“There’s a mouse in my house!”
(Cal Crutchlow unburdens himself to us Friday... Didn’t affect his performance as he took a 4th!)
What can we say about a weekend where 2 of the riders we sponsor crashed while in the lead... It was certainly thrilling!
The biggest player of the weekend was the weather - almost all the sessions were wet, apart from some qualifying and race. Made it an unpredictable event to say the least!
Friday was a damp day at the track - we won’t keep saying this!
Saturday persuaded some customers to upgrade our of the rain and damp and enjoy the lovely surroundings (and endless beer!) of the VIP Village. The Moto3 qualifiers were manic - the track dried sufficiently for slicks in just the last couple of laps - so there was a frantic struggle to get back out there with the right tyres! Sadly, from the point of view of Ant West, the rain also stayed away from the Moto2 qualifiers.
The first race of the weekend was also the opener for the REd Bull Rookies Cup - and the first time we saw our sponsored rookie from the USA Joe Roberts in action. He took a creditable 7th while the German Florian Alt won a 5-way fight for the win, right at the line!
Saturday night we had dinner in the paddock - stalking riders between raindrops, when the downpour hit we hung out for a while in QMMF with Anthony West... Great Arabic food! Dinner at Gresini was brilliant as usual, just the damp made getting lots of face time with riders a bit tricky.
After the gripping action of Moto3, the Moto2 race couldn’t have been better -- could it? Well it was damn close! After Scott Redding lost his early lead, Aa fantastic 3 way duel between Espargaro, Marquez, and Luthi took the rest of the race -- Marc got past Pol and looked set to take the win when the rain came back; causing the race to be red flagged and positions determined from the previous lap - giving Pol Espargaro his maiden Moto2 victory!
The final race was the 2nd Rookies race the usual edge-of-seat stuff with the reigning champion Lorenzo Baldassarri taking the win in the final stretch. For us, the excitement was Joe working his way from the mid-pack to take the lead! ... then crashing out a few corners later :-(
Okay - it was all a bit damp & chilly, but with racing like this, who cares?!
We ended up Sunday night at our favourite local bar. Thankfully it is also the favourite of several riders (Bautista, Danny Kent, Scott Redding to namedrop a few...!) A good time, as they say, was had by all!
Jerez is DEFINITELY back next year - even in the wet a real treat; and when dry it is beyond glorious -- book now at this year’s prices!
