Sunday, September 14th

Met Jim for a quick breakfast in the lobby, and went out to get ready to go. Looking over my bike I noticed something stuck in the rear tire. Didn't know if it was a rock, a nail, or what, but it was in there pretty deep. I wasn't sure whether I should pull it out or not, but I really didn't want to miss the race so I just left it in and hoped for the best. We were on the road by 8:30. The weather was looking very nice, and we hoped it would continue. More bikes heading into the city, but not a huge amount. My GPS locked up again, but by this time I knew the route to the Speedway. We did the same Gate 10 parking, and parked on the back straight again. Packed the Phantom in the sidecase this time, and the helmet in the other case. No more dragging my gear anyplace today. Jim grabbed a couple of rain ponchos "just in case" and we headed over to the track.

Race day!

That didn't look good

Under the grandstands we went

And out onto the track

Very nice

My GPS screen had bubbled yesterday in the heat of my sidecase, and now in the cool air it cracked off

Watched the 250 warmup from our usual spot on the viewing mounds, one good crash right in front of us. Amazing how these guys can have a nasty looking crash, pick themselves up, shake off the bike and be back on track in less than a minute. After that it was GP practice, and we were getting more and more psyched. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were thicker (but not bad at all), and everything was going great at the track.

Jim watches the MotoGP warm-up session

Jim took this picture of me at the fence. I'm sitting down with the red shirt, middle of the frame.

We made the walk over to Ducati Island, stopping for a while to peer over the fence at the back of the garages. Standing on a golf cart that was parked there (paparazzi-style)I could see quite a bit.

And then it happened. Unfortunately I had the Panasonic P&S digicam at the ready, the DSLR with the big lens was tucked away. Riding in from the track, with his wife on the back, was Casey Stoner on a scooter!

The only pic I manged to get, as the Panny took forever to lock focus and take the shot.

A crop from the above picture, you can see Casey (in leathers) just behind Adriana, his face is between hers and the doorframe. Crappy shot, I know, but one of the most exciting moments of the weekend (good timing, shooting over a fence into a restricted area, etc).

Jim was convinced this was David Allen Grier - my shouts of "Yo, David!" did not produce any results

Givi giving away hats

The Ducati Island grandstand

Ducati Island on Race Day

The guy we decided wasn't Peter Egan, despite his Slimey Crud Motorcycle Club t-shirt

There was a huge screen behind us, and everyone would turn around when the announcer said something big had happened

Picked up our Ducati goodie bag when we got the stands (hat, shirt, cell-phone necklace). I ended up losing my bag later on, and with it MY Ducati Mechanica hat. Went back for another goodie bag, and made sure NOT to lose it again.

Watched the Red Bull Rider's cup race, then Christian Pfeiffer and others put on a stunt show. They made their way around the track doing their thing in front of each grandstand before moving on. To get a little personal: The Indy burger I had eaten before the race was starting to wreak havoc on my insides, and I missed part of the Rider's Cup race. All I can say is I'm SOOO glad they had real bathrooms right at Ducati Island.

The start of the Red Bull Rider's Cup

Christian Pfeiffer doing his thing

We watched the 125 race from our seats in the Ducati Island grandstand, and the weather was getting increasingly nasty. I left my seat mid-race to go down to the fence to get better shots, and that was a lot of fun. They ended up red-flagging the 125's and cutting the race short. The rain started coming down in buckets, the wind was howling, and we left to go find shelter someplace. Ended up in the Ducati clothing tent, along with what seemed like 200 other people trying to dry out. Lots of folks checking radar on their iPhones while the wind howled outside.

The start of the 125cc race

One of the 125cc guys taking a rest

At the fence. And no, I'm not a recent amputee, I just haven't gotten this poncho thing down yet

Hiding from the rain

The rain let up for a bit, and an obviously annoyed store worked made the annoucement "OK Folks, the rain has stopped...." He had definintely had enough of wet folks pawing through the merchandise with no intent to buy. Walked around Ducati Island a bit, wondering what the schedule was going to be. No track announcements was kind of annoying, everyone was trying to guess what was going to happen.

Watching the rain from the Ducati bike tent

Saw this cool Multistrada, obviously he's serious about long-distance riding

I like the Marsee cover over the aux fuel tank

What can I say?

