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| Tales From The Dry Lagoon: A Compendium Of Memories & Missives
by dean adams Monday, July 14, 2008
Today is a travel day for most of the Soup staff and assorted contributors. Evan, Julian and I will be in the air and headed towards Monterey for this weekend's USGP in a few hours. The MotoGP crowd are already all over Northern California, taking in the sights and buying essentially anything shiny that catches their eye, what with the Euro/Dollar ratio. Valentino Rossi will be in town, probably driving a very large and very loud Corvette or something similar, as he did last year. Those not buying jewelry or clothes at cut-rate prices will be buying as many iPhones as they can stick in a carry-on bag (and if you have a first gen phone for sale, let us know). Over time, Laguna Seca Raceway has grown to be my favorite racetrack in the United States, something I still feel a bit of a turncoat about, what with Elkhart's Road America being less than five hours from my house. It's just that the completely over the top police situation there has done a great job of extinguishing the love I once had for Road America while Laguna just gets better every year. The 2008 USGP at Laguna Seca marks its twentieth anniversary. The GP in '88 was a truly landmark event in US motorcycle racing history. I was there for Laguna in '88 (as were many of you) and it remains one of the most noteworthy moments in my life. The '88 USGP was the last race that I bought a ticket to enter, as I decided then and there, literally as I sat in turn eleven during the '500 race, that I would quit my job and become a writer in motorcycle racing, though I had duller wordsmithing skills then than I do now. What I did have was blind perseverance: I simply wasn't going to let anything or anyone stop me from achieving my dream. Broadcaster Larry Maiers, who will be working the Yamaha Weekend of Champions tent this weekend, once said that he didn't care what job he had as long as it was in the motorcycle industry, because even the worst, low-pay tire-changing job in our bike world beats doing most anything in the real world because here in two-wheels you're sharing a common passion. I agree. Laguna Seca has persevered over the years as well, building a world class racetrack on fairly meager resources. If you feel grateful about being able to jump on your bike and attend a MotoGP race this weekend, you might want to consider thanking some people who really went out of their way to make a USGP at Laguna possible. People like the staff at Laguna Seca, the Red Bull guys, Bob Starr at Yamaha and Yamaha US itself. And maybe some people who inadvertently helped Laguna, like the Flammini brothers of World Superbike, who showed the world that international racing at Laguna wasn't just a way to have fun while going bankrupt. Or King Kenny Roberts, a man who believed so much in Grand Prix and felt it so important that America have a GP that he spent--and lost--millions promoting the Laguna USGP when any financial advisor would have told him to keep those millions in the bank. As we'll be in the air or locked in traffic on the 101 for most of today, we have assembled a compendium of the Laguna Seca material that we've run over the last eleven years for you to peruse. Enjoy. RACES REMEMBERED: The 1988 USGP'90s Laguna World Superbike Images Dan Murphy Jumps Out Of USGP With Golden Parachute ('04) Is Laguna Seca the Best Track In The World? More Laguna USGP Archive Images (& More) More '04 Laguna Seca WSBK Images It's Good To Be Back Says Ben Bostrom ('04) Parking lot images from Laguna Seca '04
From 2003: We Catch Up With Troy Corser @ Laguna Seca More Laguna Seca Archive Images '05: Dramatic Images of the Hayes/Hodgson Superbike Crash At Laguna Seca '05 Laguna Seca MotoGP & Superbike Desktop Wallpaper Ryder Notes: Un-American Activities The Myth of No Passing At Laguna Seca As MotoGP Matures, The Idea Bone Yard Grows Colin Edwards Blazes Into Town Images from the '07 Yamaha Party @ Laguna '07 Images From Ducati Island & More ENDS Post this story to: digg PRIVACY POLICY | HOME | RETURN TO TOP © 1997 - 2008 Hardscrabble Media LLC |
