Sunday 29 April 2012  - Jerez MotoGP race day.  Go CASEY! You little beauty.

Day 17 and 141 to go.

The noise level from the campground overnight was considerably less though we didn’t sleep particularly well. Too much wine I should think.

We could hear people up and about and the first lot of warm ups had started as we could hear the bikes buzzing around the track. The weather was once again wet though we were hopeful as we could see blue skies.

We got ourselves sorted and fed and were off to join the noisy Spaniards at 9.30am. Walking in to the track was a little busier but easy enough to navigate and we were in our seat to watch the end of the MotoGP warm up laps.

Where we were sat felt like an International melting pot as we were joined by Northern Englishmen, Scots and Americans. It was great.

The first race, Moto3, started at 11am and was a cracker with half the field coming off bikes at different stages including the 2 Aussie hopefuls Jack Miller and Arthur Sissis. Many of them on a corner we could see. They were really pushing. In the end a young Italian kid won the race by what we counted as 25sec. He even lapped a few of the slower ones.

Moto2 started at 12.20pm. The skies were beginning to look a little ominous, but it was called a dry track any way. This proved to be unfortunate as after 18 laps it was raining enough for the race to be halted and the winner declared early. Bummer.

There was a longer delay between this and the main race due to the early finish. I headed down to the loo, which was a mission! After a half hour line up it took me 5 minutes to disrobe the 5 layers and then replace them again. Ahhhhhh.

The MotoGP began at 2pm. Paul and I made it known we were supporting Casey Stoner and we weren’t disappointed. While starting in 5^th position he was able to make it to front in the first couple of laps and held off the current leader and Spaniard, Jorge Lorenzo, to clinch the win. WOO HOO!

We were up shouting, whistling and singing the national anthem proudly. It was a great start to the races we will see.

We stayed and watched the Red Bull Rookies complete their race before saying goodbye to our international friends and heading back to the van for some warmth. For while the sun had appeared and the rain threat had eased it was still only 14. Brrrrr.

We entertained ourselves with games of cards. The campground was slowly emptying and eventually they cut our power as well. Bummer. We made our dinner before heading over to Sam and Dave’s van for the evening. Our evening with them was enjoyable again. We partook in some Lychee wine. Much like a dessert wine that I thought was delicious. We watched the campers around us pack up their things and leave. We laughed at the bikers who turned up on Friday with bikes on trailers, unloaded them and then today reloaded them back on the trailer to take home never being ridden. Go figure?? What we were most disgusted with was the amount of rubbish left behind. BBQ’s, mattresses, water, bread basically anything it was awful. If it happened at Phillip Island they would ban the camping.

Our night continued until 11pm when we figured it was time to head to bed. The camp was so much quieter.  Ahhh!