MotoGP 2008 - Laguna Seca - Monterey, CA
I had a blast this past weekend at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix in Monterey, Calfornia (whew that was a mouthful there).
Prior to the event, I had got in touch with a couple of people from BARF to join a carpool down to the raceway. So pretty much all I did was buy a new sleeping bag and some snacks and off I go. I drove to Hayward to meet up with Hideki and Jason at Hidek's parents house. After getting our stuffs together we headed down to Monterey, woohoo~! The traffic wasn't really that bad so it was all good.
Saturday
We reached the campgrounds at around 11:00 p.m. so it was hella dark and most of the people had already gone to sleep. So we quietly set up the base camp using my cellphone as a
flashlight. The tent was surprisingly easy to set up. We didn't do much so we just ended up
sleeping right after. The next morning (which was 4 hours laters), we all got up to get ready for the morning
meeting. Ugh, I was still sleepy and groggy but work is work and I'm also partly excited getting there.
Morning meeting was actually brief and just told us to meet up with our Turn Marshals for
further instructions. In order to get to our stations we had to ride this truck called the
Dragon (Drag-On Wagon, get it?)
I met Doug the turn marshall for Turn 4 and he's pretty cool old guy. He's been doing this for a few years so it's cool. Then I met a couple of guys who seems to be the pranksters of the crew, Paul and Price. But it sure did lighten up my nervousness of doing such as this for the first time. So after a quick duty rundowns between and introduction, things were starting off pretty good. Morning inspection: it's FREAKING FOGGY. I can't even see the
guys at the next turn. But all we did was just stand on the edge of the track, be standing like soldiers with our equipment at our sides.
So that was done and each racing class started doing the practice laps starting with the
MotoGP and then the AMA.
It went like that pretty much the whole day just the qualifying after the practice. At the end of the day, the USARM decided to give us a nice BBQ feast and free beer as a reward for doing such a "good" job. How cool is that?
Sunday
Race day. I'm freaking even more nervous because unlike a practice or the qualifying rounds, these racers are going all out and anything can happen in such a highly competitive level such as the MotoGP. Same thing as Saturday, morning meetings and inspection. Of course, just like in a high profile boxing match, MotoGP race does not start until the lower classes give a performance of their own. It started off with the U.S. Red Bull Rookies Cup. It's basically for 13-16 year olds to race 125cc bikes. It doesn't sound much but these kids are hungry for some win. The most notable that happened in this one is the neck-to-neck kind of race of these two kids to the finish line. It's really hard to describe it in words but I'll definitely remember this for sure.
MotoGP:
The pinnacle of motorcycle racing complete with super fast athletic races, the most powerful and most expensive bikes in the entire world, entirely customized and there I was working for such an event. It kicks teh asses o__o
Casey Stoner of Ducati and Valentino Rossi from Yamaha were going neck to neck with this race and I thought the Rookies cup was exciting. Rossi did a bit of off road to get ahead of Stoner. However during the final laps, Stoner had too much of a wide turn and ended up on the gravel. Rossi then just won the entire race from there on by finishing the rest of the race.
What a great day. I got some souvenirs to commemorate the event and I think I'll come back
again next year.
Prior to the event, I had got in touch with a couple of people from BARF to join a carpool down to the raceway. So pretty much all I did was buy a new sleeping bag and some snacks and off I go. I drove to Hayward to meet up with Hideki and Jason at Hidek's parents house. After getting our stuffs together we headed down to Monterey, woohoo~! The traffic wasn't really that bad so it was all good.
Saturday
We reached the campgrounds at around 11:00 p.m. so it was hella dark and most of the people had already gone to sleep. So we quietly set up the base camp using my cellphone as a
flashlight. The tent was surprisingly easy to set up. We didn't do much so we just ended up
sleeping right after. The next morning (which was 4 hours laters), we all got up to get ready for the morning
meeting. Ugh, I was still sleepy and groggy but work is work and I'm also partly excited getting there.
Morning meeting was actually brief and just told us to meet up with our Turn Marshals for
further instructions. In order to get to our stations we had to ride this truck called the
Dragon (Drag-On Wagon, get it?)
I met Doug the turn marshall for Turn 4 and he's pretty cool old guy. He's been doing this for a few years so it's cool. Then I met a couple of guys who seems to be the pranksters of the crew, Paul and Price. But it sure did lighten up my nervousness of doing such as this for the first time. So after a quick duty rundowns between and introduction, things were starting off pretty good. Morning inspection: it's FREAKING FOGGY. I can't even see the
guys at the next turn. But all we did was just stand on the edge of the track, be standing like soldiers with our equipment at our sides.
So that was done and each racing class started doing the practice laps starting with the
MotoGP and then the AMA.
It went like that pretty much the whole day just the qualifying after the practice. At the end of the day, the USARM decided to give us a nice BBQ feast and free beer as a reward for doing such a "good" job. How cool is that?
Sunday
Race day. I'm freaking even more nervous because unlike a practice or the qualifying rounds, these racers are going all out and anything can happen in such a highly competitive level such as the MotoGP. Same thing as Saturday, morning meetings and inspection. Of course, just like in a high profile boxing match, MotoGP race does not start until the lower classes give a performance of their own. It started off with the U.S. Red Bull Rookies Cup. It's basically for 13-16 year olds to race 125cc bikes. It doesn't sound much but these kids are hungry for some win. The most notable that happened in this one is the neck-to-neck kind of race of these two kids to the finish line. It's really hard to describe it in words but I'll definitely remember this for sure.
MotoGP:
The pinnacle of motorcycle racing complete with super fast athletic races, the most powerful and most expensive bikes in the entire world, entirely customized and there I was working for such an event. It kicks teh asses o__o
Casey Stoner of Ducati and Valentino Rossi from Yamaha were going neck to neck with this race and I thought the Rookies cup was exciting. Rossi did a bit of off road to get ahead of Stoner. However during the final laps, Stoner had too much of a wide turn and ended up on the gravel. Rossi then just won the entire race from there on by finishing the rest of the race.
What a great day. I got some souvenirs to commemorate the event and I think I'll come back
again next year.