Talk About An American Dream-Nicky Hayden Wins The First-Ever Motogp Race Held On U.S. Soil, And More Than 50,000 American Sportbike Enthusiasts Spend The Weekend In Monterey Helping Him Celebrate
It just doesn't get any bigger than this-the return of the U.S. Grand Prix to Northern California's Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway after an 11-year absence was the most important motorcycle event to happen in America so far this millennium. This was the first time since 1994 that the international Grand Prix circus staged an event on American soil, and, more importantly, the first time ever that American fans would have an opportunity to witness the awesome, 230-plus horsepower, 200-mph MotoGP racing machines up close. Accordingly, American motorcycle fans turned out in force for this event-over the course of three days in July, approximately 153,653 race fans streamed (or, more accurately, stood idle for hours waiting to shuffle through) the Laguna Seca gates to make this one of the best-attended motorsports events ever in the United States
This mob came expecting a spectacle, and the racers didn't disappoint. Saturday's AMA/Superbike round started the weekend off right with local hero Eric Bostrom on his Ducati 999R outrunning Suzuki's Mat Mladin to take the race win, but the real excitement arrived on Sunday with the MotoGP main event. It turned out to be a fairy tale day for American racing fans, and 23-year-old, Kentucky-born Honda racer Nicky Hayden was their crown prince. A former Superbike superstar, Hayden has been racing in MotoGP since 2003 with mixed results, criticized by many for not living up to his potential on a GP ride. Not so at Laguna: Hayden dominated the event, setting the fastest time in Saturday's qualifying session to take the first pole position of his three-year MotoGP racing career, and then leading Sunday's race from start to finish to take the win-his first ever in MotoGP competition. That fellow American GP pilot Colin Edwards took second place in Sunday's race, in front of Italy's seemingly unbeatable Valentino Rossi, made it that much sweeter. To see American riders finish 1-2 in the first USGP in more than a decade was almost too good to be true, and the way the crowd checked out when the checkered flag finally dropped demonstrated that they knew history was made in California that day.
Of course, racing was just one part of the USGP festivities-the street scene that pops off after the track closes each night is the other half of the equation, and as far as street scenes go, Monterey's legendary Cannery Row is in a class by itself. Unfortunately, action was more subdued this year than usual-perhaps anticipating chaos with the enormous number of riders in town, local police closed Cannery Row to traffic after 7 pm, cutting cruising out of the equation and completely changing the character of the place. Even though this made the bike action static, we still managed to locate a gang of super streetbikes to eyeball (along with plenty of gorgeous girls). And the stunt world was represented on Cannery Row, too, even though they were shut out entirely at the racetrack-all on-track stunt entertainment for the USGP was handled (capably, we might add) by Red Bull-sponsored German-stunter Christian Pfeiffer. The Blue Fin bar on Saturday night was a literal who's-who of the stunt world: Darius Khashabi, Jason Britton, Kane, the Outermost boys, East Coast Stuntriders' Thomas Evans, Emrock, Bullo, and many, many more were all spotted tipping back drinks. Who cares that A-list Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Adrien Brody were spotted hanging out earlier that day in Laguna Seca's paddock? For hardcore streetbike enthusiasts, the Blue Fin was where it's at.