Saturday, September 13th

We had decided to meet for a later breakfast and not try to get there early for demos since the forecast was bad. So, of course, we woke up to bright sunshine. We scarfed some cereal quickly, and hightailed it to the track. Took a better route this time (exit I-65N at 28th, take 30th straight to Gate 10) and got closer parking on the oval. They were checking for parking wristbands, but seemed to direct everyone to the same place regardless.

Heading towards the grandstands

This is SO COOL!

On the back straightaway

Jim's enjoying this as well

We lugged all our gear over to the KTM and Yamaha demo areas, which is a LONG way away from the parking area. I was really hoping to get an FJR ride, and had made sure yesterday that they had one. Got in line, and the lady said they had taken the FJR to the Yamaha Product tent for the rest of the weekend. Dang it! Over to KTM, signed up for a 10:30 ride on an Adventure (again), and, what the hell, a 1pm RC8 demo. Jim signed up for the new VMax at 10:30, and an RC8 at 1 with me.

By this time it was getting very hot out, and dragging our stuff across the track had made us pretty miserable. We watched some of the 125 practice, and then the start of the MotoGP practice before it was time to head over for our 10:30 demos.

Rossi starting his practice session

More practice

The route KTM had setup pretty much sucked. Granted, there was not much they could do given the location, but there was maybe 3 of 4 minutes that wasn't on traffic-light-controlled crowded surface streets. Saw lots of folks advertising secured parking, and backyard camping. Not much I can add to my feelings about the Adventure given this ride. Jim said he fared better with Yamaha's route, but we both agreed to skip our afternoon RC8 demo.

I so want to like this bike more

The ride that was not to be...

...for either of us

Jim liked the ride....a lot

We dropped our gear at the Ducati Island gear check, did our souvineer shopping, and trekked back to the bikes so I could get the 'real' camera gear for today.

Bike parking had filled up quite a bit by now

Camera gear in tow, we headed back to the viewing mounds again. Grabbed a not-bad Philly Cheesesteak and made my way to the fences for what would be the best photography session of the weekend. Watched Randy Mamola give 2-up rides on the Desmosedicci. I can't even imagine how exciting/terrifying that has to be.

A great place to watch the action

Next up was the 125cc qualifying

Then it was time for today's big event for me, the MotoGP qualifying. Unlike the smaller classes, they only get one qualifying session. Weather today was bright and sunny, and I think I saw them at their very best. They get faster and faster as the session goes on, with the track announcers keeping you up-to-date on everyone's position. For the last 10 minutes everyone comes out and does a hot lap on their qualifying tires, which usually turns out to be the fastest lap of the weekend. Certainly was in this case, as it was the only really dry session.

Woo-hoo, Casey!

Shinya Nakano tried to save it in the grass, but it was not to be

Corner workers looking for loose change on Nakano's bike (yes, I know the focus is on the fence but this picture was too interesting to toss away)

Crossing the track from helping another rider, this corner worker fell and couldn't get up again. Mind you there's a thundering herd of MotoGP bikes coming his way one turn away

Nicky Hayden and his Colts helmet

Some little Italian dude

Jim

Go Casey!

Rossi qualifying

The Speedway had some giant screens scattered around the venue, but not enough

Rossi took pole position, with Stoner 2nd and Hayden 3rd. Ant West, who had been the fastest in the rain, qualified dead last. It was getting really hot, and we joked about how we were always complaining about the weather - "It's hot, it's raining, I'm cold". We hadn't seen over half the track yet, so we thought we'd take a walk around and see the rest. Oh man, what a walk that turned out to be. The line for the Red Bull bridge was hundreds of people deep, so we were glad we weren't trying to do that. The walk up until turn 10 was good, as you could see the track and you're walking on grass. After that, you get pretty far from the action and then you're walking around the backsides of the grandstands on the asphalt.

Our walking route around the Speedway

We guzzled some root bear floats and eventually found ourselves a seat in grandstand C, with a good view of turn 16 and the beginning of the main straightaway. You could kind of see turns 10, 11, and 14, but it seemed miles away. I think for future visits I'm going to pretend the track doesn't go past turn 9. It was nice to be shaded though, so we sat our butts down for a while. We had arrived just in time for the Red Bull Rookies Cup race.

This was a race of attrition, as several riders crashed out, and several more pitted out of the race. With identical bikes and leathers, it was very hard to tell who was who during the race.

You can get a sense of how well-attended the Rookie Cup race was

Pretty cool to see the trophy podium in person

These guys were flying around after the race

We made our way to Ducati Island in search of refreshment, but they were out of water this time. Went to get our gear, and Jim's guy gave him his stuff still inside the trash bag, making for easy carrying. I commented that was convenient, at which point the guy giving me my bag of gear took a knife and split my bag open. WTF?

I bet that's bright! Doesn't much help the Multi in the looks department though.

Ran into always-smiling RDoug and his friends on the way out, and we chatted a bit. I couldn't really bust on him about not riding to the race, as they had come up in a friend's private plane. Nice!

