Well the first day of the USGP weekend is over, and an American took advantage of the home track knowledge putting in the fastest lap of the day. Nicky threw down a 1:24:228 in the second practice session.

It was interesting at best to watch the pack (for the most part) take to a new track. It was an eye opener to see these riders learn a rather technical track as quickly as they did.

We showed up early to the track to miss out on as much traffic as we could. Since I ended up with a VIP parking pass, I was granted access to the main entrance (as I will all weekend). This is nice, as the main entrance will be for shuttles, deliveries, and VIP parking passes. This will cut down on the amount of traffic I will need to deal with each morning.

Within five minutes of parking, I ran into a tuner that works on my RS250. He was there working for a 250 shifter kart racer. They are doing a "Race Of Champions" during the weekend which are 250cc 2-stroke race bike engines put into karts. These things are insane fast. Roland also worked for Rothmans Honda in 94, so he has some knowledge about 2-strokes.

Walked through the vendor area, and the manufactures row. Honda had Freddie Spencer's NSR500 from 85, as well as Doohans NSR500 from 95. Those bikes were absolutely amazing. Definitely not "show" bikes, these were the real things I am guessing.

Yamaha has Rainey's 500, as well as Lawson's 500 from early 90's. Not as impressive as the NSR500's, but still nice to look at. Suzuki has Kenny Roberts Jr's RGV500 from 01 under their tent. That thing was really nice. The expansion chambers are really cool with all the hand welds.

Onto the MotoGP practice. Started out in the turn 4 grand stands watching the riders learn the flat turn 3/4 area. You could tell most of them were not liking it. The riders who had spent time on the track were much faster right off the bat. After watching this section for a while, we decided to walk up through turn 5, and 6 area. By this time the riders were getting use to the track, and their speeds through turn 6 were getting up to race pace. It's interesting to listen to the bikes, and how little time the riders are off throttle even in turn 6.

More walking up to the corkscrew, and watched the remainder of the practice from there. Nicky was running some good times through there, as was Hopkins. The Proton team was having some negotiation issues, and ran the curbing a couple times. As the session went on, the riders started carrying more speed down the cork screw and into turn 9.

With the session ending, Bayliss was fastest, with Hayden, and Hopkins behind. Sete was fourth, Edwards fifth, and Rossi sixth. Kenny Roberts was ninth which is interesting for a local boy (or is it?).

The second practice session was even better. The riders were finally finding their setup, and getting their groove on. Nicky was pushing real good, as was Rossi, and Biaggi. John Hopkins was doing well, but Bayliss, and Barros went past him in times. Rossi must have been holding back, as he ended up 10th in the second session.

Kenny Roberts was back in 12th. It's really interesting with him. The guy doesn't suck, he just doesn't seem to give a sh*t. I really don't understand why Suzuki has kept him on? You can tell just by watching that he isn't even close to pushing, and has an attitude of not giving a sh*t. I really think Suzuki could do better, and with a big name like Red Bull now on their fairings, I would expect a new rider in the future. John is on the same bike, and you can just see in his riding that he is really trying, really pushing it, and really doing his best. Kenny looked like he was on a Sunday ride up in the hills. Kind of sad if you ask me.

Anyways...

The bikes are loud. I took warning, and brought my ear plugs with me. Good thing, as my ears would be bleeding by now. Tomorrow should be fun with qualifying. I'll see what time I get back home tomorrow night, and hopefully have more to report on. With an open bar all day, and shade to sit in, I am sure there will be more

thanks
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Charles Gallant


Last edited by cgallant on Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:15 am; edited 2 times in total

That was a nice write-up. I really wish that I could have gone, maybe next year. I look forward to hearing how things go tomorrow.

Argh what? no pics! That's slack man!

Yes, very surprising/disappointing about KR Jnr's performance on a local track. Good to hear that Bayliss is doing well (biased opinion ). Will be interesting to see how they will fair in qualifying and if the others without previous Laguna experience will catchup?

Nice report Charles. Keep us updated.
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Jerry Lai
NSR250 [MC21SP]

I suck at pics That and it's one more thing I would need to carry around. Oh, and my good digital camera went with the X, my current digital is good for taking pics of motorcycle parts, and thats about it. My SLR with the 800 zoom lens is a pain to drag around, and I tend to hit people in the head as I pan the lense for the pic, then I need to actually get the film developed, and then scan it in... Man, your trying to make me work harder then my job makes me work

I'll have more write up tomorrow.

