There were motorbikes everywhere and the Spanish especially love their sportbikes. Lots of Japanese liters, Japanese 600 nakeds (that we don't get in America) and a handful of Triumphs. And those little Spanish guys can all ride too. Blistered tires are more common than not!
These signs were all over Spain but were especially prevalent near the track. Motorbiking is simply a big thing in the South of Spain.
Our tickets were for turn 11, the last turn before the straighaway. They turned out to be great seats; the only better choice would have been turn 1 as that's where all the crashes happened.
Jackson came along on practice day.
We picked a good race to attend as American John Hopkins was drafted to fill in for the injured Alvaro Bautista resulting in a total of four Americans at Jerez (Spies, Hayden, Edwards and Hopkins.) Here's Colin Edwards "The Texas Tornado" and John "Hopper" Hopkins on Friday practice.
Andrea Iannone, the 21 year old eventual winner of the Moto2 race and the rider with the overall brightest future.
Our grandstand had access to the entire infield area with the exception of the paddock. At any time, we could walk around the inside perimeter including this spot along the back straight. As you can see, the track is only about 20 feet away. Quality photos were pretty hard to achieve since the riders are going 160+ mph but I managed to get a few decent ones.
Colin Edwards
Seven time MotoGP World Champion, Valentino Rossi. Easily the most skilled and charismatic rider.
American Ben Spies.
Jessica and I on the back straight.
The best part of having access to the back straight is that the riders would stop to do practice starts at the end of each session. They stopped just in front of us. I could see the whites of their eyes.
Alex de Angelis (my favorite Moto2 rider) and Scott Redding, who I imagine was very thankful for a chance to have a wet race.
Cal Crutchlow.
Spies.
Reigning World Champion, Spaniard and crowd favorite Jorge Lorenzo.
Lorenzo and Hopper
The first lap of the 125 race in misty, dark conditions.
The first lap of the Moto2 race.
Lorenzo won the MotoGP race and he is a big, big deal in Spain. The Spanish fan are split around 40% Rossi, 40% Lorenzo, 15 % Pedrosa and then split the remaining 5% on everyone else. But the Lorenzo fans are animals. They have go nuts every time he comes into sight, even on the 20th lap around.
And these are all the motorbikes. Thousands. Maybe as much as 80,000. It was like Woodstock for motorcyclists. There were concerts at night, mobile strip clubs coming on site, fields upon fields of motorbikers camping. It was nuts.
Overall, this video from Alpinestars sums up the weekend and the experience perfectly: http://youtu.be/2Th5NLPh5Y4
Finally, a Triumph dealership that we visited during our side trip to Dublin. It was unremarkable and could have been in Idaho if you didn't know better.
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