That’d be great, George. I met you a second time at the “List” hotel at Indy in 2011 after riding out from PA with Pags. Possibly saw K.K. as well.
A monster hurricane was hitting at home in Jersey while I was there. My solution to stress about the house and family? Didn’t watch the news. I figured they’d tell me something if I needed to know. Ignorant. Moto. Bliss.

STeve

Steve,

Yes, you saw me at Indy, another singular motorcycle racing event. I was
sorry to see the race shortened due to winds, but thrilled to be there
trying to have a weekend in the face of an oncoming hurricane - making that
Nicky sign in the grandstands in a 30 mph wind was quite the experience.

The photo of us at Hill House next to a 750 F1 takes me back to my friend's
F1, which was the first Ducati I ever rode. The ride was from la Honda  to
Skylonda,  CA. A friend offered to swap bikes (I was on a beat up 1983
Honda 750 Interceptor, and quite happy to try the Duck). I had a moment
that is like what Valentino Rossi describes in "Faster." "The first time
you ride a 500, you think,..'fuck'" The stong pull and dead flat power
curve of that motor was astounding. But I digress.

For the years I was at Hill House, each was a little different, but each
one was also special. If you want to see some other photos from Hill House,
you can find them here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26572537@N05/albums/72157624595785698
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26572537@N05/albums/72157627150143947

Kevin

On Sun, 3 May 2020 at 09:54, Stephen Abramson desmo900cr@gmail.com wrote:

What a great day that was. First the guy that parachutes onto the track during prerace festivities landed in the Ducati Island lake and crawled out, parachute and all absolutely covered in mud which was mostly duck poop. Last we saw of him he was headed into the solid mass of people on the walkover bridge.
Then that race. And Nicky. That was way pre Nicky/Ducati but I can tell you there wasn’t a dry eye in the Ducati Hospitality tent which was wall to wall with people watching it on the closed circuit feed.
Everything about that win, you knew as it was happening it was going to be a day people talked about for a very long time.
Laguna Seca big race weekends are always epic but this one was the Mac daddy.
Oh yea, SPOILER :-)
Vicki

Laguna 2006 was the first Motogp I attended in person. We got there on Thursday, and had a chance to let the whole event just sort of come to us as things got started. There were 5 of us who attended from Jersey, and it was also the first motogp race live for the others as well. We figured we’re at Laguna-where do you go first once you're at the track…? The Corkscrew, of course. There was basically no one there besides us and just a couple of other spectators. Just seeing the hallowed Corkscrew for the first time was a big thing, having watched so many bikes over the years get light and then slammed over as they get flicked from one side to another over the crest. There was an opening in the fence at the side of the track that was too inviting to resist, and as we scrunched through the fence and walked over by the track, the track worker who was there just smiled and waved us on, so we walked up to the top of the Corkscrew and saw it from a new angle never viewed before by us. As we stood there in awe of where we were, we heard engine noise coming from the direction of flow on the track, and all of a sudden who comes popping over the rise in the track approaching the Corkscrew? It was friggin Nicky riding a scooter, just buzzing around the track doing an unofficial sighting run, and we were then treated to a 30 minute session of lots of the riders riding around the track on scooters as well, some riding solo, some with passengers. No helmets, of course, so we saw them all up close as they wizzed by about 10 ft in front of us. Somewhere I’ve got a bunch of pics from my little camera I brought-it was amazing. When we came back to the track the next day for first official track activities, we went right back to the Corkscrew. At this point we had not even heard a live motogp bike running, so we were excited as we heard the bikes start up in the pits as they prepared to head out for the first time that weekend. This time we were of course not on the side of the track, but behind the fence at a perfect viewing angle to watch them come over the rise. We heard the bikes through the various turns after they left the pits, and then the sound dropped down a bit coming up the run toward the Corkscrew. All of a sudden, BAM!-over the rise comes the first bike. Our first sight of a running Motogp bike, our first time hearing a running MotoGP bike right in front of us-and who was that rider we saw in that amazing “first” experience? Of course, it was the Man himself!!! First lap out, taking it relatively slow, and Nicky lifted his left hand off the bar and waved as he settled into the second half of the turn. Even at the sedate pace he was going, our jaws dropped with astonishment in taking in the sound. Not in the same way of intensity, but it felt similar to the first time I saw a Top Fuel dragster run under load. We just looked at each other with jaws dropped as we stared in a disbelief of some sort that we were actually there seeing this. Well….. I could have gone home then, and I would have been thrilled with my trip to California just to see and hear that. To then have the weekend that we had-bikes, heat, Hill House, et al was one of my greatest trips. Oh yea, and like Pags said, Nicky won………. ;-)

STeve
Jonesing for that sound again……...