My Summer Road Trip

August 8, 2014

 

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Indianapolis Motor Speedway... It rained over night and it was still drizzling when I got to the track and parked in motorcycle VIP parking. You STILL had to walk miles to see everything!!
I guess to provide more American content in the race weekend, the AMA Pro Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson Series had two races on the weekend, one Saturday and one Sunday.
With all the bikes competing in Moto3, Moto2, and MotoGP, there wasn't enough garage space along pit lane so the Harley's camped out in a special area near the Paddock.
There I met these two gentlemen who were crew for a "one time" entry, Ramden Rosli, an 18 year old Maylasian rider. I promised to cheer for the kid and maybe others did, too, because he actually came 4th in race one although he didn't do that well on Sunday.
After leaving the Harley area, I went to the back straight near turn 9 to watch the Moto3 warm-up. Honestly, it wasn't a great place to take pictures. The bikes accelerated by you too quickly on the straight and the turn was a bit far away to get good pix. 58 is Juanfran Guevara. Jules Danilo (95) is at the corner and the bike following was too far away to recognize the rider.
This is NOT a good picture. The riders accelerate so quickly out of turn 9, you need reflexes and panning skills beyond me and my point and shoot. I did want to include Romano Fenati on this page though so fuzzy will have to do. This guy along with two or three others is making Moto3 the most exciting racing around.
Between warm-ups I visited the Moto Midway. The Yamaha dealer for the area knew how he was going to make money. He had skads of Jorge Lorenzo gear...
... and even more Valentino Rossi stuff. I loved the white sweatshirt (foreground) with the snazzy, hippy, colourful 46 on the back so much, I bought one. Good thing I bought it then. Not much Rossi OR Lorenzo stuff was left by the end of the weekend.
Yamaha displayed its full line of bikes under another tent. This is an FZ-7. It reminds me of my bike Thor so I obviously like this one a lot. They were from Canada and (like me) was sad that American prices could be so low compared to ours.
I wasn't the only one admiring the FZ line. This couple was eyeing this one with blue rims. VERY sharp.
THIS bike is not so cheap. Lorenzo's 2013 M1. Got an extra mil or two to purchase one??
It's interesting how they have a push button to take them through pit lane. There is an enforced speed limit along pit lane and if you break it, you are penalized. Just think of travelling for awhile on a highway... how easy is it to keep your speed down inside city limits when you first get there?
Racing exhausts are sure different than street bikes. They don't need to muffle the sound. In fact, most people wear earplugs when the bikes are on track because the noise level is incredible.
With all the computer systems on a MotoGP bike, it's interesting that there are limited (maybe) controls to using the traction control, etc.
Time for the MotoGP warmup. Cal Crutchlow on the Ducati. I went into the turn 9 (reserved for Ducati) stands to take this set of pictures.
Michael Laverty from England... must be weird to be in the top 25 riders in the world but never see the podium.
THIS guy has seen a lot of podiums... top step of those as well... Valentino Rossi, of course.
OK everyone... Pol Espargaro or Bradley Smith?? These guys whiz by you so fast it's impossible to tell except for things like helmets and SOMETIMES leathers (team leathers are often identical). I THINK this is Pol Expargaro (green boots, and yellow in helmet) BUT...
The corner workers always LOOK relaxed but I imagine they're thinking, "Keep going. Keep that shiney side up. Don't give me a reason to have to help. Oh Sh*t......"
Colin Edwards... his last US Grand Prix...
One of my favourites... he's usually SOOOOOO smooth... Jorge Lorenzo.
The kid... Mark Marquez... at this point in the weekend, 9 straight victories to start the season.
The Bridgestone Tire booth... They had an "Indianapolis" track to race on...
... Which of course I had to try despite being BAD at video games. Holding onto the wheel was weird because it shook if you veered even the smallest amount from the desired path...
... and MAYBE I wasn't all that bad since I captured 8th place on the leader board! A lot slower than first though...
These two guys will always be considered friendly... they had been in the Bridgestone line before going to the Yamaha line to get a visor. They let me sneak into line on the proviso that THEY got "last hat" if Yamaha ran out just as we got there. Fair enough! I got my visor!! There were many more in the box when we all got ours.
Valentino Rossi's 2013 bike...
... which I got a picture (BAD!) on despite the first girl taking pictures being rude and mean while the second girl was very nice. (Even though it was MY turn for a picture, she took some cute guy's info ahead of me and told me to get off the bike cuz it was HIS turn. So much for waiting patiently in line...)
A neat shirt in the Yamaha tent. Too bad they can't claim "Race, Burn, FIRST, Repeat" this year...
I LOVE that there is always somewhere for little kids to ride at MotoGPs. Yamaha almost always has had this experience set up for the little ones.
EXPECIALLY nice is that IMS set up this area because many tiny kids are too scared to go on the motorized bikes!
Map of Indianapolis Motor Speedway

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