World Superbike at Laguna Seca - July 13, 2003

Write up and pics by Jel (scroll down for the pics)

Woke up up early Sunday morning to head down to Dave's place in Montara. South City near Westborough Blvd at 5:30am was blanketed in heavy fog and cold. Not the best way to start what was going to be a great day at the races, but it could have been worse. Rain? I left at 6am going down a sweet little road off Skyline called Sharp Park. Its only a couple of miles long but its 2 lanes in both directions with really smooth pavement and some fast constant radius sweepers....great fun in the dry but when its wet and you are on bald race tires its sucks ass. Basically its a quick and fun way to get from South San Francisco to Pacific and Hwy 1. Everything was drenched and I had Rennsport Race RS2's that were turning into true slicks! Not the best tire for the conditions as my rear stepped out only going 25 mph in a mild left hand turn. Nothing like a little "oh shit" to get the grogginess out of you. So I tiptoe my way down to Hwy 1 and head south. Mind you the fog is even heavier at this lower elevation and with 30 feet of visibility I make my way through Pacifica, over Devil's Slide, and into Montara at a snail's pace. Good thing there wasn't much traffic.

Get to Dave's and everything is quiet. Hmmm....either they left for the 2nd meeting spot (92/Hwy 1) or they over slept. I was this close to leaving when Glen opens the the front door. Turns out the power went out so no alarm clock....yeah whatever dudes....just get your shit together and lets go. :)

Glen and Sammy (Glen's GF) crashed at Dave's so Glen's first time on a bike since his crash will be a 100 mile ride on a GSXR1000 WITH a passenger. We all leave Dave's to go hook up with my cousin in Half Moon Bay. We were 30 minutes late so they took off ahead of us. We still had to meet Andy at the intersection of Bonny Doon and Hwy 1 so we gas up and take off. The fog was still pretty heavy. I was in full leathers so it wasn't too bad but Dave, Glen, and Sammy just had m/c jackets and regular pants. After passing Pescadero the fog burned off and the sun was out. Ahhhh....time to warm up. We get to Bonny Doon and Andy is crashed on a bench. We take a quick break to warm up and then head down to Watsonville to hunt for discount tix.

With Dave leading the way we wander aimlessly through Watsonville trying to find the elusive Shell station on Freedom Blvd. We stop and I get directions and we finally find it, but they are out. So much for that adventure. LOL!

Finally we get back on track and head down to Monterey. We take the back entrance off Reservation Road and we get to the track, finally at 10:45am. Park and lock the bikes and gear and we were off to watch race 1 at the corkscrew. As we were walking over we get a call from Megan asking for directions. Turns out she decided to come watch and was going to ride down alone. We set up a meeting time to hook up with her and set off for the hike up the hill to the corkscrew. It was pretty packed but we found some shade and settled in for the WSBK Race 1. Which ended up being pretty cool cause Chili got 1st place and not cool cause of the 5 bike crash in Turn 2 on the first lap of the race. Wildcard rider Eric Bostrom couldn't continue do to injuries in that crash...damn that sucked!

After the race we hit the vendor area and hung around T2 to watch the 750 Superstock race. After that, we checked out the SuperMoto race which is BADASS! Basically 4 stroke dirt bikes with street tires going around a tight course of dirt and asphalt. There were some big names riding like Doug Chandler, Larry Pegram, and Jeremy Mcgrath. There were TONS of people watching that race. Its gonna be a really popular series, mark my words.

We finally hook up with Megan and cruise around the vendor area a little more. Megan's tells us that her friend Jessica Wong is working as an umbrella girl and was with Tommy Hayden and Gregorio Lavilla. I'm still looking for pit row picks of her so if you see any please let me know and EMAIL ME. We then worked our way over to the hill above Turn 2 to watch WSBK Race 2. Rueben Xaus takes this one with a HUGE margin. Oh, BTW, everyone here in the States, UK, and Australia pronounces his last name "zouse" (like house), when in actuality its pronounced "chouse" in Spain. Now you know....just a little WSBK trivia.

We stick around for the last race of the day figuring we'd let the traffic die down. The last race of the day turns out is the last 250 GP race that will ever be held at Laguna cause of the series being closed down. Rich Oliver stays true and consistent and takes win number 64. He is undefeated so far this whole season taking first place in every race.

After the race we head back to the bikes and get ready for the ride home. Andy and Megan decide to take Hwy 1 with us and then just jump on Hwy 17 into San Jose. Traffic was still backed up big time and we were stuck in about a 5 mile backup on a 2 lane road. Glen decides to take control and we "lane split" through the whole thing all the way out to Reservation Road. Damn if we stayed in that backup we would probably be there till dark!

We cruise up Hwy 1 and Megan and Andy take off at 17 in Santa Cruz. As we head north it got a lot cooler but at least it wasn't foggy. At this hour the sun was in our eyes but traffic was pretty light and we got to Half Moon Bay with out incident.. We decide to check out the fairly new Hawaiian restaurant in Half Moon Bay called Ono's. Food is good but definitely NOT Hawaiian prices. $12.95 for a Teri Beef plate?

After dinner we head home. Dave and Glen head to Dave's place in Montara (5 minutes north on Hwy) and I head up to South City. Devil's Slide is interesting in the dark but not all that bad. At least it wasn't foggy and wet. Sharp Park was fun until I saw a po-po but fortunately he was on the other side. I looked down at my speedo and I was running speed limit anyway so no biggie. After passing him I see headlights coming up on me fast....its a BMW Z3 Coupe....I decide to pace it and we finish up the last 2/3rds of the road side by side all the way up to Skyline. A little wave to the BMW dude and a honk back from him and I'm home in 1 minute.

It was a FUN FUN day at the races. Sorry more of you guys didn't come out to join us. Don't know if I'll be going next year cause if rumors are true, MotoGP will be in Alabama in 2004, so that will be the races I want to check out!!!