MILLER WSBK 09

EPIC WEEKEND!!!

Well I'm finally back home and recovering from an excellent weekend. There's alot to tell so I'll post some in phases. First off I must say, meeting up with Frosty, Cali Kid, Boots, and Travi (and their buddies) was the highlight of the weekend! They are top guys and are exactly what I expected from their posts--real deal guys that are down to Earth. Actually, I already knew Frosty and Cali Kid, but Boots and Travi turned out to be as solid as their posts here on the forum. Good guys! This forum has turned out to be an amazing place. I've now met four individuals (that I otherwise wouldn't have) that share the same passion and knowledge and drive for the sport that we all love. It says alot of an individual's character willing to meet you face to face and back up their online persona! TOP CLASS!

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Ok, where to begin. I guess I'll first review my opinions on the racing. Then I'll go back and tell you guys about the drama getting to Utah and back (....... airports) and all the fun .... in-between.

CONGRATS TO SPIES!!!

Total domination, a world record string of poles, a double win, , fulling back almost half the points to Haga, and completely devastating the field on home soil! (Did I forget something?) For me, having gone last year and seeing Ben Spies in the AMA garage and being able to walk right up and have a chat; and then this weekend having to wait for the pit-walk open and fight with hundreds of people all trying to catch a glimpse of Spies. His garage was a mad house of paparazzi style spectators all trying to take a shot of what is now rockstar status. What a difference a year and the dominating success Spies is now enjoying. BTW, his mom was there as a fixture by his side. Rossi has Uccio, Peders has Puig, and Spies has his mom.

Hacking performed very well. A top ten finish in this type of field is amazing and shows what he can do if given the chance. Now consider he notched a 7th place on a Kawasaki (the conversation should end here right, what has Kawasaki done in WSBK--nothing). But then consider he was on Pirelli, on a suberbike while riding a "daytona sportcrap" all season, on a track whose competitors can't claim an unfair advantage of track knowledge (AMA runs the intercourse while wsbk runs the outer) and with a new team. Hacking was in fourth until the red flag. The second race was more of a disaster for him, but he finished with strong lap times after that off track issue.

Zemke was a disappointment. Not sure what the issue is, but I didn't expect him so far back.

Ok, here are a few action shots to get the thread started (CLICK PICS TO ENLARGE):

Now you know why they call him Elbowz:
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Frosty and I were sick as dogs. We drank as much medicine as we did tequilla--alot:
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Boots having his "medicine" too:
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And it appears Travi was sick as well...
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"Nothing helps a sore throat like Tequila" (Cali Kid wasn't actually sick but he was taking 'preventive shots' (safety first, eh)
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Ok, I'll post some racing pics when I have more time as I'm sure Boots, Travi and the boys have some pics of their own to post.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (roger-m @ Jun 2 2009, 12:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Glad to see your back brother and the Mormons didnt get ya haha.
glad you got to hook up with trav, i now you already had fun with frosty at indy and cali kid is ya mate anyways. not heard of boots ?? why aint i heard of boots ?? speak up boots !

pics jumkie we want more pics

Boots is member: Bootsakah (Solid bro, over 600+ posts).

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This was taken while West was going out of his garage. He almost hit me. I felt almost a slight rub of his shoulder when he passed by. Oddly enough, he didn't do well in the race. Interesting, eh. That's what he gets for almost taking me out.
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Elias, is that you?
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These are just misc pics. I'll add more later as I'm sure Travi and Boots got some good ones too.

Just a little airport drama. When we were setting out to fly to Utah from SoCal, the Cali Kid missed his flight by a hair. The absent mind he is had him forget his luggage at home and he had to return to get it. Well if anybody knows SoCal, traffic on a Friday afternoon is hell. Anyway, he missed his flight by 2 minutes (yeah, sucks) so he had to buy another one right at the airport ($200 clams) for forgetting his ..... It would have been cheaper if he would have just bought new clothes in Utah (outch!).

