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Who went to WSBK @ Laguna Seca this weekend and what did you think?

went sunday and thought the timing of the races was very good, the crowd or lack there of felt kinda weird, ducati island was all by itself and so far away. the crowd in the corkscrew for the 2nd race seemed 75% of motogp.
have to admit the MV Augusta Rivale caught my eye, can't wait to see the sport touring version.

Budman getting carded, he's older than me and I didn't get carded :cry
 
I think it'll continue to pick up in popularity. Not the grand show of MotoGP but so much cooler in other ways. Never would have had the access and the riders be so accessible in MotoGP, and I've had garage access twice in MotoGP. Looking forward to next year for sure.
 
fast4ward said:
Kind of ironic that a lot of posts are praising the lack of crowds, and that may well be the thing that kills off this event.
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Yeah..kinda like the "Not in my bike yard" argument. We liked the extra elbow room, but we are asking everyone to show up like they do for MotoGP! :laughing

I don't know what the MotoGP attendance numbers are in comparison (anyone know?) but more people would be great as long as we still have good paddock access to the racers and crews like we did without it being a wall to wall person bumper fest. MotoGP events always tended to feel like cattle and you get the idiot drunkards pushing you down the stairs on the bridges as you worked your way across. Sucks!

The one thing that sucked was a few of us read on the Mazda site that having a paddock pass entitled you to the pit walks. So saturday a few of us stood there with regular paddock passes and they told us "no, you have to have the premier passes of various colors". We argued that the website said ANY paddock pass and did not specify. She held her ground and my SCRAMP guy was not able to get me in the back way as usual, so we missed that. But reality is that only about 5-6 of us were standing there wanting access with our regular passes. They could have let us in. I understand if there were hundreds standing there. I could have gotten in on Sunday afterall, but they had it at same time many of the riders were at their pits signing posters and taking pics, so opted to do that instead!

Hopefully the 20% increase will encourage more vendors to show up next year anticipating more of an increase..more of the manufacturers, etc. It may never be MotoGP status of attendance, but hopefully can just keep going up from where it is now! :thumbup
 
fast4ward said:
Kind of ironic that a lot of posts are praising the lack of crowds, and that may well be the thing that kills off this event.

For those who watched from their couch, don't complain when we have no World Championship race events in the area because you didn't go when they were in town.

I worked T5 all 3 days :thumbup
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My thoughts exactly. Last year people bitched about the one SBK race a day format so they boycotted. Also, and I can understand this one, a lot of folks spent their fun money on attending Motogp in July and were still catching up in Sept. At least that one made sense...last year. I worked all three days also and we were talking about how passionate the other countries that host a WSBK round are about motorcycles and racing. Being the only game in town this year, you would've thought that more of the local (NorCal) folks along with SoCal moto enthusiast would've made the trek to the event. I heard lack of advertisement mentioned on more than one occasion but my thoughts were that every motohead knew about the race long in advance so I can't see that as an excuse. I worked turn 1 so I had a clear view of the hillsides, the fence lines along T1 through T5, and the T4 grandstand and let me tell you, the lack of spectators, especially on Sun, was a sad sight.
 
Maygoddess said:
I don't know what the MotoGP attendance numbers are in comparison (anyone know?)
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MotoGP weekend attendance was around 130,000 with somewhere in the mid-40,000s on Sunday (average from 2005-2013).
 
RightCoastBias said:
Oh man, I saw that girl too. She was smokin hot. Really hard to not stare with the girl and baby right there.
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The El Jefe Tequila girls getting ready to get on podium for the ceremonies after AMA Pro Superbike. I was on the podium stairs watching the race with my SCRAMP dude. Funniest moment was when the two Monster girls walked passed the girls in this pic and sauntered up the stairs to the podium and they all turned up and looked at them....meoowwww... but I went down to the girls and said "Who needs Monster Energy...bring on the Tequila" ! Got them to retract the claws and laugh!
 

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DogBoy said:
MotoGP weekend attendance was around 130,000 with somewhere in the mid-40,000s on Sunday (average from 2005-2013).
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So the article I linked says 49K total attendance this year for WSBK..I am assuming total for all three days..so not sure how that broke down on Sunday which was the busiest day..hmm..maybe 1/2 that guessing was Sunday? So that is still less than 1/2 of a MotoGP Sunday in comparison.

