Motegi MotoGP 2024 - Part 2

Day 4 

Well, the alarm went off very early again this morning. Down to breakfast then into the bus for the ~ hour drive to the track. We may have been a bit dusty this morning……

Being the weekend there were a lot more fans in attendance. 

We decided to check out the merchandise and eatery area first up this morning as there was an atm located in the information centre and we needed some more yen. 

The two foot long sausage in bread looked pretty damn good so I grabbed one and chopped it in half to share.

 

It tasted as good as it looked and some stodgy, hot food was just what the doctor ordered this morning.

We decided to check out the “G” grandstand which was opposite our “Z” stand and was located on the inside of Turn 11, at the end of the back straight. Located here, one is quite close to the bikes, looking down on them as they peel under the bridge.

After Steve had taken another 1000 photos of the bikes in FP 3, we wandered over to the “Z” stand to find our seats. It was overcast, cool and with a few light showers passing through. As a spectator it was just perfect for sitting outside. Probably not so nice for the riders!

We then wandered up to the hairpin at the start of the back straight, Turn 10. The rubbish bin system was interesting to see. Very well signed and constantly replaced once full. I understand that the clear bag (and lack of rubbish bins in general) is because of what happened in the 1990s with the sarin gas attacks in the subway system.

Some spectators were allowed to bring bikes into the track and we saw some interesting pit bikes.

Steve took another 1000 photos here before we wandered back down to our seating to watch Q1 and Q2, then the sprint race.

The Sprint was a bit of a procession with the usual outcome this season - J Martin the winner.

The racing over we wandered back to the bus for the drive back to Utsunomiya. There was no formal dinner organised for tonight so we wandered down to the restaurant strip near our hotel with Gordon (Mr Pole Position Travel) and several of the others, so it was almost just like an official dinner.😆

We found an Italian restaurant in the end (I know, I know - we are in Japan) that everyone was happy with the menu and proceeded to order. The food was actually really good and the company was awesome. Because we were a bigger group we were spread across a couple of tables and when it came to pay the bill this became a real problem. Well, the problem was more of a translation issue as the staff had zero English and our “konnichiwa” and “oragato” weren’t of much value either.🫤

After about twenty minutes of hand gestures, assisted by some Google Translate we had the bill sorted to our satisfaction, with a tip thrown in on top. We retired to another little Irish bar that Gordon knew for a Guinness or two then hit the hay.

Day 5

Being race day we were on the bus even earlier than the usual 0745 as we were expecting much more traffic for the drive out to the track.

 It actually wasn’t too bad and we were there in the usual hour or so. I believe spectator numbers were way down on the peak years mainly due to the Japanese bikes and/or riders not featuring at the pointy end of the field for the last few seasons. Ai Ogura being the one exception to this theory.

We wandered into the merch area again this morning as Steve wanted to grab a couple of things. We got to check out Johan Zarco’s Suzuka 8 Hour race winning Fireblade and the winner’s trophy in the Honda tent. Not sure how we missed seeing them the other day?

We wandered up to Turn 10 again for some more photos and it was much harder to get a good vantage point this morning as the crowd was significantly larger.

 No real problem though as the track is sunken down into the landscape so you are looking down on it from pretty much anywhere around the circuit.

The riders came around on the top deck of an open bus for a parade lap. I had to laugh as it looked like Aleix Epargaro (aka The Captain) was lecturing Maverick Vinales’ on the far side (sorry, not a great photo from my phone. I am sure Steve will have a crystal clear one).

When we took our seats we were pleasantly surprised to see a couple from Young in country NSW who we had met at Sepang last year. 

We saw David Alonso clinch the Moto 3 world championship as he mowed down the field to win the race as well. 

We got to witness all of his post race celebrations as he performed them right in front of us. A very funny sight was David riding his first mini- moto bike around in circles on the track before falling off it for fun.

Just as the Moto 2 riders completed their sighting lap we had a light shower of rain come across the track. Just enough to put our rain jackets on but barely enough to wet the ground.

