Estoril Race Day

Sunday 6 May 2012  - Estoril GP Race Day

Casey goes 2 for 2.

Day 23 and 134 to go

So a night’s sleep did not make me feel much better. While the earplugs did the trick for most of the noise there were still people up and about talking most of the night.

I got up and had a shower before downing a handful of tablets and breakfast. Gathering the required energy for the day ahead we packed up all we would need and did the wander to the track. There were cars parked all around us now. We were glad we had decided to stay the night and not fight the traffic that was manic.

We mad our way to our stand and found a place to park ourselves for the day. It wasn’t too bad inside.

The MotoGP bikes were just coming out for their morning practice. The crowd was heavily Spanish and as such were cheering on Lorenzo and Pedrosa. We didn’t mind being the lonely voice of support for Stoner again.

Following the practice we watched the two up where people who have won a competition get to go on the back of a GP bike and complete a lap. That looks like fun.

The Moto2 was the first race for the day. It was quite a tight tussle. After the first couple of laps we didn’t have to stand thank goodness and we could enjoy the action. Marc Marcquez and Pol Espgaro (the guy we had our photo taken with) came in 1 and 2.

Between this race and the next the couple behind us decided it was a good time for a snack and promptly pulled out dry stinky fish to nibble on. Paul and I were looking for ways to block our noses to prevent us breathing in the stench. It was atrocious!

The MotoGP followed with Stoner and poll and while he didn’t get the best of starts he managed to grab the lead back after a couple of turns and never looked back. There was daylight between the first three and the rest of the group and it didn’t change for the remainder of the race that made the race a bit pedestrian. We however were not disappointed with the result and sang proudly again when Casey was on the podium in front of Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

The Moto3 race was quite entertaining with the eventual winner Cortese and second place Vanales fighting it out around the track including a number of bumps between bikes and a bit of slapping and swearing at the end. Was quite amusing.

We then decided to get going but first we had to say goodbye to the Irish blokes sitting in front of us on a stag weekend. They gave us some names of places to head to when we get there.

We wandered back to the van. The police were out directing traffic, which mad it very easy to escape our parking area and get onto the autovia.

With the GPS plugged into Merida in Spain we decided to take the toll roads to ensure a smooth and quick journey though it did cost us 28 euros.  This saw us drive over the April 25 bridge from Lisbon and on into Spain 2 hours later. It was easy going with many other GP attendees doing the same trek. Though the wait at the toll booth for 20min was quite painful.

At 8.10pm (the time zone crossed again so we lost an hour and are now 6 hours behind Perth) we arrived at Camping Merida. We found a spot and set up camp. I checked out the animals in the yard next door. There was a horse, donkey, puppies, pig, chickens and ducks. We then went and had dinner in the restaurant attached to the campground as neither of us was up for cooking.

With Paella consumed we returned to the van for a well-earned sleep. Of course though the barnyard animals managed to keep us awake for moments during the evening.

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