Jel
Well-known member
I was there Sat and Sun with the wife. Had to see Troy Bayliss since its his last season before he retires. Got some autographs from most of the more well known riders....I guess it helps to have a wife who was willing to just walk right into the garages. 
You still needed a paddock pass to get into the paddock, but they did open up the garage areas for an hour or so in the morning and afternoon. You could get real close to the bikes and the crews.
I think Miller Motorsports did pretty good for their first time hosting the WSBK races. Its definitely not as spectator friendly as Laguna or Sears. The only places one can really watch the races from were from the grandstands.
The vendor areas were out along the perimeter areas and I still can't figure out why the Honda tent and the Ducati tent were half a mile away from each other with the other manufacturers spread out between them.
They should have just consolidated all the manufacturers and vendors in one area instead of spreading them out. Then just have a bunch of concession stands near each grandstand.
You really need a golf cart or a scooter/pit bike or mtn bike to get around this place easily. There were shuttles but I felt they didn't run often enough.
What I thought was pretty cool was being able to sit in on the press conferences after each race. They setup a few seats for the media but the rest was open. Some of the dialog was pretty hilarous.
For example, the guy interviewing asked Fabrizio if he changed anything for the second race, and Michel replied that he changed his underwear. Good stuff.
As for pics, I didn't have a press pass, nor did I bring any long lenses so all my shots are paddock/pit areas. However, after speaking with Dito and asking him about shooting at Miller, he said that even if I had a 400mm, without press pass, it would be hard to get into any good spots to shoot. Not a big deal, I wanted to enjoy the races and not lug around a big ol' lens.
Here are some pics from Sat.
You still needed a paddock pass to get into the paddock, but they did open up the garage areas for an hour or so in the morning and afternoon. You could get real close to the bikes and the crews.
I think Miller Motorsports did pretty good for their first time hosting the WSBK races. Its definitely not as spectator friendly as Laguna or Sears. The only places one can really watch the races from were from the grandstands.
The vendor areas were out along the perimeter areas and I still can't figure out why the Honda tent and the Ducati tent were half a mile away from each other with the other manufacturers spread out between them.
They should have just consolidated all the manufacturers and vendors in one area instead of spreading them out. Then just have a bunch of concession stands near each grandstand.
You really need a golf cart or a scooter/pit bike or mtn bike to get around this place easily. There were shuttles but I felt they didn't run often enough.
What I thought was pretty cool was being able to sit in on the press conferences after each race. They setup a few seats for the media but the rest was open. Some of the dialog was pretty hilarous.
For example, the guy interviewing asked Fabrizio if he changed anything for the second race, and Michel replied that he changed his underwear. Good stuff.
As for pics, I didn't have a press pass, nor did I bring any long lenses so all my shots are paddock/pit areas. However, after speaking with Dito and asking him about shooting at Miller, he said that even if I had a 400mm, without press pass, it would be hard to get into any good spots to shoot. Not a big deal, I wanted to enjoy the races and not lug around a big ol' lens.
Here are some pics from Sat.
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