MotoGP (Japan GP)
The day started early. Super early. 5:30am early. You gotta eat before heading to the bus which is about 30 minutes away. Sucky. We were late, but that’s another story. We hopped onto the bus and off we went. I found out quickly that the Expressway is a parking lot. We got on, went a short distance, and stopped. Moved slowly, then went quick, then stopped. If you thought the #1 was bad, this is sometimes worse. The toll booth didn’t help either. I read the sign and it said, “20kms of congestion”. DAMN.
2 hours later and we pull into the break area. A nice big lot with some small food stands. An hour later and we are outside Motegi. Nice place. Super long lines to get in. Even though we are a bus, and don’t have to wait or pay to park, we still had to wait in line with everyone else. Add another 30-50 minutes waiting to get through the parking gate.
Once we got off the bus, all you can see is bikes. Hundreds of bikes. You name it, it’s there. Scooters, cruisers, sport bikes. All sizes. All colours, and replicas were there. I saw at least 20 Rossi Replicas. Half of them Repsol. I never seen so many replicas in one place. Maybe Laguna had more? NSRs and RRs were popular, but I did see a few Yami replicas. Really sweet. Tons of Ducati’s new and old as well.
First on the agenda was to walk around. I missed the 125 and 250 races because we were walking around. Who cares, I wanted to watch Rossi, not the other guys. Also wanted to buy some overpriced garbage. Add the heat and sun, and you just want to find the few A/Ced shops you can so you don’t get completely burned. Food wasn’t bad. It’s a MotoGP event, so expect to get your wallet cleaned out just for food. Not too bad though. I was expecting the prices to be more expensive. I picked up a MotoGP shirt. The Berik shirts were too expensive. Oh well. In the show, there were no freebies, but there were lots of bikes. Kawi had Shinya’s bike on display. Suzuki had Robert’s bike on display. Honda had Sete and Hayden’s bikes. Plus, I think you could sit on Hayden’s. They had an awesome Telefonica replica there as well. I’d buy that instead of the Repsol replica. Lastly is Yamaha. (side note, I didn’t really visit Ducati) They had all of their bikes from the start. All lined up. On the stage was 2 M1s. The standard blue, and the 50th anniversary edition. It’s beautiful when you see it up close. They also had an M1 you could sit on. I waited 20 minutes to be like Rossi.
Finally, the race itself. I was in corner 10 (I think it’s 10). The one after the hairpin and long straight. Better yet, the corner Rossi and Melandri had fun. I was at the 50m sign, and in the second row. Great seats. We got there early so we wouldn’t miss anything. Up first was the 2 seat Ducati taking some VIPs for a quick rip around the track. It is LOUD. I wish I could have an exhaust like that. Next up was the safety cars. It seemed like they were hauling ass, but going so slow. Then came the warm ups. Everyone was all business, except Edwards and Hopkins. Both waved to the crowd. Obviously, they cheered for the Japanese riders. Finally, the race started. I got a vid of the opening lap ride by. Nothing special. There were a few hairy passes, some riders going wide for no good reason, and the fans hated Biaggi. I clearly saw sparks come off the bikes as Rossi and Melandri had fun together. So dissappointing. The race kinda ended there for me. After the finish, I got a vid of the cool down lap. Biaggi and Tamada did a burn out for the crowd.
After the race, we had 2 hours to burn. We headed to the Honda Collection Hall. Some nice race bikes there. Old school (which I have no ideas on), and the new ones. Rossi’s Valencia bike is there, as well as his 500GP and 250GP bikes. Daijiro’s bikes are also there. Obviously. Saw some of the race cars too. The historic bikes and cars didn’t interest me at all. We then headed back to the bus.
The bus ride home was 5 hours long. The road into and out of Motegi is a single lane road. A few small farm towns along the way. Backed up for at least 20km. All stop and go. Bikes would pass on the shoulder and in the oncoming lane. You’d watch them do a crazy turn from oncoming, to the shoulder. Cars? Just cut them off. I saw some of the bikes at least 3 times. They’d pass us, head up to 7-11 or some other convenience store, take a 20 minute break, and continue. Needless to say, I was jealous, but thankful I didn’t have to use my energy to ride back to Tokyo. It was fun to watch the bikes. They may not be in the same group, but you could see 10 bikes traveling together. All in the oncoming lane. When one darted for the shoulder, you saw 10 bikes do the same thing at the same time. 10 cars buzzed by 10 bikes. When we got to the pit stop for “dinner”, we saw a ton of bikes. The same guys. It’s the last gas stop for a while. Better safe than sorry. The Expressway was backed up worse than on the way there. I passed out. Oh well. We finally got into town and I crashed when I got in.
