LORENZO RECEIVES A ROCKSTAR WELCOME IN INDONESIA

2011-01-16 12:22
Today saw the third day of World Champion Jorge Lorenzo's visit to Indonesia before heading off to Bali for some much deserved relaxation time. The Yamaha Factory Racing rider left Jakarta early this morning and flew to Surabaya for a tight schedule of afternoon activities. The first engagement on arrival saw Lorenzo attend a press conference for 100 journalists and photographers at the JW Marriott Hotel to again introduce the new Yamaha Jupiter MX. This was followed by an incredible meet and greet at the DBL Arena where the young Mallorcan arrived to be treated like a rock star by over 5000 screaming fans who had waited since the early hours of the morning to see him.

Following the afternoon meet and greet Lorenzo was guest of honour at a formal Sushi dinner with a local Yamaha dealer and some fans. Tomorrow will see the World Champion fly to Bali for a meet and greet and a final press conference before kicking back for a week to relax before the 1st test of 2011 in Sepang on 1st February.

Here is the second of Jorge's Indonesian diaries about his visit:

"It's my third day in Indonesia, my second diary and I have many surprises to tell you. I've never seen anything like today, especially this afternoon. It is incredible how the people from Surabaya live and breathe MotoGP and follow me. DBL Arena is a basketball arena and more than 5000 people were screaming and waiting for me. It was amazing! I felt like a rock star! It is much more than I expected and I thought that the welcome and the atmosphere of my last year's visit to Jakarta would be impossible to ‘overtake'. Thanks Indonesia! You make me feel as if I was at home. You have been treating me like a king for three days. They have been telling me continuously: "Don't worry about anything. We'll take care of everything". Well, that's the way it's been so far, amazing!

My journey started at 8am in Jakarta today. I trained, took a shower, took breakfast and went straight to the airport for the flight to Surabaya.

After a quick lunch we started the Press Conference with the local Yamaha dealer, one of the most important in Indonesia. I had not even heard about Surabaya, but it is the second largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta, with a population of approximately 6,000,000 people.

After the press conference to introduce the new Jupiter MX to the local journalists, we moved to the DBL arena where...well, where everything happened!

I went onto the stage riding the Jupiter, wearing an extra-terrestrial vest and surrounded by beautiful models wearing the same costume. I put the ‘Lorenzo's Land' flag on the ground, meaning that today Surabaya is my territory, and then I enjoyed the huge round of applause of about 5000 people who were waiting for my arrival since 7am this morning... Unbelievable!

After that I had a contest with a videogame and I rode against 3 fans, chosen among the public. I don't know how, but I won. Then, like on a real race, I stepped on the highest step of the podium and I thanked my fans with a fake bottle of champagne that was actually a ‘confetti-gun', shooting coloured curls of paper.

I stayed on the stage about 30 minutes, I got a dozen very long rounds of applause and then I got back to the hotel, where I attended a formal dinner with the local dealer and some fans. We had Japanese food and then I hit the hotel room, where I can finally write my diary and take some rest.

Tomorrow we wake up, then it's next stop Bali, where I will attend a press conference in the afternoon and a meet and greet with some other fans by night. Another day at the office, then finally my vacation will start. I am looking forward to it!"

Source: Yamaha MotoGP

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