25 October - Kuala Lumpur
We actually had a pretty decent nights' sleep in our bunk beds! The hostels free breakfast wasn't quite up to scratch as expected; toast and coffee and that's all! We got showered then realised there was a signing session at the Moto GP at 11.30 so quickly ran down and booked the mini van for 11am.
When we arrived at the track the queue for the signing was endless so we opted to stand out of the sun on the sidelines and watched as all the riders came in. But to everyone's disappointment not Rossi, Marquez and Pedrosa! They were literally the only highlights!
Today was just the qualifiers so we took it as an opportunity to walk around to find the best seats for race day tomorrow. At the end of the races they had a stunt rider performing tricks around the track at different locations which was pretty spectacular.
We also walked around various trade stands promoting their new bikes and riding gear ... Shaun was in heaven. The highlight being the new MV Augusta F4, one of his dream bikes. It was a long hot day and this geared us up for the big day tomorrow.
26 October - Kuala LumpurIt's race day baby!! I'll let Shaun take you through it ...
{Shaun} This morning after a rubbish breakfast we hopped in the mini van to the Sepang race track. The driver took us through lots of back lanes and fields to get to the track, apparently the whole area was gridlocked so he dropped us a block over and we had to cross the motorway and trapes through a few fields! The car park was jam-packed, not with cars, but thousands of bikes, I was in my element. The front section of the complex has all of the stands and promo gear so it was heaving with people. As soon as you pass the ticket barrier it's not so busy and we made our way to our selected spot in the stadium. We learnt pretty quick yesterday that food and bevies are hard to come by between races so stocked up before the race started. We decided that after watching qualifiers we really needed ear plugs. I'm no stranger to loud bikes but this takes it to another level, ear splitting!!
Our seats were in the Grandstand just between the last turn and the main straight ... perfect. We sat behind a group of old Australian bikers who's moto in life was "grow old disgracefully" proper old boys. After getting to know them for the day they gave me a card with their numbers and address on and told us to drop by when we are in Australia.
A few minutes before the race the riders were chilling with their brolley dollys doing interviews. The stands were filling up pretty quick now, 80,000 people. Good job we got our seats early. The race started with an eruption of noise as the bikes disappeared off their start lines darting towards the first corner. I could not believe the noise of these things ... skin tingling.
Pedrosa crashed shortly after taking the lead but got back on the bike to continue racing until he crashed again and eventually called it a day. Rossi was in first place for a few laps before Marquez took the lead and eventually won the race with Rossi coming second. Lots of battling it out for 3rd 4th, 5th and 6th which made for some great racing.
Once the race had finished the fans stormed the track and watched as pole positions sang national anthems, received trophies and sprayed each other with champers.
It took around an hour to leave the Sepang circuit. 80,000 people trying to leave a place in 42 degree heat is rather stressful. Once we trekked back across the field and crossed the motorway we waited over a half hour for the bus to turn up but when it did it was full ... typical. We waited another 40 mins in baking heat before catching the next bus.
In the evening we were pretty spent so we chilled out and had a KFC. Big day tomorrow! Australia here we come!!!!!
A la perchoine
Jodie and Shaun
x
