We are just a week away from the first IMS event of the Centennial Era. Next week, 33 hot air balloons will be set up for fans and locals during a unique “Glow” event and races taking place during the Centennial Era Balloon Festival presented by AT&T Real Yellow Pages. What a pagen-tistic (my own word) way to kick off a month of ethanol-burning IndyCars!
The IndyCar Series is off to Kansas this weekend, which is the last race before the grueling month of May. Unlike most, I’ll be driving to KC, rather than flying. It’s not important why, but I am.
Some interesting news for me: My dryer broke. Perfect timing, really! On Tuesday I was attempting to clean all of my track gear when I noticed that the dryer wasn’t working properly. It actually wouldn’t run. Do you know when get that feeling when you can’t move? At the end of an attempt, you make a small little grunt/sigh. That’s the noise that my dryer was making!
Luckily for me, my brother lives close by so I was able to do a load late on Wednesday before I headed out for Kansas. While I was borrowing my brother’s equipment, a good friend of our showed up on his new Ducati 696 Monster.
I’d say that Ducati did a phenomenal job on the aesthetic updates on the new Monster. Some may argue that it’s “too Japanese-looking,” but I disagree. Perhaps the one element I don’t care for is the two-tiered round headlight. Personally the original single-round headlight has a powerful design element that is fairly iconic for the Monster. I did get a chance to take it for a spin around the complex, and I thought the riding position was also improved over the previous models. I didn’t feel like I had too much weight on my hands nor did my feet feel like they were touching the back of my head. All good things.
The weather is getting nicer, and I can’t wait to get back on my bikes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll have any free weekends to take dirt bike or road bike out, but I’m sure a few nice days in May will permit me to cruise to Gasoline Alley at Indy.
This weekend, IndyCars are in Kansas, MotoGP is in Motegi, and NASCAR is at ‘Dega. It’s a big racing weekend. Remember, while you are jumping from IndyCar to MotoGP to NASCAR, there’s only one place to buy tickets for each IMS event! www.imstix.com!
I hope that Nicky is feeling better. He took a wicked ride in Qatar. I am personally worried that he’ll never be as good as Stoner. It’s unbelievable how fast Stoner is!
Jarrod
What did you think of the first MotoGP race of the season?
Qatar is a cool track, especially under the lights. I was pretty proud of Nicky for doing as well as he did considering his massive high-side in qualifying. I was also impressed by Colin Edwards. He looks like he may be able to contend for the podium each week and perhaps a win if he plays the race properly.
But no, not even The Doctor could beat Stoner. For a guy who “may not have been able to race again” due to his weird hand injury, I was extremely impressed with his ability to not only kick Hayden’s rear, but he was able to be even more dominating after his career-threatening surgery!
While the festivities were happening halfway around the world, I was celebrating a Easter weekend with the family, and my Honda CRF 250x! I’m not exactly sure how I convinced my wife to let me sneak down to Lawrence County Rec. Park in southern Indiana on Easter weekend, but I did.
Just Phil and I went down, but it was well worth it. I was pretty surprised on how many people weren’t there. When we arrived at 11 a.m., there were only five other trailers! It couldn’t have been a better day, about 68 and sunny! I guess its good news for us, considering it’s an easy day trip to take the motos down there.
Here are a few highlights of the trip:
1. Phil the sinking tug boat! Click to watch.
2. Jarrod, overly excited about making it through a mini-pond. I swear, after watching Nitro Circus, I should have just hauled mail and skipped across the top. Click to watch.
3. Jarrod climbing through the mud, rocks and tree stumps. Click to watch.
It was fun. This week I am off to Long Beach for the Toyota Grand Prix IndyCar Series race. Watch it on VERSUS Saturday and Sunday!
Jarrod
I’ve been a terrible blogger lately. To be honest, I hope that I still have an audience! Funny enough, the last couple of weeks have been very busy, and I’ve still had the chance to ride my bikes. I even have pictures and videos to prove it!
My only excuse has been time; the lack of it and my inability to include this blog into time left over. So here is my Shorty version of what you’ve missed.
Last week I went on a moto ride with a few friends and a few others that I hadn’t ridden with before. It was my first time down at Lawrence County Recreation Park, and I didn’t know what to expect. After the “Man Trip 2009,” I had thought that nothing could be as fun as that trip. Slightly overconfident, I was mumbling on the car ride down to Bloomington (about one hour from Indianapolis), the mumbling was something like this … “I’m glad I cut my teeth in the mountains. I can’t imagine the riding down here being near as difficult!”
I was wrong, and I ate my words. It was tough, rainy, slick, muddy and fun. Here are Facebook links to my videos from the trip:
As I’m typing, I am sitting in the Atlanta airport. I’m on my way to St. Petersburg for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. It’s the first race of the IndyCar Series season, and I’m excited. The last two years, my wife has gone down to this event, and my son is making his second trip, as well.
Now that the little guy is an animal, I didn’t exactly know how he would react on the plane. It could have been assumed that he wouldn’t like to be contained in a row of two seats. At 6 in the morning, I could have only imagined what the other passengers were thinking. I know that I couldn’t have taken it if it wasn’t my kid. Lucky for all of us, he fell asleep when we took off! So here we are, on our journey to Tampa, en route to St. Pete.
Be sure to check out all the action this weekend on indycar.com!!
Jarrod