I want to thank everyone who came out and supported our club for the World Superbike / MotoAmerica Race at Laguna Seca. Gill Campbell asked me to pass along a big Thank You to the workers for another great weekend. Overall it was great weekend for the Club. There were lots of good things and few bad things. I’ll start with the bad. The lunches were horrible. I sent a lunch every day to the VP of Facility Operations to show him what we got for lunch. He agreed with me 100%. Jan tried to show the VP of Event Operations (who ordered our lunches) what we got for lunch, but she wasn’t around (numerous times). I vented my displeasure with Gill Campbell (CEO of Laguna) about the lunches in an e-mail. I’m with you guys. I was a corner worker. It’s been a few years, but I know what it’s like to be out there all day. Lunches are a sore spot for me. I eat what you eat for lunch (or tried to this year). Please don’t ever think I would feed you something I wouldn’t eat (on purpose).A couple of things we had no control of was the shower trailer was cancelled Wednesday night. I know because the couple who bring it down asked if they could work the race since they planned on being there and their daughters were working the race. The other one was we were supposed to get two more vans to take workers back to camp on Sunday night, but were unavailable to us because they were being used to shuttle family members to the hospitals. The last bad thing that happened was we lost two riders.For me, you never want to lose a rider. We’re out there for their safety. We all know racing is a dangerous sport, but that doesn’t make it any easier when you lose a rider let alone two. It was a racing accident and there was nothing we could do to prevent it. Godspeed Daniel and Bernat.Our thoughts and prayers are with your family and friends. RIP boys.
Now for the good. The worker count was up this year. Thanks to everyone who helped out when I asked. The Track Inspections Rocked again this year. Passing the Inspections makes my job so much easier. Impressing them on Friday almost gives us free pass the rest of the weekend. Thank you everyone. We cleared incidents quickly, got bikes off track and to the garages(for WSBK) and they were happy. We worked through rain in July at Laguna. In my 29 years of working bike/car races at Laguna this is the first time it has rained in July. It sprinkled once in August during the Historics. The last thing I thought we’d be doing was Hefty bagging it in July at Laguna. Race Control (WSBK, Dorna) was very happy with our overall performance. Laguna Seca was happy. If they’re happy, I’m happy. Everyone pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Let’s hope the County and SCRAMP work something out and have World Superbikes back next year. Thanks again everyone. Be safe, have fun. Hope to see you next year.
- Ted