Thanks,
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Charles Gallant

Look here for some pics, and maybe a few interesting words... www.superbikeplanet.com click on the news link below the picture of Colin Edwards from 2001.
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" ride fast & take chances! "

Well done Nicky!
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Jerry Lai
NSR250 [MC21SP]

Sorry for the delay in Saturday's write up. After getting home from the track, we decided to ride the bikes down to Monterey and hang out at Cannery Row with the rest of the race fans, and get dinner.

So Saturday morning we got to the track around 7:30. Was good, as we missed most of the traffic. Got breakfast at the track side suite I had lined up. After breakfast, we walked around for a little, checked out the pits for the AMA teams, and walked a little through the vendor area.

A friend of mine who drove down with me, was at the races for the first time. Being that she works for a Internet Motorcycle store, she had passes into the Parts Unlimited tent, so we left her to go sign in. After I while I called her to hook back up with us, and she was waiting in line to get some autographs. I couldn't bring myself to standing in an hour long line for some signatures, so we walked around till the open practice started for MotoGP.

From the start Nicky was pushing hard in every lap. The other riders who hadn't raced there were still trying to come to grips with the very technical track. You could see in the lines, and times there were some riders having a hard time.

Later in the afternoon during qualifying, you could really see that Nicky had a goal for the weekend, and he knew he had 100,000 fans+ to push him on. Colin Edwards and John Hopkins were all pushing hard, and putting in real good times. By the end of the session Nicky had put in a 1:22..67 breaking the track record by nearly 2 seconds (prior to the weekend). Valentino came out and put down a very close 1:23.024 putting himself in second on the grid. Colin and John had some good times, putting them selves in 5th and 6th.

It really was looking up to be a very exciting race on Sunday!

We drove back to Aptos, and on the way home, our friend had the great idea that we ride back down to Monterey for dinner. Well my girlfriend thought it would be fun. So I ran to my house, picked up my motorcycle, and we all rode down to Cannery Row.

Now a little over a year ago, I got a bug up my ass, and decided to build a custom V-Twin. My main needs were 1. 250 rear tire 2. 100 CI V-Twin 3. Low sleek lines 4. Black with ghost flames.

Nine months later I finished the bike, and it came out exactly what I wanted. My friend decided she would build one as well, and she put together a very cool retro old school Springer with a replica pan head 100 CI V-Twin. Both are loud and obnoxious as hell. Riding it is something different then riding a sports bike. I actually enjoy it, as it keeps me slow on the streets (I get my kicks on the track!). Well after an hour down to Monterey my throttle hand was sore as anything.

Parked it right on the corner of the main strip, and we went to get dinner. Of course not after I had a flood of people taking pictures of it, and asking me who built it. If you had seem my Repsol NSR, you know that I am not about just any bike. I like my bikes to stand out, and be nothing like anything else on the street. The Chopper is just this.

I figured with a cop sitting next to my bike all night, I didn't need to worry about some asshat messing with it, so we went to dinner.

When we got back, there was still a crowd around the chopper with people snapping pics. Definitely having something other then an R1, GSXR, or CBR at events like this get the attention from all.

As I walked into the middle of the crowd, I put my Shoei Kato Memorial helmet on (hey, I will always ride with a full face helmet no matter what!), threw my carbon race gloves on ( it's all about safety), and put a leg over the bike. Cranked it over, and it came to life. The crowd really enjoyed the deep exhaust, and the rattle of the dry clutch (Oh, did I mention the other thing I wanted was an open primary with a dry clutch? got to have the rattle no matter what ).

The ride home was fun, but damn, my throttle hand is sore as anything. It's got a hell of a throttle spring on it, and trying to keep it open for an hour straight is a pain!

Okay, more for Sunday coming soon.
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Charles Gallant

Okay, more of the same. Get up early, and get to the track to beat the traffic. Even getting there prior to 7:00 AM, there is still more traffic then the previous two days. This is a sign that this thing is going to be insane today.

Got to the parking spot, and decided to go to the top of the cork screw to pay tribute to a friend that died a couple years back at Daytona. With some money collected, a "brick" was bought, and put up in the patio that Laguna put in at the top of the cork screw. The plaque (brick) was a memorial to a good friend, and a true racer, Stuart Stratton. He now has the best view one could ask for.

We walked down from the top of the hill that over looks all of Laguna, and made our way to the tent at turn 4. Got a good breakfast, and walked around the vendor area some more. Ran into a bunch more friends on Ducati Island, and finished making our rounds of the vendor/manufactures area to get back to the grandstands in time for the MotoGP morning warm up session.

Nicky again came out in force, and was running hot for the entire session, with others trying to keep up to his times. Nicky consistently put in fastest laps over the rest of the field. It was really looking like it could be a break out race weekend for him, and doing it on his "home" track for the first GP on US solid in 11 years would just add to it. On top of that his two brothers were all shaping up to do well this weekend in their AMA races. Had to think that Earl (Nicky's dad) must have been the proudest father on the planet today.

