The event

Thursday

The trip from Seattle was "interesting". When I got off a Delta flight in Detroit,

my 10:30 pm connection to Indy was cancelled. They had rebooked me on a

a flight that would not get me to the Indy track until about 3:00pm Friday, and

they offered me a "discount" room for $120. I decided to rent a car and drove

the 320 miles, getting to my hotel at 3:15 am, and then I had to get up at 7:15

to return the car to the airport. I was tired on Friday but I got to the track in time

to not miss any of the events.

Friday

The entrance

Walking up to the Monster Challenge display at Ducati Island.

This bike belongs to a DNA marketing manager (Arrick) but it was

not part of the voting. I think it would have won easily had it been.

Ryan's

Matt's

DVD's

After checking out the Ducati Village I found a area near where a

few of the Yamaha and Ducati riders had campers. I hung out there

before and after their first practice session, hoping to get autographs.

Rossi arriving for the morning.

Cal Crutchlow was in the closet camper, and was quite friendly.

I had him sign my extra Monster fairing.

Colin Edwards showed up next, also very friendly and he signed too.

When Colin's wife (Alyssia) came out, I decided to try for a

"Mr and Mrs Edwards" tail section, and she was also nice

enough to sign.

Ben Spies also came out and did autographs.

Alyssia

Colin #5

Ben #11 and Cal #35

Back at Ducati Village, the Ducati Models had notepads that

people used to register and vote. Their red white and black

outfits went well with my bike!

Ducati and Mercedes have some co-marketing agreement, so they

had this beauty in the village as well.

I took a tour of the infield to check out all the vendors. All the big

bike companies had large tents, tons of bikes, and models.

Yamaha (also had a "vote for" customized bike contest,

pics of these are on the Bikes page).

Honda

BMW

Suzuki

and those orange things!

DNA was nice to us, and arragned a private tour of Ducati's garage.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the garage so

I took a few on the outside.

This is Mauro Grassilli, Sponsor Account Manager at Ducati

Marlboro Team and formerly Xerox Account Manager at

Ducati Xerox Team SBK. (pic is from the day before)

I was quite lucky and as Matt, his friend and I got our turn

inside the garage, Rossi showed up.

So I stood between Nicky's and Rossi's

bikes up on work benches, with pieces all around my feet,

looking into the guts of their bikes, talking to Mauro

about their use of next year's GP11.1 chassis on the GP11

bikes. This is the first race where both Rossi and Nicky are

using it. Meanwhile, 8 feet away, Rossi was sitting having a

conversation with his crew. All this was quite an experience.

Just a nice photo op for my bike.

Part of Ducati Village included private bleachers, here is

a Panorama of the view from there.

At 6:00 Friday, when Ducati Village shut down for the night, we moved

our bikes over to a garage where a professional photographer

took individual and group pics. Later we are going to get copies,

and maybe my bike will show up in a Ducate ad some day.

While waiting for the photo shoot, I went over to the main

stage where James Toseland (the WSBK BMW rider) performed with his band.

He plays and sings quite well - my camera doesn't do justice to his voice,

he seemed nearly on a par with Steve Perry in this Journey song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8282hA7D60s

Saturday

Spent the day watching the practice, qualifying, and races

and trying to get clear photos of bikes moving very fast,

through fences. This is the view of Ducati Island from the

Ducati bleachers.

And some of the many Ducati's parked there.

Arrick's black and gold bike looks not to bad with a blond model!

Sunday

I bought a ticket for an excellent seat, at the very

top of the outside bleachers, and was able to see turns

1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 very well, esp with my binoculars.

SW section, the very top (QQ)

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