 Tire Removal - 1 |
 Tire Removal - 2 |
This week, I went to the Superbike Classic at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Steve (ApexMolester from NSS) lives very close by and invited me up to stay with him for the weekend. Greg (Coderz from NSS) was also going to be staying.
Since I had a place to stay all dialed in, all I needed to do was find a good way to get there. I was planning on riding CamBRee up, but I needed a route and wanted someone to ride with. I found out that Brad (racerxlilbro from SoCalSportbikes) was planning on riding up on the same day I was, Thursday.
I got to the meeting spot and was going to begin taking some pictures, but my digital camera's
batteries were dead. So, I don't have pictures of the whole ride up to Laguna Seca. I will say that
we had a great time on the ride up there. Here was the basic plan:
Thursday, 5:30 AM - meet at Mobil Station at Westlake Blvd, and T.O. Blvd. Take 101 North to 33. 33 to 166,
Right to Maricopa. Left on 33, again, all the way to Taft. We'll stop at the Chevron in Taft. From there,
we'll go to McKittrick, to the 58. Up the 58 to Shell Creek Road. Shell Creek dumps us behind Paso Robles.
There are a couple of roads around Paso we don't remember by name, but know by sight. We'll wind up back on the
101 for a short jaunt into Greenfield. We'll stop at the coolest little hole in the wall restaurant in Greenfield,
then take Carmel Valley Road to Laureles Grade to 68.
I met up with Brad and his buddy Ricky, a.k.a. Fast Ricky. Ricky had lead rider duty and did a great job. He set a good pace and was very familiar with the roads. At rest stops, he would describe the next set of roads for us so we could be prepared.
When we stopped in Taft, we picked up Fred (rrwantr from SCS). We also met up with 3 other guys heading up to Laguna Seca. We all decided to ride up together. I think all of the roads we took were good. Brad dragged a knee for the first time on Hwy 33. I was getting my knee down for the first time on the streets on 58.
Once we finally made it to Montery, we all split up and found our lodging for the weekend. That's when I headed over the Steve's place.
Once I arrived at Steve's he took a close look at my rear tire and said, "You might get another 100 miles out
of that tire, but you certainly won't make it home." Luckily for me, he had a spare used tire around and a connection
at the local motorcycle shop. Also, luckily for me, Steve had exactly the kind of batteries I needed (rechargable AA
NiMH) and a charger. So, I promptly borrowed his batteries until mine recharged.
Steve works at the Raceway on a regular basis, but this year dedicated his time to showing Greg and I a good time. Mission Accomplished. He gave us a night time tour of the track and the paddock area. We then headed back to his place for a good nights rest, afterall, I just did 370 miles on twisty back roads and we were going to go for a ride in the morning.
Once we completed getting Steve's spare tire on my back rim, we geared up and did some local area back roads. I will
admit that I was out front and got lost. My only excuse is that I got so caught up with the juicy corners that I simply
missed the turn off. I did make good time catching back up to Steve and Greg, plus I got to hit some more good corners.
Once we finished our ride, we decided to head over to the track to see the afternoon activities. When we got there, Steve had
some connections that allowed us to park in the VIP parking area.
We then walked over into the paddock (garage) area. While I was there, I took a picture of the Jumbo-tron they had in
the paddock.
We looked around in the Paddock for a bit and then walked over to the Vendor displays. We then headed over and watched
a qualifying heat of the Super Moto race.
After watching some Super Moto, we decided to head over to what would be our main hangout while at the races, the
Big Oak Tree near Turn 2.
That night, we headed over to the famous Cannery Row. Steve warned Greg and I that this would be mild compared to
Saturday night. He wasn't just kidding either. Friday nights are extemely tame compared to what it was like on Saturday.
Steve, Greg and I got to the track fairly early on Saturday because we didn't want to miss the AMA Superbike race. We decided to sit in
the "Turn 11" Grandstand (it's really more like the front straight grandstand). We got there early enough to see a stunt
show being put on by the European Champ. He was quite impressive.
 Saturday A.M. - 1 |
 Saturday A.M. - 2 |
 Grandstand - 1 |
 Grandstand - 2 |
 Grandstand - 3 |
 Grandstand - 4 |
 Stunt Show - 1 |
 Stunt Show - 2 |
 Stunt Show - 3 |
We watched the AMA Superbike race from the Grandstand and then walked around the paddock area looking at some of the teams
garages.
Once we completed the days activities, we went and made sure that CamBRee was ready for her parade lap. We cleaned
her up a bit and loaded her into Steve's Wells Cargo. I almost felt like I had a pit crew. :) That night we hit up Cannery
Row, where things were simply chaotic, but in a fun way. We then got some sleep so we could get to the track early and get
a good parking spot to unload CamBRee.
What can I say about the parade lap? It wasn't long enough. The staging takes place 45 minutes before the first group, (about 20-25 riders) gets to hit the track. There were about 200 motorcycles in the staging area for the Parade lap. It was barely controlled chaos. Once I finally got on the track, I hung back and let the pace bike get well out in front. I then diced my way back up to the pace bike. Once I got close to where I knew Steve and Greg where, I slowed down and waved. I then quickly caught back up to the pace bike. Before I knew it, the lap was over.
We did get to see some exciting World Superbike racing. We (I) kept selecting the wrong location to watch the race from. In the first race, where there were quite a few crashes in Turn 2, we were in the paddock watching it on the Jumbo-tron. When we watched the second race from our Turn 2 Hangout, there really wasn't much action there, we needed a Jumbo-tron. Oh well, we had a great time, despite my choices for locale.
For me, one of the highlights of the weekend was getting a chance to get my picture taken with some Pro racers. On Saturday,
I got to meet Adam "Krusty" Fergusson and on Sunday, I got to meet Kurtis "KRob" Roberts.
With the weekend finally over, I decided to get a good nights sleep at Steve's place and then head home on Monday morning. This gave
me another chance to carve up Carmel Valley Rd. What a weekend.
