The World of MotoGP…Day Two

It was a dark and stormy night, no wait, wrong story. It was a cold and wet morning. Yeah that’s it, the fog had settled in so much that Superbike practice here at Laguna Seca was called off. You can’t see the track! So, time for the first interview of the day. First on the list, Yamaha Superbike pilot Eric Bostrom.
Heather and I met him in the luxurious Yamaha team hauler. He is a great interview, we had a lot of fun, we talked motorcycles, family, surfing…a good time was had by all. So far the Yamaha and Honda guys are the most fun to be with. Now it’s time to cruise the MotoGP pits and see whom else we can scare up to talk with…wish me luck.

Luck was shining down; we have an interview with Suzuki MotoGP ace Chris Vermuelen later this afternoon, now it’s off to track down Valentino…hey, who can resist me.

We took some time to watch MotoGP qualifying, pretty darn exciting to say the least. Check this out, as we all know, right now Ducati’s Casey Stoner is on a tear. It’s almost like everyone else is racing for 2nd (remember the years that Rossi was on fire?), Casey Stoner has broken the track record here, are you ready for this, 8 times this weekend!!! Six times today! Unreal. But as we all know Valentino is no slouch. Valentino doesn’t like Laguna Seca all that well but you couldn’t tell it today, he is on the front row right next to young Mr. Stoner.

Australian Chris Vermuelen is fast. He’s also a really nice and fun young man. We spent about 20 minutes together talking about racing and how he got started and then the conversation turned to his other love…American Hot Rods. Listening to the stories of he and his dad restoring and customizing these cars was a blast. I asked him if he would come to California in the off season and help me restore my old ’63 Fairlane. Then it was show and tell time, pictures of his favorite cars on his Blackberry. You can hear which ones on the podcast.

The MotoGP press conference after qualifying was good fun, I’ll have bits and pieces of that on the podcast too. Done for the day. My crystal ball shows dinner and bed in my future. I’ll talk with you tomorrow.

Ride safe, ride fast, I’ll see you on the road.

Paul