Friday: 125 and 250 first qualifying sessions, GP free practice
Most spectators do not go to the track on Friday. Few of the vendors are open, none of the hospitality suites are open, VIP Village is not open, but the pits are relatively empty, and the bikes are out. We almost ALWAYS attempt to go on Friday.
Being our first visit to the Brno circuit, we headed out to wander around the track and see where the good vantage points were, figure out the lay of the land, see where to take pictures from. The Brno circuit is a GORGEOUS spectators circuit. The track is long (about 5km – I think?), it has excellent elevation changes, spectator banking on many of the straight sections and spectator access to virtually the entire circuit (as opposed to Qatar, where there are only 2 places accessible for viewing the race!).
We walked EVERYWHERE!! We ended up spending most of the afternoon on the “C” hill (if you watched the race, this was where all the Pesek and Rossi fans were – track map here), where you could get a clear view of about 3.5 turns, and a bunch of passing opportunities. I was getting used to *my* new Canon XTI. (the joke here is that Jack bought it for himself, as a second camera body, but justified it by saying it would be MY camera. I decided to take him at his word, and actually learn to USE the thing. I’m pretty sure he didn’t plan it this way 🙂) We had both camera bodies and all the lenses to play with, and since it was just practice, we could goof around a lot. This was REALLY good for me, since I haven’t used an SLR since…..sometime in the early to mid 1990’s?
Most of my pics from Friday were total crap as you can see here. However we got to watch the bikes, see the track and formulate a plan for Saturday. Late in the afternoon, as practice wound down, and the Rookie’s cup kids took to the track, the weather changed VIOLENTLY. In a very short period of time, the clouds covered the sky, the temperature dropped precipitously and it began to rain. HARD. People scattered. The only beer tent that was open filled quickly.
Cold and wet, Jack and I also took refuge in the beer tent. Jack bought us Brno circuit fleece jackets so we wouldn’t freeze to death (I think the track did record business on the fleeces on this afternoon!) and we sat in the tent waiting for the rain to stop. Us and a bunch of EXCEEDINGLY intoxicated Pesek fans (Pesek is the 125 Czech rider – home town hero) and a bunch of VERY intoxicated and aggressive BritPunks who really wanted to brawl with the Pesek fans! Surrounded by chants of “LUUUUUCAS” and “PESSSSSSEK” with air horns blasting and banners waving – there was not enough beer or earplugs to make me want to hang out for a long time. Yet the rain poured on.
We were staying late at the track because Pole Position was having its “Start Your Engines” party in their hospitality tent at T1 (track map here). Food, drink, riders, socializing. The unfortunate part was that the “Refugees” did not have a way to go back to the hotel prior to the party. So we killed time waiting for the hospitality tent to open.
All the party-goers were in the same state when the tent opened: cold, wet, tired. Even the people who had been able to go back to their hotels were cold and damp. Luckily Pole Position throws a good party! TONS of BBQed meat (I think they had 3 whole roast pigs!) plus chicken, fish, salads, desserts. As people streamed into the tent, body heat warmed the chilly evening air, animated conversation floated over the MMMMMMM’s of those eating, Gordon got on the mic to introduce Mattia Pasini (Italian 125 rider – total cutie, in that “22 year old, young enough to be my son” sorta way) and general warmth and happiness pervaded the scene.
Jack was falling asleep at the table (LITERALLY), so we caught the first bus we could to get back to the hotel. Unfortunately (as we would find over the rest of the weekend) the Hotel Gregor was the “outlier” hotel, and typically got serviced as an afterthought. We spent just about an hour on the bus, going to all the downtown hotels (which were FURTHER from the track than the Gregor) before the bus doubled back toward the track to drop us off. We were tired and a bit cranky by the time we arrived at the hotel, and still had to CHECK IN. Our luggage was waiting for us, along with the motorbikes of some of the others in the dining hall of the hotel (see the photos). Our room was small but comfortable, unfortunately it had 2 twin beds instead of 1 double. Oh well, mish mushkela.