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posted July 24, 2006 02:42 PM
 Edited By: fish_antlers on 26 Jul 2006 22:01
Nicky Hayden takes MotoGP Victory at Laguna Seca ; Attendance down?
 Nicky Hayden takes MotoGP Victory at Laguna Seca as record heat coupled with soaring prices appear to drive attendance down even though "official" figures appear state otherwise
After massive delays due to poor track conditions, Nicky Hayden won the MotoGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the second year in a row. In the record setting heat, Valentino Rossi struggled to work his way up to 4th place and on the second to last lap suffered mechanical failure, forcing him to park his bike on the side of the track.
Photo (right) taken at 1 PM Raceday.
The heat not only took its toll on racers and spectators, but also on the track itself. Track temperature was reported to be over 143' on Saturday, and sources told Bikeland that the fresh and uncured pavement was disintegrating in turns 3 and 9 from the heat. Problems began for Laguna Seca and SCRAMP on Friday after discovering water leaks surfacing in turns 2 and 3. In an effort to solve the problem crews shut off all the water to the entire vendor's area hoping it would stop the leak, closing all the restrooms in the track's infield. Workers spent a late night digging a trench around the inside of turn 2 in hopes of finding the source of the water. Sources also told Bikeland that over a month ago officials dealt with similar problems in turn 5 when a natural underground spring surfaced causing water issues. Laguna Seca Raceway recently spent over 7 million dollars to upgrade the pavement on the track to bring it up to MotoGP standards, but many felt that their efforts may have been last minute and rushed, suspecting that the freshly paved road surface did not have enough time to cure.
As fans baked in the heat, little to no racing was taking place for the majority of the day; instead officials toured GP riders around in pace cars announcing that the additional rider sighting laps were "fan appreciation laps".
Poor signage, overzealous parking attendants and unfriendly police mixed with high temperatures to help drive attendance at this year's GP event down by an estimated 20%. Fans could easily walk around the usually clogged vendor's area that featured large sections left wide open by retailers who chose not to return this year.
The bizarre one way in, one way out traffic plan implemented by SCRAMP worked for entering the track, but left exiting motorcyclists enraged as they were forced to travel an additional 45 minutes towards Salinas even if they were headed directly to Monterey. We were personally forced to travel an additional 25 miles to get to our house which was 3 miles down the road, however the road was a "car only road". When we asked the officer's manning the road why motorcycles were not permitted on the road, we were threatened with being cited (for what, we had no idea).
Interestingly enough, officials had no problem allowing cars in the motorcycle only access roads.
Source: Bikeland.org
   
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blueford
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posted July 24, 2006 03:16 PM
Some day in the future with a 60" HD TV and interactive viewing, that which if I choose I could ride the whole race on board with Nicky via bike cameras, surround sound and my lazy ass in a recliner with a beer and Fritos.
Well, I might not go.
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nightmare
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posted July 24, 2006 03:55 PM
Nick is really ridng this year. Congrats!
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tradetodeath
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posted July 24, 2006 04:12 PM
Edited By: tradetodeath on 24 Jul 2006 17:20
Um...
Actuall Hayden and Pedrosa passed Vermuelen who was on pole. Nicky started 6th.
Pedrosa was never ahead of Hayden.
Also, it was hotter than hell. There was so little shade available many were sitting/laying under the vendor tents. You could barely get close to the Bikes in the Honda/Kawi tents because of all the bodies just in the way. Also, I barely made it home, baking 6 hours in the heat and then having to cross central california on bike, 3 hour ride.. It was 111 in Santa Nella when I poured a bottle of Dasani in my Shoei.
tradetodeath.
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D
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posted July 24, 2006 04:52 PM
Last year was such a cluster that I made zero plans to go this year.
This write-up looks kinda grim. Add in the local pillaging hotels' rates (typically 8 times what a the same exact room would cost on any non-race weekend) and it seems like Monterey is doin all it can to keep us away.
$1000.00 weekend isn't in everyones budget (at least not mine) to blow on an event like this - I'd at least like a reach around or maybe even a kiss 
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Ozzy
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posted July 24, 2006 06:12 PM
told ya Wildwood would have been the better choice . . . . .
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14black
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posted July 24, 2006 08:13 PM
Maybe they should re-schedule Laguna to earlier in the season next year?!?!?
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young lion
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posted July 24, 2006 11:02 PM
We had a great time.
VIP seating, paddock access, we met everyone we wanted to meet and a ton more, and all the free booze, food, and giveaways you could carry/drink/eat!
VIP parking had us in and out in no time and our seats were covered, shaded seats just past Dunlop bridge at turn 4 so no negative feedback at all, just a great weekend.
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D
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posted July 25, 2006 06:39 AM
It would be difficult to have negative feedback with that kind of set up - cool that you got hooked up like that.
For the remaining 98% of attendees, that is not reality though.
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young lion
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posted July 25, 2006 04:10 PM
That kinda hookup is available to anyone willing to pay $375 for the tickets - we got our money's worth in beverages alone:
3 Days of 100+ degree weather = 25 bottles of Dasani, 10 26oz Corona's, and 12 Red Bulls - grand total of $226 just to keep hydrated and refreshed. Add in Breakfast and lunch for the three days that was provided, not to mention the mid-afternoon snacks/munchies that was available, you can easily see why the ticket was paid for in food/drink alone, not to mention the parking and paddock passes or the benefit of being able to sit in a shaded seat with a 27" TV 6 feet in front of you to view whatever was happening at the time.