Notice my right hand - I was afraid touching the girls might cost me extra :-)

Cute Ducati girl

The rain started up again, and this time we waited it out in the Ducati new bike tent. At least you could lean again a bike for a while giving your back a rest. Word finally came down that the MotoGP class was going to race at 3 - what about the 250's? No one knew. So back to the fence I went, and Jim headed back to the stands. He used my seat this time, as it was above the fence-line giving better views. Of course with everyone standing the whole time that didn't make too much of a difference. The rain had stopped, so I gave Jim my poncho to reduce the amount of junk I was carrying.

Drying the track

The MotoGP on the warm-up lap. Check out those rain tires!

The starting line-up (Rossi, Stoner, Lorenzo, Hayden on the front row)

Finally it was race time, and I was ecstatic. Jim had said earlier, and I agree completely, that being here for the whole weekend makes the race so much better. You've spent time watching everyone practice and qualify, see who's faster in what conditions, who's really pushing it and who isn't, who's crashing and who's running off the track. It's a great buildup to the race, you feel much more vested in it.

The place went nuts as the riders came around turn 1 with Stoner in an early lead.

The first turn on the first lap, Stoner in an early lead

Turn 2

The Doctor dogging Hayden lap after lap

How long can you lead with Rossi at your back tire?

And then Rossi was gone...

It was a great race to watch, with Hayden in the lead for a lot of it, and Rossi right at his back tire. Every time they came around with Hayden in the lead there would be huge cheers. It was not to last though, and eventually Rossi got around him and then pulled away further every lap. Then Nicky was fending off Lorenzo for 2nd after that, and on the 21st lap Lorenzo just passed him as they left our field of view. Big shouts of disappointment from the crowd, then the red flag came out ending the race. Fortunately for Nicky the 21st lap didn't cound and he got points for second place.

The weather got worse and worse over the course of the race, with driving sideways rain and howling wind. At one point I was hunkered down below the guard rail, popping up for a few seconds when the riders passed to get pictures, then dropping down again to cover up the camera gear. Jim came down during the worst of this with the poncho I had left with him - thanks buddy, I was freezing down there! He stayed to watch the rest of the race from the fence, which I think was preferrable to the seats by a long shot.

After the red flag there was a long wait, and the weather improved dramatically. Nobody knew for sure what was going on, with announcers saying the "parc firme?" hadn't come out yet so they didn't know if the race was over or not. Eventually they made the announcement that there would be an 8-lap race - woo-hoo! Then about a 5 minute delay, then we hear "It's official, Valentino Rossi has won the race!". Huh?

The final results

We then waited around for the 250 race. And waited....and waited....and after maybe 20 minutes they announced that it was not safe to run the 250's in this high of a wind (it had gusted to over 60mph earlier).

The littlest (and cutest) fan. I asked Dad's permission to take his pic.

After the MotoGP race, waiting for the 250 race to start (which was eventually cancelled)

Jim at Indy

That's a lot of red. Couldn't have had a better time

So feeling somewhat anticlimactic we left trackside and walked back to the bikes. I was hoping to check out some of the vendors outside the track for a Rossi shirt for my son, but that was not to be. Instead of leaving however we wanted, everyone had to leave via the 16th street exit and head East. Police had blocked all the sidestreets and opened up all lanes of the divided road to head in one direction. No way without a GPS was I going to try to venture around the other side of the Speedway - they'd probably all be closed anyway.

Leaving the raceway

Everyone had to head the same way out of town

Following Jim out of town

For most of the ride out we were behind a guy on a bagger who either had a nervous tic or was the craziest rider I've seen. He could not sit still for 5 seconds, his bike was heaving left and right as he moved his bodyweight around constantly. Very odd. I had neglected to close the vents on my suit so it was a chilly/wet ride back to the hotel.

We got cleaned up and walked over to the Marriott next door, completely missing the very obvious entrance and heading into the alleyway behind the hotel - we blamed it on being blinded by hunger. Had a couple beers over dinner as there was no riding to do, and talked MotoGP with the Ontario couple at the table next to us. Back in the room early, went through pictures and wrote a lot of notes. Even with trackside editing, and nightly editing, over 900 photos for the trip - around 800 just of the on-track action.

Set the alarm for 5:25am for the long ride home.