This year's highlights:
- We met Dad, Uncle Mike and Ché in Charleston, WV and rode in from there as a group.
- Telling Uncle Mike and Ché the story of Austin's new shoes. Austin was complaining about his size 6 shoes hurting his feet and Tracy told him to stop complaining. When he was sized for his cross-country shoes, he actually wears a size 8 1/2. They got a big kick out of this and called her several times to rub it in.
- Listening to the distinctive sound of the Ducati MotoGP bike. If this thing is that loud from the stands, how loud is it when you are 5 feet behind it?
- You can watch races on TV all you want, but there are things you cannot see on TV. For example, both of the Pramac Ducati team riders were trying to ride behind Rossi during warmups. Rossi repeatedly slowed up to let them by and they slowed as well to stay behind him. In fact, throughout the weekend, Rossi came out of the pits last in order to prevent this type of scenario.
- Austin seeing his first Flat Track race. Flat Track is the only truly American form of bike racing and several of the MotoGP stars showed up to watch the race. Valentino Rossi even took the time to address the crowd.
- Ron M. would have loved the flat track bikes, because the weapon of choice is a Harley Davidson XR750. The venerable XR750 was introduced in 1972 and ceased production in 1980. It remains the dominant bike in dirt track racing today. It was not, however, the only twin there. Ducati and KTM had riders in the race as well. Hondas seemed to dominate the singles events.
- I noticed that all the Harley's ran their chain on the right side of the bike, while the other manufactures ran the chain on the left. My bike's chain is on the left, so seeing it on the right simply looks weird. Sort of like seeing the gear shift lever on a Norton on the right.
- Watching a horrific accident in the Flat Track race where a rider was catapulted over the retaining fence and left the track. Broken disc in his back.
- Watching King Kenny Roberts throw caution to the wind and drop the hammer on his 1975 TZ750 for a few serious hot laps. The TZ50 was raced only once in the 1975 Indy Mile and is widely considered the most unmanageable and dangerous dirt tracker ever ridden in competition. Roberts did not practice before the event, he just jumped on the beast and roared around the track like he owned the place. Kenny got completely sideways on the track and showed everybody that the old man still has it. Note: If you know anything about motorcycles, consider that the TZ750 is a 2-stroke engine, on dirt no less, and you can begin to understand why even the King found the beast intimidating. Two strokes have no power band. The power hits all at once. The thing had so much power that it spun the wheels on the rim when Kenny roared down the straight to win the iconic 1975 race.
- Watching Dani Pedrosa take pole position in a runaway qualifying session that saw Dani as the only rider to drop into the 1:37s. Although he seemed to be the man to beat in the race, Dani would drop the bike right in front us while leading the race, negating any chance he had to win.
- Watching Nicky Hayden "making it wide" as he slid into the last few corners to keep Dovizioso at bay and take his first podium on the Ducati this year. Easily the best battle to watch during the race as Jorge Lorenzo disappeared for the easy win. Nicky is riding for his job, so this may help.
- Seeing Valentino inexplicable drop the bike in turn one while fighting Jorge Lorenzo for the lead. It was the Doctor's first DNF in 2 years.
- The two riders most represented by the fans were Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Rossi is the most well-known motorcycle racer in the world and Hayden is the favorite American.
- Ché and I saw one of Hayden's most fervent fans. She was wearing a T-Shirt that said "I would rather be riding Nicky".
- Ché and I also saw "Silicon Sally" in the merchandise tent.
- We saw a guy riding a Pink sportbike when we left the Track on Friday night. Very strange choice of colors. It also had several dangling parts to it and all the front fairing pieces were conspicuously absent.
- Rossi might be the most popular rider, but the prices at his merchandise tent were jaw dropping. $45 for a hat. Wow.
- The new VMax has to be seen in person. The best way to describe it is "an engine with wheels". It is 1700cc and looks bigger.
- The new BMW sportbike is definitely not the typical BMW. Very out of the box and very comparable to the Japanese sportbikes. Should be interesting to follow.
- I don't really care for the new R1. Yamaha need to put covers on the headlights. It looks like they are missing. Looks aside, the sound of the new R1 is head turning. Very twin-like with the new uneven firing order.
- The new Ducati 848/1098/1198 bikes look badass. The Italians can make a good looking machine.
- There were two old guys working a booth in the vendor area with a sign that read "Pictures with us are OK". I regret not getting a picture with them.
- I did take a picture of Austin with the Ducati girls on Ducati Island.
- 76,000 fans at Sunday's race. For a bike race in the US, this is nothing short of amazing.
- Another amazing thing. At Indy you can park right outside the gate for as little as $10. There are houses that sit less than a quarter mile from the gate and a mere 100 feet from the track. IMS is not in the middle of nowhere. It is essentially downtown.
- We booked our hotel for next year and found out before we left the city that is already completely booked for next year.
- Even after visiting the place last year, the sheer size of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway still impresses. I still can't get over how the city envelopes the track.
- Say what you want about about Ducati, but if you buy one, you enter a special club. Every race track has their own "Ducati Island" where Ducati owners enjoy their own tent city, separate vending area, special parking, and reserved seating for the race.
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