U.S. GP Laguna Seca - MotoGP
For those of you who missed last weekend's MotoGP round at Laguna Seca, you missed some spectacular racing. Last weekend saw AMA racing from the Superbike, Superstock, and Supersport classes, plus the first time ever MotoGP has come to the U.S. (and even SuperKart racing). Yes, it was packed, especially, as expected, on Sunday with the big MotoGP race. I've been to Laguna Seca several times watching AMA races and have never seen this many people...even the Saturday crowd was the largest I've seen. There was reportedly over 200,000 people with both Saturday and Sunday tickets being sold out. But getting to see Nicky Hayden take pole and win his first ever MotoGP race here at home was great.
My favorite spot was near turn 4, near the Dunlop bridge. Watching the MotoGP bikes come around turn 4 (I wore ear plugs being that close to the muffler-less MotoGP bikes), every bike sliding the rear as they came around, watching the bikes wiggle as the riders stood the bike up and rolled on the gas...spinning up the rear tires and shooting towards turn 5. Awesome. Yes, the corkscrew is also a great place to watch, but I think I've spent too much time around the corkscrew crowds and I'm looking for some other action.
There was a lot of action in the pits. Laguna Seca has a new area for the MotoGP pits. The vendor area had the big 4 Japanese motorcycle manufacturers giving away ear plugs, shirts, hats and other stuff along with signings from Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Max Biaggi, Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke, and more.
I heard a 5 year deal was signed with Dorna, the company which manages MotoGP, to bring MotoGP back to Laguna Seca. I can't wait.
My favorite spot was near turn 4, near the Dunlop bridge. Watching the MotoGP bikes come around turn 4 (I wore ear plugs being that close to the muffler-less MotoGP bikes), every bike sliding the rear as they came around, watching the bikes wiggle as the riders stood the bike up and rolled on the gas...spinning up the rear tires and shooting towards turn 5. Awesome. Yes, the corkscrew is also a great place to watch, but I think I've spent too much time around the corkscrew crowds and I'm looking for some other action.
There was a lot of action in the pits. Laguna Seca has a new area for the MotoGP pits. The vendor area had the big 4 Japanese motorcycle manufacturers giving away ear plugs, shirts, hats and other stuff along with signings from Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden, Max Biaggi, Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke, and more.
I heard a 5 year deal was signed with Dorna, the company which manages MotoGP, to bring MotoGP back to Laguna Seca. I can't wait.
Finally found an image of the 3 podium winners together to preserve the memory, and it's a 3 foot tall painting. You can see it at:
http://www.owenartstudios.com/pg_kings.html it's pretty cool over my sofa.
The AMA races were actually better but didn't sound as neat. The Yellow Yamahas were awesome.
--Jimmy
Posted by Jimmy Bow on September 10, 2005 at 05:12 PM PDT #
Posted by Darryl on September 12, 2005 at 07:53 AM PDT #