Oh and Cannery Row...sigh..sad. Hardly worth it. Saturday they had the signs up to close off the row between 3pm-11pm. They were already letting cars in around 10:30 or earlier. We had dinner at Cannery Row Brewing company 8pm..so it was pretty busy on the row as we walked into restaurant for our party of 12. By the time we got out and back down to the action..there was barely any!

So what is keeping people away from a motorycle event..pretty much the only one left in the area? Ticket prices? Gas money? Hotel costs?

Is it REALLY because there were less vendors than MotoGP..yes most vendors offered show specials..but most stuff there you can buy at shops or online..but how often do you get to rub elbows, take pics, get autographs from racers and gawk at their bikes up close and in person on a daily basis and watch them in person tearing up the track??

I like watching the AFM racers tear up the track. These are most of our "local" ladies and gents out there being awesome too but most folks don't support those events that require less cost. I know..not same comparison..but it IS motorcyles people!!! :thumbup
 
Maygoddess said:
So the article I linked says 49K total attendance this year for WSBK..I am assuming total for all three days..so not sure how that broke down on Sunday which was the busiest day..hmm..maybe 1/2 that guessing was Sunday? So that is still less than 1/2 of a MotoGP Sunday in comparison.

Oh and Cannery Row...sigh..sad. Hardly worth it. Saturday they had the signs up to close off the row between 3pm-11pm. They were already letting cars in around 10:30 or earlier. We had dinner at Cannery Row Brewing company 8pm..so it was pretty busy on the row as we walked into restaurant for our party of 12. By the time we got out and back down to the action..there was barely any!

So what is keeping people away from a motorycle event..pretty much the only one left in the area? Ticket prices? Gas money? Hotel costs?

Is it REALLY because there were less vendors than MotoGP..yes most vendors offered show specials..but most stuff there you can buy at shops or online..but how often do you get to rub elbows, take pics, get autographs from racers and gawk at their bikes up close and in person on a daily basis and watch them in person tearing up the track??

I like watching the AFM racers tear up the track. These are most of our "local" ladies and gents out there being awesome too but most folks don't support those events that require less cost. I know..not same comparison..but it IS motorcyles people!!! :thumbup
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One way to look at MotoGP vs WSBK vs AMA is

The Show vs Minors vs High school

Nobody wants to go see AMA... just look at this thread. Everyone that went pretty much is only talking about WSBK
 
sidewazzz said:
One way to look at MotoGP vs WSBK vs AMA is

The Show vs Minors vs High school

Nobody wants to go see AMA... just look at this thread.
Everyone that went pretty much is only talking about WSBK
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succinct
 
Doug in Ducati Garage w/Ernesto Marinelli

Wife and I caged up on Sun. early. Got in Ducati garage again. This time I got to ask Ernesto (Head of Duc SBK) lots of questions (& give advice). Bikes are amazing kit.
Too bad Chaz crashed in 6 and failed Doc's questions for second race.
Great to see old friends on the Island and so many expert racers.
My real complaint: Poor coverage for AMA SBK. Not only was the big screen not showing the race but there were no announcers at corners to report the race to the fans.
 

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MrLeaner said:
Wife and I caged up on Sun. early. Got in Ducati garage again. This time I got to ask Ernesto (Head of Duc SBK) lots of questions (& give advice). Bikes are amazing kit.
Too bad Chaz crashed in 6 and failed Doc's questions for second race.
Great to see old friends on the Island and so many expert racers.
My real complaint: Poor coverage for AMA SBK. Not only was the big screen not showing the race but there were no announcers at corners to report the race to the fans.
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They were actually showing the World Cup match on the big screen during an AMA race... :facepalm
 
jrace said:
Next time that happens go to the beer tent by the gift shop. They don't card us old bastards. :afm199

-jim
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Gosh..and I would LOVE to be carded these days! Well..as long as I have my ID with me..I hate that I cannot even answer yes to the questions in the supermarkets these days "are you 40 and under" :afm199.. :thumbdown
 
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