Meanwhile, I make it to my first connection but almost missed my second connection since the ticket had the wrong gate stamped on it. ...., I was running through the airport once I realized the mistake. The ..... at the wrong gate said, oh crap they changed your gate, better run to gate B26. What? I'm at B3 and that .... is far, so I tell her to call the gate and have them hold the plane. She looks at me and says, you better run, you're gonna miss it. Aren't you gonna call? For a third time she looks at me, and says, "you better run, you're gonna miss it!" ..... I run my ... off, and .... I barely made it. Meanwhile, Cali Kid's connection gets "delayed". So I make it to Salt Lake Utah, and Frosty, like clockwork, is there waiting. So I tell him Cali Kid is delayed, stuck in Las Vegas (which thinking about it now seems rather suspect, BTW prostitution is legal in Vegas, the only place in the States. Interesting that his "delay" was only a couple of hours...) So Frosty and I are sitting at the airport in Utah and I go see about Cali Kids flight "delay" wonder what the hell is taking so long for him to arrive. The clerk says, there are no more flights tonight (its midnight). I'm like no way, my buddy is still on his way, he called me and told me his flight is delayed and stuck in Vegas. She looks it up for over half an hour and doesn't find ..... Meanwhile Frosty is on a 3 hours jetlag (he's from the east coast so its like 3-4AM for his body), plus both of us are coughing our lungs out sick as dogs at the airport. Close to 1 AM strolls in the Cali Kid.

We jump in the rental car, head to Frosty's friend's <strike>house</strike> mansion. We get there and Frosty punches in the house alarm code and we walk in through the garage. Cali kid and I look at eachother (we are some poor Mexicans and expected to sleep on the floor) and think cool, we get to sleep in the garage, at least we get the garage (unlike say sleeping in a tent). So we walk by the owner's new Porsche, wow, that's bitchen. Frosty keeps walking into the house, we follow in tow, when Frosty opens door number one (of many) and says, ok Kid, this is your room, then down the hall, ok Jumk, here is your room. ...., this is like the Five-Seasons hotel! And we each get our on room? U have got to be ....... kidding me...

Ok, here are some more misc picks:

Like Frosty said, we had an extended crew there. Boots and Travi have good friends who might as well be powersliders. Plus we made some other friends there too, who ended up at the bar with us after the races.
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I call this picture: Ben & Ben
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I mention in another thread that Neil Hodgson told me that his AMA team would be there running his bike at Miller's superbike challenge. Well here it is:
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Jake Holden ran his bike, and ended up wining the race with it too.
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Here are some more misc pics:
BIAGGI's bike (check out those gorilla welds on that swing arm).
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HASLAM (I didn't realize how small this guy is)
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MELISSA PARIS running #29 in memory of her brother
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King of Slide. The real McCOY
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CRUTCHLOW
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FORET
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PIT
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Pit walk gang.
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (roger-m @ Jun 2 2009, 02:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>really cool pics see you got yourself a decent camera mate.

Decent enough to take these:

Floatation devices anyone?
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PYT
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No rain, but plenty of sunshine.
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Blonds are generally dumb, but they always have a nice ....
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I love NURSES.
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I'm not much of a Corona beer drinker, but I'd like to taste this one.
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Austin I see you lurking. You may not be happy about this news. We found a prom date for Cali Kid. Here we see his date putting on his corsage.
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So we are kicking back between races and I see Ben Bostrom near our grandstands. We go down, meet him and shoot the ..... So we decide to get a powerslide picture and make him an honorary member.
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The only problem I see with his new membership is he is way too laid back for this crowd. I mean c'mon, you think he can discuss racing with the best of us know-it-alls, and no way do I see him in the middle of flame wars. So we'll keep him as an honorary member, but I'm not sure if it will be a good fit.

I found a prom date too. (Ssshhh, don't tell Nicky).
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