< insert picture of RDoug I should have taken here >

We made the long, hot walk back to the bikes, and tried to decide what to do next. We wanted to go see the Indy Mile flat-track races at the Fairgrounds, but we also were mighty hungry. A plan for a fast-food stop was nixed en-route due to lack of time, so we figured we'd get something at the fairgrounds.

When I took my GPS out of my side case at the track, the screen had started to bubble, and it wasn't really acting right. It had misbehaved once in a while before, but this was almost constant. I finally got it to show us the route I had planned for Indy to the Fairgrounds, and off we went. Halfway there it went crazy again, and we had to pull over while I banged on it (not really) to try to make it work again. I had not memorized the route before, but I did as soon as it showed it to me again. Once we got onto 38th street the road became a parking lot. 10 minutes of that and Jim asked if we could detour as his bike was not liking the heat. We took some pretty ratty sidestreets, and came out right next to the Fairgrounds - for which we got in line and waited. And waited. They were collecting a $3 parking fee from everyone, and had traffic backed up quite a bit. By this point we were both hot, tired, hungry, and fed up with traffic. Found a bikes-only parking spot, and walked over to buy tickets. The line to buy tickets was huge, and not moving. It was already 7pm, so the race(s) had started, and we were looking at maybe an hour wait to get tickets. Plus, the only food we could see inside was corn dogs and cotton condy. We "had lost the love", and decided to just head back to Meridian and do that for the evening. This was a big bummer, as we were both really interested in seeing the races. From what I've read later, those that were there loved it. Nicky Hayden was there walking around, and a bunch of other racers. Next time...

Jim in shirtsleeves in line at the fairgrounds

Cooking

There was an Aprilia Party at the fairgrounds

The line to buy tickets

GPS went wacky getting to Meridian again (time to go Zumo shopping!). We got detoured around some, and traffic was crazy as we neared Meridian. We lucked out with some spots right in the middle of the action tonight - our moods were improving. Ran into a guy from multistrada.net and we chatted for a bit. Jim and I were really hungry, so we made a beeline for the Rock Bottom Brewery. There was a 20 minute wait, so we sampled some Indy GP IPA at the bar - not the best beer I've ever had, not sure what I was expecting from something that says it has a "grassy bitterness".

Good spots in the thick of the action

As we sat in the lounge waiting for our table, an attractive young lady asked if she could sit with us. Sure, no problem. Then she started to talk.

"I can't believe I burned my leg on the exhaust! I'm used to a sportbike with pipes under the seat, but this cruiser had pipes on the side. That's what I get for riding sideways. I'm wearing a miniskirt, and I rode sideways so I wouldn't be flashing everyone my crotch. I should have just shown everyone my crotch, it would have been safer."

At which point the guy she's obviously with joins us and starts talking with us as well. I asked where they were from, and they're Indy locals. "Indy 2012, baby!" says the girl. Huh? She explains that the Super Bowl will be held at Indy in 2012, and everyone's excited about that. When I told her we were from New Jersey, they both wanted to know how we liked the city, and that everyone was so thrilled that we were all here for the race. It was very midwestern-nice, something I'm not used to in Jersey. They said they were both trackside EMT's, and I wished them a boring day tomorrow.

Dinner was good, even if the service was terribly slow. We walked around Meridian some more afterwards, things were much more crowded than Friday night. A LOT more bikes with Indiana tags this time, and people were trying to get a little crazy. If the street wasn't so packed with bikes and people I'm sure it would have been burnout and wheely city. Reminded me a bit of Saturday night on Canada Street during Americade.

Fireworks were a nice touch.

Nice ape-hangers....on a VROD!

Very interesting exhaust on this Monster

The scene

This spot on the block was always very crowded....

The strangest thing happened while we were getting ready to leave. I was getting my suit ready (Olympia Phantom), and 2 middle-aged couples in black tie came over to Jim and I and started talking.

"Where are you guys from?"

"New Jersey"

And then it was almost exactly the same speech from the girl in the brewery:

"We're so glad to have all you motorcyclists here, how do you like Indianapolis? How do you like the Speedway?"

As I was slipping into the suit, one of the wives got close to me:

"Are you putting that on because you're leaving?"

"Yes...."

Very strange, and very nice at the same time.

On the ride back to the hotel it was time for my bone-headed moment of the trip. Making the left onto the street our hotel was on (with Jim right behind me) I noticed a car coming toward me on that street. I adjusted to the right a bit, and he adjusted to his left so he was still heading right for me. I'm thinking "what's with this a**hole?" when I notice the median to his left - I was about to turn onto the wrong side of the divided street. Jeebus! He was just moving into the left turn lane of his street, I'm sure wondering why this stupid motorcyclist is trying to ride straight at his hood. I swerved back to the correct side of the street, and mentally kicked myself the rest of the short ride to the hotel. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Fell asleep quickly, ready for the big day tomorrow.