We arrived to the sight of the motorcycles doing jumps, spins and tricks while above us a Red Bull stunt plane barrel rolled. And, this was just the pre-race entertainment while the three classes of motorocycles warmed up around the track. Friday and Saturday were qualifying race days, earning the riders positions in the final "grid" or starting positions.
Moto3 started at 11. These racers ride 250cc four-stroke, one-cylinder motorcyles. Even watching these small bikes, earplugs were a welcome sound dampener. We sat along turn 15, watching the racers come off the long straight away and then executing three turns in quick succession. After approximately 10 laps, the workers around the track started waving red flags, calling all racers to stop. A racer had crashed and looked to be injured critically. The leaders started to celebrate, thinking they had won the race. However, the injured racer was cleared quickly from the racetrack; and, the remaining racers were called on to race five more laps. Celebrations ceased and the Moto3 riders took a warm up lap to warm up their tires again. The starting grid set-up matched their current positions after the last clocked lap. Strategically, the front-runner took his time riding his warm-up lap, so that he would be one of the last to arrive at the grid and would have less wait until the start. The wait cools tires. During these last five laps, we saw several examples of the "slipstream effect", where a motorcycle riding closely behind another catches the "slipstream", which pulls it in front of the other motorcycle. The front-runners at the end of the first 10 laps had been numbers 42, 25 and 39. During the beginning of the five laps, 25 slid to 6th place but managed to regain 2nd by the finish line. A very exciting race!
By this time, the sun was getting quite warm on the grandstand. There is no shade and no umbrellas are allowed (except for the racers, who have umbrella girls to shade them while they wait in the grid). Thankfully, we had access to a shaded area where I was able to get a seat during the Moto2 race. Moto2 motorcycles have 600cc, 4-stroke engines. These racers completed a total of 18 laps.
Finally, at 2 pm, the main event, the Moto GP! These motorcycles have a maximum total engine displacement of 1000cc. For the technical details on these motorcycles, check here: http://www.motogp.com/en/MotoGP+Basics/bikes. These bikes were fast, with the fastest lap clocked at 159.7 Km/h. Now all the names and numbers made sense on the spectators hats and jerseys, they were sporting MotoGP racers. #26 Pedrosa and #46 Rossi both had fans in our section. Pedrosa and his teammate Marquez pulled ahead at the beginning of the race. Pedrosa lead for the first half of the race. But, then, Marquez slipped ahead and continued to increase his lead until the end. With Marquez's win, he became the youngest racer to ever win the MotoGP. How old is the youngest racer? Only 20.
More info on MotoGP: http://www.motogp.com/en
More info on the venue, Circuite of the Americas: http://cotaexperiences.com/2013-motogp-championship
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