Just got back from the GP and had a great time. The highlight of my weekend was Nicky's win. Nicky is a great kid as are the rest of the family so when I saw Nicky taking Earl around the track on his victory lap, it brought tears to my eyes. He had tears in his eyes when they played the national anthem on the podium. My second highlight was meeting and having a great conversation with Jeremy Burgess at the Yamaha 50th anniversary party. I could go on and on about the racing heroes and tv stars I had a chance to spend time with but I won't bore you.
As far as Superbike goes, I'm a Mladin fan but I was happy to see Eric Bostrom pull out a win at his home track. His team really needed that win too. Josh Hayes had a mishap and took out Neil Hodgson. Josh said that Neil was pretty mad and that he felt just terrible about it. Ben Attard qualified well in Supersport and actually let a few laps before crashing out around lap 3, he's unhurt. Tommy and Roger Lee Hayden both almost pulled off wins for Kawasaki but it wasn't meant to be.
Daniel Stauffer came over for the race. Jamie had hoped to come but wasn't able to. On Sunday, I took Dan up to the world famous "corkscrew" during the first half of the Superstock race. He couldn't believe how steep it is because you just can't tell on TV. Dan also got the benefit of our hospitality suite. No standing online for food or toilets!
The vendor area was always busy. Long lines for souveniers too. According to the V.P. of Marketing, Thursday was the biggest day of souvenier sales ever at Laguna Seca. The AGV helmet guy had brought 60 helmets and by noon on Friday he had sold 20. Needless to say, he sold out and wished he had 60 more. I can't imagine the $ that changed hands last weekend.
Lowlights of the weekend were the traffic in and out of the track. We stayed until 9 p.m. on Sunday and got right out. Also, I don't know who they got to sing the American National Anthem on Sunday but it was an embarrasment to all Americans. He was terrible and then he stopped in the middle because he forgot the words. And with all the world watching.
Well that's a little sample of my GP weekend. Yes, I'll be back next year!
Steph