The bonus is that we get first right of refusal on the tickets for next year as well so now it's just getting wifey's okay and we're off to do it all over again next year.
Kawi can at least say they finished better than Ducati - those Desmosedici's ran like shite all weekend for some reason.
____________
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fish_antlers
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posted July 25, 2006 05:32 PM
Apparently official numbers claim an increase in attendance... find that very very hard to believe... hard to deny pix of empty stands and empty track. When we asked officials if attendance was up, they responded with this answer:
"It was better managed"
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ZX11D
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posted July 26, 2006 04:17 PM
Edited By: ZX11D on 26 Jul 2006 17:32
In my opinion, they attempted to over-manage and over-organize. The event was more dull the last year's GP, which definitely appeared to have higher attendance, in which the in-and-out traffic had better flow. One recollection and a good example of attendance was the crowd on the south side of the Corkscrew Hill, which last year was completely full. This year, it was covered rather sparsely.
I hope that SCRAMP will listen to complains of the riders and teams, as well as to the general public and will correct this year mistakes in order to prevent repeating of history, when they lost this greatest event in motorcycle racing event after only six short years of racing between 1988 and 1993.
BTW Fish, it was nice to meet you and Princess Kiwi.
Steven
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fish_antlers
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posted July 26, 2006 09:02 PM
great meeting you too 
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ddpete3
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posted July 28, 2006 09:04 AM
You got any pics posted up?
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fish_antlers
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posted July 28, 2006 03:48 PM
will post up about 100 pix next week...
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worm~hole
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posted July 28, 2006 07:08 PM
...hey d'pete...nice avatar...those were the days my friend  ...
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stand ready in the night to visit violence on those
who would do us harm.”
-George Orwell
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biggar
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posted July 28, 2006 07:47 PM
We had a lovely time. Camping right on the hill between turn 2 and turn 5 was hard to beat. It kind of turned into the LABusas compound for 4 days. Great to see FA and Kiwi at the fire on Sunday night.
I have no complaints, and I also have some most excellent shoes and socks.
So there.
Gar
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frEEk
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posted July 28, 2006 08:52 PM
quote:
VIP parking had us in and out in no time...
could you expand on this? did you ride in or drive/bus/fly? which entrance and exit did you take? we had the parking hookup too but aparently that does not provide special treatment when leaving, just when coming. or it did, but as usual no-one working there had a clue.
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frEEk
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posted July 28, 2006 08:54 PM
Edited By: frEEk on 28 Jul 2006 21:54
A couple arial shots from flyboy.
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young lion
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posted July 28, 2006 09:52 PM
quote:
quote:
VIP parking had us in and out in no time...
could you expand on this? did you ride in or drive/bus/fly? which entrance and exit did you take? we had the parking hookup too but aparently that does not provide special treatment when leaving, just when coming. or it did, but as usual no-one working there had a clue.
We drove in and all we had was the Blue #2 Parking pass that we stuck in the windshield. Driving in was done at the main entrance - longest wait there was 2-3 minutes because some motorcycles held us up as they were apparently using the wrong entrance.
We parked in the exact same spot all three days - right above where our seating was at turn 4 - we had a wait one day (Saturday) of about 10 minutes before we started moving and once we did we took a different exit than usual but it worked out perfectly as we were heading to Monterey to see the movie DTK.
Maybe we just had good luck with our timing?
____________
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Ninja14
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posted July 28, 2006 09:58 PM
I had a great time........but it was damn HOT!
I spent about $1000 for tix, gas (biked from LA), 4 nights hotel, food....etc. Well worth it to me. I saw about everything and everyone.........crowds not too bad. It was a lot more enjoyable than last year for me and if it stays the same I will go for as long as they have it there.
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fish_antlers
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posted July 29, 2006 05:53 AM
must have had luck with timing YL... we had no problem entering or parking (same blue parking pass)... exiting was a different issue... we were forced to take a huge detour to exit every time. I certainly didnt like the cop yelling at us for no reason or putting his hands all over our bike.
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frEEk
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posted July 29, 2006 10:45 AM
YL, i take it u drove a cage? that would be the diff. cages were allowed to exit out the main gate. i will say one positive thing: the switch to making people park and take the shuttle in was a huge improvement in terms of congestion. if they jsut let people (cages or riders) choose which entrance or exit to use, it would have been fine.
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young lion
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posted July 29, 2006 01:09 PM
Yes, we flew down and had the use of a 2006 Dodge Ram diesel, a very nice perk for sure. If I remember correctly, we exited through three separate exits the three days we left the track, Sunday being the only day we actually left through the main entrance/exit area.
Even if we're lucky enough to do this again next year, my first choice would be to ride down and back but park the bikes while we're there and use the A/C'd truck for commuting - seems much more practical.
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fish_antlers
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posted July 29, 2006 04:42 PM
prob is that vehicles could exit anywhere, but not so for bikes.
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