straight out to dinner with Nori, Yukio Kagayama, and Toshi (Nori’s manager). We spent the remainder of our evening in the lounge of our hotel with our friends and many key players such as the Pirelli guys and Ann Asiano of Umbrella girls USA.

Chuck Forquer is one of the most rapid road racing fans we know. Stay tuned for his account of race weekend.