MM Laguna Seca Report

[G.Irish]

Welcome to day 2 of your official Madison Motorsports Laguna Seca Moto GP coverage. For those of you who want gear make sure to read the bottom.

Left the hotel at a little after 5:30 to beat the hordes to the track. Checked out the vendor area before the first practice was scheduled and was kinda surprised to see most of them didn't have their stands set up and ready for business yet. F'ing slackers.

Anyway the AMA Supersport practice was first. Nothing too dramatic or spectacular but still pleasurable to watch. Nothing like the gentle aroma of unburned race fuel wafting over the breeze :twisted:

Something I found interesting was the difference in throttle application between some of the front runners (like the Haydens and the factory Yamaha boys). You could hear the faster guys rolling onto the throttle very smoothly and not chopping or cutting it at all. Neat stuff.

AMA Superbike came out next so I stood on the hill next to turn 2 (the double apex first 'real' turn of the track). Some of the guys like Mladin and Zemke were slipping the rear end on corner entry. I have some of that on video I believe.

So on to the GP bikes. Everyone was at attention as they rolled out and all of the Americans (Edwards, Hayden, Hopkins, Roberts) got a big roar of applause on their outlap.

I knew the Moto GP bikes were loud but I was still shocked and amazed by the sound. For one, all of the 'big bang' bikes sound rather throaty. Sort of a guttural scream if you could imagine it. The bikes are not really high-pitched at all, just very high amplitude.

Like a stupid ass I forgot my ear plugs at home but luckily I got some free ones at the Honda tent.

Anyway, at first the GP guys were going pretty slow around the circuit but when they started to crank it up it was pretty dramatic. About halfway through the first practice the announcer...announced that the 4 American riders held the top 4 spots. However, by the end of it Troy Bayliss (who had won at Laguna before in World Superbike) would take the fastest lap of the day followed closely by Nicky Hayden.

Watching the GP guys from the front straight you got a feel for the sheer ferocity of the acceleration of the bikes. All of the riders were fighting to keep the front wheel on the ground on every shift up the front straight. One of the Blata riders easily wheeled the entire length of the straigh up to the bridge (you can goof off like that when you're in last place eh?).

I had a hard time finding a good spot that was close to the track to take pics, hopefully I'll do better tomorrow. For now, enjoy.

Real Honda Power!


The man himself (shot this through a photog's hole in the fence)




Old skool baybee




The coolest spectator bike by faaaarrrrrr. Its got a V8 :twisted:




People who want gear

There wasn't much in the way of polo type stuff for sale. One vendor had official team button up shirts (with the full tobacco badging (Telefonica Movistar Honda, Ducati, Renault, Ferrari, McLaren) but they wanted $120 each.

Suzuki had some very cool hats for about $20 as well as some affordably priced tshirts and a race team polo for $40. Yamaha had a whole line of retro yellow and black apparel including tees, backpacks, and like 5 different hats. They also had some traditional blue apparel. Kawasaki had a few nice tshirts and hats for sale and there was a good amount of Ducati hats. Take a look at the last two pics for some of the stuff.

Let me know from this group if there is anything specific (like a particular rider) you'd want or prefer. Give me a price range too. There is smaller stuff like keychains and what not that I can buy if that's your bag baby.