2007 MotoGP Laguna Seca

July 2007

What a difference a year makes.  I think that phrase sums up my experience at the 2007 U.S. GP.  Last year's temps were over 100 degrees, this year they were in the low to mid 70s with a cool breeze.  Last year I went to this event alone, this year my gal tagged along.  Last year Nicky Hayden won the U.S. GP, this year he didn't even finish the race due to an incident in turn two of the first lap with John Hopkins. 

I met up with the same group of people as last year, as well as a few new ones, and it was good to see everyone again.  Frank, the host, again exceeded every expectation with great food from steak and ribs (tri tip) to stuffed salmon.  Every detail was covered and I really can't even call this camping.  It was more like an outdoor resort!    

We arrived Wednesday afternoon and there weren't very many people to contend with.  However, by Saturday the place was jam packed.  Luckily we got all our souvenir shopping done on Friday before the masses arrived.  By Saturday afternoon what normally took 20 minutes to walk would take 2 hours due to the flood of people.

We tried to do most of our site seeing on Thursday.  We made our way over to assist Sandro from Galfer just like last year.  He's a super nice guy and had a ton of stuff to unload.  Once we finished that up, we went over and took a look around the pit area and found the gate to the track unguarded.  I couldn't help but venture out to the Repsol timing booth. 

Look at all of these wheels.  Some were marked specifically "Nicky Hayden wet".  Interesting that they had a specific wet race wheel. 

Thursday is more laid back and you see more of the riders out and about as there are fewer spectators around mobbing them.  We saw Hopper, Spies, and I believe Checa going for a morning bike ride on our way through the AMA pits.  It bothered me that Renee' wore that Yamaha hat, but one of the mechanics at Barber had given it to her so I guess it was a little special.  At least she didn't have on her Rossi tank top.

	Renee' with Ben Spies and a couple of folks from our church in Middle Tennessee Mike and Trish.  We bumped in to them while wandering around in the pits.

Colin Edwards was running around throwing out Yamaha ball caps, and Jeremy Burgess, Rossi's chief engineer, was signing autographs.

On the way back to the site, we stopped by the Repsol tent to say hello to Ignacio.  Here he is with Renee' and his Repsol 1000RR and some of the other Repsol 1000RR bikes on display.

Friday we just goofed off and ate a lot.  Saturday we watched the GP qualifying.  The top of Frank's motor home provided a nice unimpeded view of the track.  Frank, Chris, and I were more comfortable under the shade of the pop up.  Stoner was on pole with a record setting pace followed by Pedrosa and Vermeulen.  You can see the Repsol Hospitality viewing area to the right of the of the leader board.

Then we went for a walk down to Ducati Island.  I gotta tell ya, compared to Honda's little hospitality tent, Ducati looked like a 5 star resort.  Honda had a guard watching over a bowl of apples, bananas, mints, and an igloo cooler of water complete with Dixie cups.  That was "SPECIAL" treatment for HRCA members, which I happen to be.  Needless to say, very disappointing.  However Ducati had a DJ, served breakfast and lunch, very cool viewing areas, tons of little freebies, etc.  Honda could take some pointers.  I'm not so much into "gimmes" but Ducati looked like they really appreciated their customers.

Ducati had this Desmosedici RR on display.  It's the closest thing the public can buy to a bonafide MotoGP machine.  The sticker price, $72,500.  I'll take 2 please.

I've been looking around at new bikes and this 1098 really caught my eye.

Renee' and I stopped by the Repsol tent to say hello and chatted with my favorite umbrella girl, Stacy.  She's now started her own track day company, which I thought quite cool.  You gotta love a girl friend that insists you get a picture with the umbrella girl haha.

Saturday night we headed down to Cannery Row in Monterey.  We took a nice walk along the bay and enjoyed some of the local deserts.

There was a large party sponsored by Repsol at one of the local Mexican restaurants on Cannery Row.  They had a row of 2005 and a row of 2007 model Repsol 1000RRs.  A couple of the Repsol umbrella gals were also running around.  There was this other girl crawling all over people's bikes and I gotta tell ya........she lacked class.  I was glad she wasn't in a Repsol outfit, but alas there were some goof balls taking pictures of her.

Once into Cannery Row it was like a large party.  People were everywhere.  Back in TN I don't see a lot of people wearing vests with Motorcycle Club logos, but we saw them all over here.  There were some very unique names.

Ducati even had a special party for it's owners down on Cannery Row with dinner and drinks and a DJ.  I'm quite impressed with the way they treat their owners.

On race day the track was cram packed with people.  They were announcing attendance somewhere in the 150,000 range.  Needless to say I avoided the vendor areas like the plague.  Casey Stoner had looked good all weekend, but Nicky was 4th on the grid so we were hopeful.  The $99,000 BMW M6 safety car was doing laps and the exhaust on that thing sounded killer.  Even the corner workers seemed hypnotized by it's sweet melody.  Minutes before the race some sky divers plunged into the infield.

Randy Mamola was doing hot laps on the two seater Ducati GP bike as well.  That was something to see.  I'm still amazed he wheelies out of corners and slides the rear with a passenger on the back.

We all had a lot of anticipation when the race started, but seeing Hayden and Hopper come together in the second turn of the first lap put a damper on things.  Then Stoner opened up a substantial lead on Pedrosa and just kept motoring and won the race with nearly a 10 second lead.  Vermeulen and Melandri rounded out the podium spots.

One of the highlights of our trip was when Earl Hayden, Nicky's father, approached us in the San Jose airport on our return trip home.  Renee' had some Nicky banners in her lap and Earl walked up and said "Well hello young lady, what are those?".  I asked to take a picture with him and once we had done that Earl asked to take a picture with Renee' hahaha.  He autographed my banner and we chatted about racing, traveling, and he introduced us to some of his other family.  The Haydens are just all around down to earth people.

We had a great time and I was thankful the weather was nice.  I'm disappointed the Americans didn't do better at their home GP, but that's racing.  I think Bridgestone may have found something in their rubber formulations as the bikes running those tires seem to be really doing well this year.

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