H&J were super keen to beat the rush so we headed out to the track at 8am. Laguna Seca is only about 15 miles from Monterey, but it felt like we rode for miles & miles around most of Fort Ord just to reach the entrance, then another long ride through Fort Ord to the free motorcycle parking – that too stretched endlessly. I reckon the whole of NZ’s defence force holdings would have easily fitted into one corner of Fort Ord. On the way, we passed hundreds of abandoned barracks that made the closure of the camp at Papakura rather insignificant.
The Americans are great at organising, shepherding large numbers of people & crowd control.
We grabbed a bite of brekkie then wandered the merchandising tents, wondering how many Moto GP t-shirts one person needs. I found some great biker sunglasses with foam padding that are excellent eye protection (wish I had those in the desert!) & we bought a dust cover for the bike too. Queued for quick lunch then joined a much longer queue to shuffle towards the track bridge, then shuffle over & make our way to our seats in the grandstand. What incredibly perfect seats we had! A stroke of luck from ordering over the internet. We were in the main stand, opposite the expensive hospitality suites, looking down onto the starting grid & finish line with big screen & pits in cear view. Even Tom & Katie came onto the track to give us a wave & nod of appreciation at our awesome spot.
The crowd was friendly & enthusiastic and the main race was superb as the top two contenders vied fiercely for the lead. We had the best view of the winners podium & other track entertainment – flybys, parachutists, biker stunts & of course, lots of scantily clad, leggy beauties! We couldn’t resist viewing the “corkscrew” up close so trekked across the crowded field & up the hill (ears popping again) to get a better perspective of this piece of track. Wow! The competitors have a steep climb then pop over the top “blind” before a rapid twisting descent that must be quite challenging. We had a wonderful view of the whole track from there.
Finally (& sadly) the day was over so we joined the orderly crowd back to our bikes. Again, the bikers rode in an orderly fashion off the camp & back to Monterey – we don’t see that behaviour at home. Late dinner & bed.