My plans for getting down to Laguna Seca this year were the same as they have been for the prior three years since MotoGP has returned to US soil. I like to get an early start, like five days early, take my time riding my motorcycle down the coast and the back roads of Northern California, and stay with friends in Santa Cruz the Wednesday before the race. Thursday, I move on to a campground to meet up with my friend Keith, who trailers his CBR 1000 from Eugene in a one-day crunch down I-5.
But as race week approached, my plans were looking increasingly doubtful. Over 2,000 fires were reported burning in NorCal, and the state map posted on the Cal Fires website looked like a minefield. My first stop this year was going to be in Redding to stay with friends I hadn’t seen in a few years, and from the map it looked like Redding itself was in flames. My usual trip down highway 96, the Klamath River Highway was complicated by a major fire near Happy Camp. Going west from Redding looked like the worst option available, with major fires in and around Whiskeytown and Weaverville.
Fortunately, I’d decided not to camp this year at Big Sur for the races because Big Sur was fighting off the biggest fire in the state, and all the campgrounds there, and everything else for that matter, have been evacuated. Checking the weather reports for various towns along the way, I found heavy smoke warnings for every location I looked at. It seemed destined to be an uncomfortable trip at best.
Things looked so bad I actually thought about waiting until Thursday and going the I-5 route. The smoke along the interstate was reported to be as bad as everyplace else, but at least I’d be in it for fewer days. Going the back roads and camping along the way was looking like a ride into Dante’s Inferno.
In the end, though, I decided to stick more or less to the original plan. If things got bad enough, I figured I’d find a motel to hide in and hope conditions would be better the next day. In fact, it turns out I had the best trip down and back of anybody I talked to, purely out of dumb luck and one good choice. Redding, though smoky, wasn’t much worse than a moderate smog alert in LA or San Jose, two cities I grew up in. I was in my twenties before I could personally confirm that the sky was actually blue.
After staying in Redding, I rode the thirty miles down to Red Bluff and cut over for the coast on Highway 36 and was lucky the whole trip. I rode through one extensive burn area, but by the time I got there the fire was out, with only a few spots where I still noticed some smoldering undergrowth. The worst of it was having to ride with special care because of all the fire crews, trucks and equipment on the road.
I had the same good luck in Santa Cruz. My friends there reported that smoke conditions had run from bad to worse for several weeks, but the day I arrived we had a nice breeze off the ocean. As usual, the ride across the Golden Gate Bridge was exhilarating, and the coast highway from San Francisco to Santa Cruz was sunny and brisk.
But once I got to the track at Laguna Seca, all thoughts of smoke and fires evaporated in the excitement of the races and the pageantry of thousands of race fans, most of them riding sport bikes ranging from the commonplace to the exotic. Crowds were down a little, which is never a bad thing, and the weather was perfect.
And the racing was some of the best I’ve ever enjoyed. Although all of us were there primarily for the MotoGP, I had a hunch the best races of the weekend might be the Red Bull Rookies cup, two races featuring the most promising young road racers, ages thirteen to sixteen, from North and South America. I wasn’t disappointed. These twenty-four riders, at such tender young ages, all have years of racing experience already behind them.
Riding KTM two-stroke 125s, identical even down to the paint scheme, the races are pure tests of rider skill and maturity, and the best riders quickly move to the front of the pack where they fight it out with perhaps less finesse than older riders but a wild determination that makes the races thrilling. In race one on Saturday, thirteen-year-old Benny Solis of California and sixteen-year-old Argentinean Leandro Mercado traded the lead frequently around the demanding Laguna Seca track and were never more that a bike length or two apart.
On the last lap, Solis dove under Mercado in the last turn and they came out dead even in an elbow-throwing rush to the finish line, with Solis winning by 1.0001 second. That’s one ten-thousandth, if I’m not mistaken. Lots of people, including the track announcer, were saying it was the most exciting race they had ever seen, and I had to agree.
Sunday’s Rookies Cup was almost as good, with the addition of Hayden Gillem in a tight three-way race for the win. In the end, though, it was Solis first across the line again. Watch for this kid to be riding in the big leagues in a few more years. For more on the Rookies Cup, visit the official website at http://us.redbullrookiescup.com/index.php.
After all that excitement, the GP race might have even been an anti-climax, especially with Casey Stoner absolutely dominating practice and qualifying. It looked all but certain that if he got the race lead, he’d ride away from the pack, and the only real interest to the race would be in who else would make the podium. And Stoner did get the jump and lead going over turn one, but by turn two, Valentino Rossi made a bold pass on the brakes and the race was on.
Stoner had the slight advantage in bike speed but Rossi kept the pressure on, with frequent lead changes until Stoner finally made a mistake in turn eleven and went into the sand. Even after dropping his bike, he still got back on the track in second place, but by then Rossi had a commanding lead and the race was virtually over. American Nicky Hayden could only pull out a respectable fifth place, but Rossi, ever popular no matter where he races, got a huge ovation from the crowd. Good racing makes heroes of everyone.
After all the fun at Laguna, I decided to make a quick trip home with a blast up I-5 and made it to the door for dinner Monday afternoon, tired but happy once again.
As long as MotoGP comes to the West Coast every summer, I hope to be able to make it down. For me, Laguna Seca remains the premier motorcycle event of the year in the United States.
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