We arrived at the Island at lunchtime on Wednesday, thinking
that we should line up (in an orderly fashion) at the track to make sure we get
a good camping spot. There were already some campers there so we got our number
(27) and parked up for the night. By dark there must have been well over 100
vehicles and countless bikes and they kept coming very late into the evening.
Of course it was party time with several groups lighting campfires and one lot
even setting up their bar. It was a most enjoyable evening and we met several
people that we would see regularly over the weekend, including Tom and Sem from
South Australia. Thanks Sem for cooking us all breakfast.
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| The bar on Wednesday night. |
By about 8 o’clock on Thursday morning the camp began to stir
and suddenly all thoughts of numbers went out the window. They were off, especially
the bikers, all jostling to get their camps trackside. We were the first van
into the non-powered area so we had our pick. We were grateful not to be over
in the powered area as the wind was howling through there. One poor guy had his
van awning ripped to bits and several tents suffered varying degrees of damage.
There were quite a few left where they (almost) stood on Monday morning when we
left, as well as a large number of fold-up chairs. We were surprised that
people couldn’t be bothered taking them home. Both the trackside and highside campsites
continued to fill up right up until Saturday night. There was plenty of room
and we have decided that it would be fine to roll up on Thursday afternoon if
you’re not hellbent on a fence-side possy trackside.
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| Thursday morning - lined up in an ordily fashion. |
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| Heading into the campsite. |
We also took a stroll through the trackside camp with Tom and
Sem and caught up with the crew we had met on Wednesday night. Of course they
were even more inebriated and obviously would stay that way for the entire
weekend. One of the guys (I nicknamed Bruno – you’ll see why in the photos –
was making his 20th annual pilgrimage to the GP). I did wonder at
how much racing some of them would have seen though.
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| Chris, Bruno, Tom & Sem |
The kennel where we had left Leo was close to Cowes so it was
easy for us to go in and get him each day and take him for a run. On Friday
morning after Leo’s exercise we picked up Lach and Laura from their lovely
little cottages in Cowes. We decided to do the merchandise thing first then took
a stroll through the Expo tents before watching some of the practice sessions. Lachy
was less than impressive when he tried his skills on the mechanical bull.
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| Ride'im Lachy! |
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| Oops! |
The
Globe of Death proved great entertainment and the Flair Riders guys on their
trials bikes were pretty impressive as well. It was a very laid back day. We
just hung out and soaked up the amazing atmosphere.
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| There are three bikes in there! |
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| The young lady actually got in there with them too! |
We all had a great seafood
curry back at our camp and enjoyed another social evening beside our campfire.
We had stashed a good supply of firewood from our camps on the way down. Others
at the camps had actually brought in full trailer loads of the stuff.
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| Highside camp. |
Saturday was spent at the track again of course and after
Lach and Laura got in a little more retail therapy (I think Lach bought more tee-shirts
on the weekend than I’d own altogether) we headed to our seats at Siberia to
watch the practice and qualifying sessions.
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| The things you see when you haven't got a gun! |
That night we were treated dinner at Lach & Laura’s before
we strolled downtown to take in the sights, listen to the band and shake a leg
down on the esplanade. There was the usual array of bikes - some beautiful,
some strange and some outright ugly. Everyone was in high spirits, just
enjoying being there. It is always a great night.
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| Who's been shopping? |
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| There were plenty of bikes to be seen in Cowes on Saturday night. |
Of course Sunday is the day everyone looks forward to and
with Stoner on poll and some young Aussies in the Moto3 races, we were all
excited as we headed round to Siberia. The Moto3 race was fantastic. Young
Arthur Sissis from Adelaide rode a fantastic race and we were all totally
stoked when he got third. Unfortunately Jack Miller from Townsville just wasn’t
in the race but apparently his gear in nowhere near as good as most of the
other riders in Moto3. Hopefully he will get some substantial sponsorship next
year.
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| Rossi |
Then an Aussie went one better in the Moto2 when Ant West
surprised us all with an awesome ride for second place. These two races were
definitely the most exciting of the day. The MotoGP started off well. It looked
like Pedrosa and Lorenzo were going to make a race of it with Stoner. But then
Pedrosa came off very early on and Stoner got to the front and slowly but
surely pulled away from Lorenzo. The most interesting part of the race was the
dicing for the next 6 places with Crutchlow ending up with the last place on
the podium.
After the race we made the obligatory race across the track
to pit straight to catch the presentations.
Lachy and Laura managed to get
close enough to get some photos. John and I did it at a more leisurely pace but
got to the straight in time to catch Stoner receive his trophy.
We were glad
not to have to endure the bustle of getting away from the track after the
races. It was great to just go back to the van, light the fire and settle in
with our fellow campers and talk about the day over a few drinks. The weekend
at the Island is just such a fantastic experience. Let’s hope we get to do it
regularly in the future.
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