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Laguna Seca 2003

The road to Laguna was of course another journey into the unknown.

This time there were four drivers, Chris, myself, Uncle Bill and Ari. The pattern has been set.
Bill drives, bosses everyone around and I sit in the passengers seat (Bill's still scared of me) while Chris and Ari argue about who the best Moto GP 3 player is. Chris feels, because he has never lost a race to Ari, he should be crowned GP champion. Ari feels he is Moto GP champion because he let Chris win every race, to boost his moral. The battle continues.

Everything was going along great till we got to the border, then these two oversize women came into the motorhome and demanded to see our passports ( that part was normal ) The funny part was when they asked if anyone had been arrested. When Ari said " NO" the lady looks Ari straight in the eye and says, " are you sure?" I guess Ari looked suspicious, which of course we didn't let him forget that the whole trip. Then the two ladies started to take all our food, based on there physical appearance we suspected it was for there coffee beak, I guess you can't take fruits or meat across the border unless it's from Washington or British Columbia. The bikes they never asked to see, or asked us to open the trailer. I think all they really wanted was our food.

After we left the border, the motorhome blew a rear tire. Bill with his casual demeanor instantly stopped the motorhome safely and we went through the process of changing the rear tire. This may sound easy, but it isn't. That is one heavy Motorhome, anyway, not to make it sound to mellow traumatic we fixed it and off we went again, in search of a spare tire. we dove trough the night without a spare tire and the next morning we found a tire shop in Reno, Nevada. It never stops to amaze me, your always thinking, I'm going to get get ripped off. The shop changed the tire and sold us a new tire for the reasonable price of $125.00. Good Deal.

After driving for 35 hours we decide to let Chris drive, this is something we've avoided the whole trip. Why did we avoid this? Cause, Chris drives like a lunatic. Uncle Bill decided he had enough driving for awhile and passed the wheel over to the speed demon. Uncle Bill wakes up to see every car in San Francisco, terrified.Chris is driving like there there's a police chase going on and Chris is chasing the bad guys. If there's ever a class for motorhome racing, my money's on Chris. It was so bad, that every car in front and back had cleared a path for us, I'm sure everyone thought we were an ambulance and we had a very sick person in the motorhome. Even the police were scared to follow us, I guess it's considered dangerous to chase. I know Red Bull gives you extra energy but were not letting Chris have any more. When we asked him what he was doing, he said,"What". Typical Chris answer.

Another funny thing happen. Bill and I are looking for a hotel room in Sonoma ,CA in a very rough part of town and we decide to let the guys, Chris and Ari get gas while we check out the hotel situation. We park the motorhome at the gas station, to let them pump gas while we cruise the hotels, we're gone for about half an hour and this is a true story. Chris and Ari have locked the motorhome and are playing MotoGP again, this isn't unusual, but what was unusual is that they have left the motorhome in the only lane at the gas station and no-one, I repeat, no-one can get gas. When we ask them why the're still in the same spot we left them, they say it looked to dangerous to get out of the motorhome, so they locked the motorhome and started to play MotoGP. If we hadn't returned they'd probably still be there playing MotoGP. By the way, they never did fill up with gas.

We arrived in Monterey on Wednesday and if you've never been to Laguna, there is a hill the size of Mount Everest. I take a look at the hill and decide to drive up anyway. On the drive up I left the motorhome in drive (bad decision) as were driving the motorhome starts to slow down and I throw it into 2nd gear (another bad decision) as were driving the oncoming traffic is yelling," your on fire"
I pull over as quick as I can and stop the motorhome ( good decision) Ari, is sleeping up top in the bunk over the drivers seats and some how, were not sure how, he's the first one out of the motorhome and trying to put out the fire. We have a fire extinguisher in the motorhome but it's zip tied to the couch (it kept falling off all the time) When your trying to put out a fire and the fire extinguisher is zipped tied, your going to make your hand bleed, just ask Chris.

That was fun. We end up stopping right in front of the man in charge of the event and he organizes our salvage. He gets us a tow truck, a really big tow truck and the tow truck delivers us to the pit area. It was kind of embarrassing, if you've never been towed to a major event like the World Superbike, with everyone watching, you haven't lived. After we drop the trailer off, the tow truck has to bring us to the transmission shop which is what broke, the oil leaked on the exhaust and started what appeared to be a fire, it was a fire, but not really a fire, not like the time Chris set my jeep on fire. ( another story)
Ed Sorbow happens to be at entrance and say's," you didn't put the Motorhome in 2nd gear, while you where driving, did you?" How'd he know that?

Now we have to find a car with a hitch again, just like Pikes Peak, experience pays off, we knew which car to rent with a hitch (your still not allowed to tow with a rented car) and off we went racing again.
On Thursday we were joined by our nutrition specailist/tuner/fun guy, Jim, from Bow Cycle in Calgary.
Jim made us fruit salads, bought all the food, kept us laughing. Thanks again Jim.
The race schedule was pretty short, Thursday practice. Friday practice and qualifying. Not much time, on a very technical track. Chris had a good time and was running in the top 18 most of the day.
I can't really remember any unusual events. (I should right this stuff down right away)

Chris's first race was the 750 superstock Chris was gridded 19th on his 600 rr Honda, the first Honda.
The race was very exciting and Chris was able to get a 11th place finish, just behind Chris Ulrich. the Valvoline 750 rider. Chris had a great launch and he fought the whole way to have his best AMA finish.

In the 600 race Chris was gridded in 21st place and had a great start and worked his way up to 15th. The race was tough one as the same 17 factory/support riders show up every race. a 15th place finish is fantastic.

At the end of this round Chris is 15th overall in the AMA and still the best privateer in the 600 class.

Ari and Chris are off to Mosport, in Toronto for the Canadian Nationals. Very Long drive, 2700 miles.