[38500]

I went and I must say that the organization sucked. I stayed in San Jose (!) because the MOtel 6 there was at regular rate (rather than something like $150 a night or more for a crappy room). I had to commute about 1+ hr, but it was on my bike and I usually commute about 35 minutes a day anyway. This is one way to screw the local gougers. The access was FUBAR: someone said that cops were there only to ticket, and that's the truth. The bottleneck was that there were few people to check the tickets and those few people seemed to be local volunteer/minimum wage workers, not particularly interested in being fast. Once you were in, I found it pretty good, if you had a grandstand ticket (which I did) and if you did not try to go through, for example, the dunlop bridge. There were booths at the entrance of the bridge on either side, so people waiting in line would be blocking the people trying to pass and the personnel there did NOTHING to help the situation: they just sat there and kind of looked at the damage. I know many are just volunteers, but I say pay them and expect some actual work. It was very poorly organized, IMHO. I expect some problems with crowd, etc. at any large event, but this was pathetic! STill, would I go back? Hell, yes! Sitting in the grandstand (turn 4), listening to the combined roar of all the bikes passing together after the start was unforgettable. I had a paddock pass and I also walked around a lot, so I got to see a lot of the riders fairly close by, got to see and hear my childhood hero (Giacomo Agostini), and I got to thank Wayne Rainey for helping bring back the MotoGP, I chatted with the Ducati mechanics and some of the others, I took in all the smells/sounds/sights, etc. etc. If you like bikes and racing, you have to go: it is unforgettable.