Beautiful day again!  I believe there is a heat wave in Monterey, but it seems normal to me being from Arizona.

We head out for the Paddock via the Brazilian breakfast stand for Coffee.  There are a lot more people around today.  After coffee we head off to see if we can get in the paddock today.

There is still a lot of activity in the MotoGP paddock, but at least we were allowed in.

Kenny Roberts SR. is wondering around and very easy to chat to. Nicky's dad hanging out with the Kawasaki shirt on and Cap with Nicky's number on, supporting all the boys this weekend as usual. Having a joke with Kenny.

After these small encounters the only other thing of interest is the Ducati replica MotoGP bike.  They tell us it is basically a detuned version of the bikes Sete and Loris are riding, and will sell for approx. $65,000.00 if you copy that you can blow it up and read it. ,    ,     This is nothing I can afford right now.  But then, would you ride it on the road?  I would keep it at a track, like Laguna Seca or Sears Point so I could really have fun riding it. :)

We hung around to try and catch some of the riders, which we did I got a great shot of Sete and Kenny Jr. Sete to Kenny: "I know I have a picture in here, somewhere, of Biaggi with Rossi's girlfriend."

Here comes LITTLE Dani , young rival from the 250's Casey ,

Marco ,  Elias , Makoto ,  Kenny Jr.,  Sete ,

Hopper , and of course the man of the weekend Nicky .

Time to head out to the track and get some shots as they start practice.  Not much to talk about except look at the pictures from different vantage points. Starting with Friday first Practice coming out of  Turn 4. Checa , Sete keeping the front wheel on the ground. Casey pushing , Nicky , Capirossi in full song , Randy D , why do they look over the left shoulder while going around a right hand curve? James taking a good look , Just some idea, in 88 those tents were not there and you could stand at the fence where the barriers are now. The burm the tents are on was never there.  A couple of different views of riders at Turn 5 , and   Then we get a little closer with the use of the D70 camera and Zoom.

Turn 5 from behind...Checa , Dani ,

Sete , Alex and from the front Kenny Jr. , Collin , Marco , Makoto , Colin and Shinya, then Nicky and I had to have this one of Dani I just like it. Chris V   We are going to head up the track a little further and cross over to the inside up to the Corkscrew for what should be some great shots. :)  For now we are going to head back to the infield and food.

We stop at the Honda tent and grab a few photo's of Nicky's bike and also Kenny Jr's that are being displayed.

Off up the hill again to the Corkscrew and second practice. Starting with our man Nicky dropping into it.

I'm just going to put a few of my favorite shots here for you to see, no captions as you can see who they are.

The first and third on the last row are my attempt at "artsy" with the poster boy Nicky in the background at the top of the Corkscrew.

That's all for Friday at the track.  A walk back across the bridge and up to the trailer, and take another trip into town for dinner.

We decide to follow the new order of signs to the exit and see what would happen.  Well it was fine and came out where I expected it to.  But here's the crunch..........two lanes going the same direction, no one coming the opposite way........before we see the "T" intersection at the end, there are cones placed in the middle of the road separating the two lanes.  No big deal I think, until we get to the end of the road.

We want to turn left, but we are in the right hand lane, the cops won't let us turn left (bare in mind the only people on this road are coming out of the track) and forces us to turn right.  I'm a little miffed! So start in on the cop..........."there are no signs telling us to get in the left lane to go to Del Ray Oaks and nothing to say the right lane has to turn right!" "As the road is closed why can't we turn left?"  Then I immediately think, it's not his fault, what have I just done?  The Cop was really good and said "I will make note of the lack of signage and bring it up to Scramp, who organized the event, but you have to turn right" We dutifully go right, wondering when we ever get to turn back into town.

Finally we get to a left turn with some more policemen, who look at me really strange when I ask if I can turn left here. (Again no signs)  We enjoy our meal at the Golden Dragon and head back to the track.

A worker stops us at the entry to the track and asks for tickets etc.  I ask if he is SCRAMP, he says no, and I tell him I want someone from SCRAMP now!  Still a little angry with traffic system they have arranged.  A guy comes up, I ask if he is SCRAMP to which he replies.."Sort of".  And I let rip! About how their traffic organization SUCKED and was ridiculous and was not improving anything.  He listened and sent us on our way without checking for tickets etc.

Oh well! Back at our temporary home, with a couple of drinks, a little TV and the Partying neighbors. :)

 Saturday continues......