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Forgot to mention how many people in Spain actually Ride!
check this out:
One thing I forgot to stress earlier about the Spanish is that they are a motorcycling people. I think it's part of the national identity. Every Spaniard I've come across believes they have moto-skills and will race for fun at the drop of a hat. On just the Sunday of the Valencia race, more than 124,000 people showed up to watch. That's more than Laguna Seca got in Three Days! Here are some shots of the parking lot on one side of the track. I have to thank my friend, and fellow barfer, Albert Santoso (IEHAWK) for splicing these photos together for me, since my photoshop skills are limited to resizing pics to fit on Barf! Sorry I couldn't post up the super high-res versions, Albert, but this should give people and idea of how many Tens of Thousands of motorcycles showed up!
Continuing the parking lot theme. Yes, these are ALL motorcycles. Unbelievable. Throughout the course of the day the squids would fire their bikes up and rev the crap out of them, bouncing off the rev-limiter as a means of celebration. Some people even brought modified air horns (presumably from trucks or trains!) and would blare them from the crowd constantly. It was a zoo, and traffic lasted for several hours after the last race, I think about four hours. . . .(coulda been shorter, but the Spanish are known to party a bit after the race)
Thanks to Willit, I have uploaded a short MPG clip that I took in Valencia. This was early in the morning, note the long shadows, on Race Day (Sunday), about 7AM. Every morning the various soundsystems would blast music so the workers would have a beat to get down to. I was enthralled, watching the corner workers dancing trackside and generally just hanging out before their long day in the sun began. Most people wouldn't show up at the track until 9-ish, so it was like I had the whole track to myself. Surreal. The track is in a "bowl" so sitting in the grandstands meant you could watch several corners. It's like a Greek auditorium, except the drama plays out on two wheels. Much better than the US tracks that don't think of the spectator, and force you to pick a corner and stick with it. Can someone tell me what song and mix this is?
