Not so bright and early. ;) We decide we will watch the morning warm-up at the bottom of the Corkscrew between turns 9 and 10 as it is a very short session. Click here for the rest of warm-up.

You really can get a sense of the drop of elevation  through the Corkscrew to turn 9 here.  Some different shots can be taken from here. All of these pictures are taken right across from turn 9, just a little up the hillside so I could get some clear shots over the fence. They are all pretty much from the same place with varying degrees of Zoom from 140mm to 600mm. Of course one shot through the fence  of the Corkscrew and bridge. As a reference, at my normal walking speed crossing that bridge, I can get approx 20yards passed one end of it when the same bike comes by again.

We head off for our morning coffee and what do you know?!? When we arrive at the Brazilian stand I find they have the good spicy sausage they had the first day. J So I have to have one. Dave gets the steak sandwich.

We go for a little wonder into the pits and Dave gets a shot of the Kawasaki girl before she runs off somewhere, and the only Konica Minolta girl. They only ever have 1 girl, tight budget I guess.

Nothing much to see here so we go back to the infield and souvenir tent to finish our shopping. Then we just wonder around, and while we are in the Kawasaki tent we discover there is to be an autograph session, which you can only go to if you have a ticket; the guy telling us this obviously works for Kawasaki, and tells us he only has 3 tickets left. So we take two of them and stand in line.

There is quite a wait but one of the employees is a “star” well he kept everyone entertained until it was time for the Signing session, which looked like it was going to run late as the AMA guys could not get there on time, but the MotoGP guys were already sitting at the table.

So as not to delay the MotoGP guys they sent us through and said we could come back for the others. I was not really interested in the AMA signatures anyway so it made no difference to me. ;)  We take some picture while getting the signatures and then take off.

It’s still not time for the race so we wonder around some more, and spot these two girls representing “Kymco”. Very nice! I’ve forgotten what Kymco make. ;)

Then we run into some “older girls” still good looking. They are representing “Russ Brown, Motorcycle Attorney”  (Didn’t know motorcycles needed attorney’s) ;)  They are actually signing people up for an Emergency Assistance program which is apparently free. (I hope I don’t get lots of junk email now)

We carry on through the vendor stands. Dave breaks down and spends $40.00 on a replica Vermeulen hat he has wanted for some time.

We decide we will start off at turn 5 for the beginning of the race, and I cross the perimeter road to go part way up the hillside to see what kind of shots I can get.  That’s Dave’s blurry head you can see in the foreground. They have come out of the pits to take their place on the grid. And that’s Dave. With twin Yamaha visors on top of his USGP Laguna Seca floppy brimmed hat. J

The opening ceremonies start with the parachutes, then the site seeing lap.    

Here is the opening sequence of pictures on the second and 3rd lap. It is getting a little congested at the       fence and difficult to take clear pictures.  We stop a little further up the road and I decide to take some pictures through the chain link fence, approx 18” off the ground to get under the branches of the trees. I think they turned out pretty good. The blurry parts are the leaves from the trees when the wind blows. We have no idea what happened to Nicky as he started out 4th and here is at the back! We keep going up to turn 6 for a couple and I mean a couple of pictures, so we can get up to the Corkscrew for the rest of the race.
      
We found a couple of GREAT places for pictures. It’s a shame all the pictures didn’t turn out in focus,      
       
   but I think they still give a good representation of what I was trying to get. There are a bunch more photographs I took at the Corkscrew and you can see them by clicking here.

Then before you know it; the race is over. L And the riders come by on their cool down lap waiving.
     
We head back to the trailer so we can get packed up and on the road while the AMA race is on.

While we are doing that you can click here for all the pictures of Sunday. Here for Warm-up, and here for the Corkscrew pictures

Within 5 minutes of returning to the trailer, Alex, John and Alex had gone, not even a goodbye! We were going to be close on their heals.

I squeezed my truck through between the Porta-poti’s and the trailer to hook it up; when Mark, our other neighbor, told us that we would not be able to leave until after 6:00pm. I said he had to be joking as it was not even 4:00pm yet.

We continued and got everything packed away and hooked up, backed up the trailer and headed out. That was approx. 4:00pm. We drove down to the exit only to find a line of about 10 vehicles, not going anywhere. I said to Dave “this better not be what I think it is.” I got out the truck to find out what was going on. As I turned the corner I saw a Police car was blocking the exit.  I get to the exit and ask the Cop what’s going on. He told me that no one could leave the campground until after 6:00pm! I looked at him and expressed my disgust, letting him know it was not his fault. Then lost it completely saying how asinine this was as there is no traffic right now, by the time 6:00pm would arrive it would be completely jammed up!

He said he had been informed by SCRAMP that they had noted it on the paperwork with the tickets. Nothing had been said when we arrived and I saw nothing on the paperwork, but I was not going to look again. I was pissed off! “So basically we are all under arrest, because you are holding us against our will.” His only answer was the gate will open at 6:00pm.

We had to sit for almost 2 hours, watching the traffic build up, more and more. I would lean on my horn for a couple of minutes every so often, just to vent my frustration. But I guess some people did not understand that’s what I was doing. Some would say “that’s not going to do any good.” My reply was always “it does for me!” I was actually surprised than no one else followed suit. L So I now have a new meaning for SCRAMP………..”Stupid C_-_t’s Running Around Menacing People” They could not organize a “Piss-up in a Brewery!”

The gate was finally opened at 5:50pm ……..a whole 10 minutes early! Big Whoop! It took 45 minutes to get to Salinas. It would have been a lot quicker………..even going the same way, if they let us leave when we arrived at the gate!

So our discussions about the 2008 US MotoGP were mostly about it being at Indianapolis in 2008, and as much as I hate to put money in Tony George’s pocket, we will be going there next year. The main reason being it will be a PROPER MotoGP with 125cc and 250cc classes running, which for some unknown reason Laguna Seca could not do.

I don’t like the layout at Indianapolis, but it will be more organized. I love the track at Laguna Seca, but I hate the organization and the fact they do not have the 125cc and 250cc races. Also the fact I have to watch the race on my DVR when I get home to find out what happened to Nicky on the first lap, due to the lack of Jumbo Videotrons around the track! Well we did find out what happened to Nicky. I said that would be an interesting start. That is why I like to be at turn 2 for the start usually.

All-in-all though we had a good time as usual. Will we go back next year??? I don’t know at this point as I’m still pissed off at SCRAMP.

If you went I hope you had as good a time as we did, ignoring the getting out of Laguna Seca. ;) I also hope you enjoyed reading our story of the race trip.

All in all it was a great trip and the drive home was uneventful, didn't stop anywhere worth mentioning. When we did get back to my place, I did a quick clean of the pool and went for a swim. :)

Mac

 Quick links  Part 1,  Part 2,  Part 3,  Part 4