Unfortunately Tommy's day didn't turn out so well. While leading the Superstock race, he got pushed wide into turn 4 by a back marker, and hit the gravel trap, throwing him on his head hard. His younger brother only a couple spots back had to see all this happen, but didn't have a choice except to complete the race. Rodger Hayden put it on the box in third with the absence of his older brother. Must suck to have to take advantage of your own brothers crash, but I am sure they know the game, and have no hard feelings for each other.

Got a good lunch, and got ready for the start of the MotoGP race. Got a seat in the turn 4 grandstands, and waiting for the track to go green. The start of the race was marked by Aaron Hagar (Sammy Hagar's brother) singing the national anthem. It was the most embarrassing thing that could happen to an American when this pretty much no-body who is the brother of some washed up 80's rock star screws up the national anthem in front of nearly 60000 people, and televised around the world. Hopefully next year they will get some one that deserves it, and not someone that's brother got him in. Even my rinky dink club gets better singers to sing our national anthem each weekend, and we don't even get 1000 people coming to watch the races!

As the track went green for the sight in lap, the riders all came out with the Americans getting a huge round of applause and screams by the fans. You could really tell the fans were really pulling for the Americans to place.

The riders lined up once done with the warm up lap,and got ready to work. As the green flag came out, Nicky put it in the front, and didn't look back. Rossi feel in behind, and followed Nicky into turn 1. From the start, Nicky and Colin were greeted with cheers in each corner on the first lap. This continued for the entire 32 laps that the race ran. Nicky showed his fans, and the world that he does have what it takes to run up front. Colin also did an amazing job putting it in second. For the first half of the race I was thinking Colin was under race orders from the team. You would watch him exit turn 4, and he wasn't even getting on it that hard, and he was right behind Rossi each and every lap. Around half way, Colin made his move, and stuffed it in at the top of the corkscrew, I am sure meet by a huge cheer from the fans all up there. Making it stick down to 11, and onto the front straight meant it was a good pass, and he had what it took to get it done.

By this point Rossi knew he could only clean up the box, and he seemed to fall in line taking 3rd. Max tried to close it up, but just couldn't push it that hard. It would have made for a much more exciting finish to see Max and Rossi go at it, and not have it in Memorex.

By lap 30, the fans were going crazy. They knew it would be an American on the box, and who better then Nicky. As he finished the race, you could tell he had just lived his dream. From here on out, it was only icing. The place went nuts, and in true MotoGP fashion, the fans rushed the track, and handed the national flag to the winner. And in true MotoGP fashion, the fans got jumped by the corner workers, who were all torn between working to keep the track safe, and celebrating an amazing moment in a 23 year olds life. What more could Nicky as for but to win his first MotoGP on American soil, after an 11 year hiatus. This will probably be his most memorable experience in racing ever.

As the riders got to the podium, Rossi showed why he is the champion he is. He gave his team mate a big huge in congratulations for his second place, and had a big smile on his face, while Nicky danced. Then he showered Nicky in champagne, and never once did he have a sour look on his face. He knew what Nicky was feeling, and he himself was proud to be up there with Nicky.

It was an extremely fun weekend, and I will be buying next years tickets tomorrow morning. Even with the 1.5 hour wait to get out of the park, it is all worth it.

Thanks,
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Charles Gallant

Watched it last night, was a great race, I love Laguna Seca.

Think they said attendance was just over 57,000. I was at a WSB meeting at Brands about 5 years ago and attendance was 110,000.!

Was good when Nicky done a lap with his dad on the back!

Most event attendance numbers are given as weekend attendance. Laguna's weekend attendance was at over 150,000 people. The facility is actually limited to the number of tickets it can sell by the fire marshal, and I am sure that is due to access in and out of the park.

Laguna's only bad aspect is the access. At one time, there was only one entrance in and out. The US Military would open up another access road through their property on Fort Ord. Since the Fort Ord property is now public land, there are now two more access roads used in and out of Laguna on an ongoing basis. This helps things a little, but still the traffic is hell.

It was nice to know that the event was a complete sell out in tickets prior to the weekend. This means that they were not doing walk up sales on Sunday, or Saturday. Even with only 57000 people in the park on Sunday, and Saturday (each day), the place was the most packed I had ever seen it. Friday had 40000 + people in attendance alone!

Hopefully next year will be as attended.

Thanks,
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Charles Gallant

Well don Nicky I thought Nicky Haydens 2nd sighting lap was the best because he took his Dad on the back of his RCV which I thought was kool
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Chaz Davies Rules