 This saw race organisers declare it a flag to flag race. With the language barrier with the circuit p.a. system we had no idea what was going on. 😆  

Jake Dixon ran away at the start but as Ogura began to mow him down we realised that Dixon was on wets while Orura was on slicks. It was actually awesome to be in amongst a mostly Japanese crowd and have the soon to be world champion charging through the field. Unfortunately Ogura had to cede to an even faster Gonzalez, but then again Ogura was racing for the world championship. Bloody interesting race actually.

The MotoGp race started dry and managed to stay that way. Acosta looked a good chance for the win but like the Sprint race restersay, he troweled it into the gravel again. This left a fairly predictable Ducati lockout….again.

Post race Steve and I decided not to rush out with the crowd. Our bus wasn’t leaving for over an hour so we grabbed a beer and joined the masses who were entering the track at Turn 11.

It is always very interesting seeing a track from the track. The nuances of rise, fall and camber are usually not able to be seen from the t.v. coverage. It was interesting how steep the fall was into Turn 11 and also how wide the tunnel was out of 11.

We walked around toward the finish line and saw big black marks on the track, not knowing what they were from. As it turns out, it was from Alex Marques’ bike being hooked up on the back of Mir’s bike on the first lap. Scary stuff when seen on the replay later that night!

There were still thousands of fans on the start straight and just as we arrived they were wheeling Pecco’s race winning bike back into the pit garage.

I got a perspective of what it looked like to be Jack Miller starting from P14 today. Pretty sure he didn’t have a beer on the grid though….

As we made our way through the primo-pit-hospitality-area a mate messaged to say that he and his partner had just had a little boy! Steve and I celebrated by tipping a small bottle of Suntory whiskey into an even smaller bottle of Coke. I may have even shed a tear for him. Nice one Dean0!

On the way out we took a look at some of the few bikes that were still in the bike park before making our way to the bus home.

 Think we may have been 3 sheets to the wind by this stage as the trip seemed to go quickly for me  - maybe not so quick for the poor sods sitting opposite. 😁

We then attended a final dinner at a tepanyaki restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. Plenty of exuberance was on show from everyone as we celebrated a great weekend with like minded folks. No photos though…we were busy…..

Day 6

We were all going our own way today, so we slept in a little before heading down for the last breakfast with the Pole Position crew. We had met heaps of new, awesome people in this group but in true “how small is this world” fashion, we had met a guy and his Dad who lived litterally 500 metres from me back in Brisbane. Chris also raced bikes at Morgan Park with The Motorcycle Sportsman Of QLD club! We will definitely be in touch back home!

We had all day to be back at Narita airport so Steve and I took a wander around central Utsonimiya for a few hours, checking out an ancient shrine that the city was grew up around.

 It was very “The Last Samurai” in build with ancient trees  surrounding it. 

Very cool.

The pride in every little thing was duly noted. Check this fire hydrant cover.

When the time was deemed right we caught a cab to the train station for $10 Aussie- it sure beat walking like we did on Day 2! 

We boarded a Shinkansen into Tokyo station and enjoyed the smooth, fast journey again.

We managed to find the Airport Express this time and zoomed out to Narita airport in no time at all. Being there far too early we grabbed a couple of cheap beers and dinner before finally boarding our Jet* flight home to Brisbane. Being a red-eye it was what a red eye is. At least we had a tiny little woman sitting between us and we weren’t cramped. The aisle seat for the win!

In hindsight, we had a great trip and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Japan MotoGP to anyone. We went with Pole Position Travel as it was cost effective and having everything organised made it very easy in a country where communication can be challenging. Having said that, having seen it done now I wouldn’t hesitate to go solo and organise the whole shebang on my own. Though, doing it “solo” one would miss out on the camaraderie of hanging with a bunch of like minded motorcycle nutters. This benefit is not to be underestimated when purely weighing up cost. 

Speaking more on cost, Japan is a cheap place to visit for us Aussies with food and drinks being very cheap. Even at GP inflated pricing the Motegi beers were half the price that is charged at Phillip Island, the water is one fifth the price while food is about on par but there is so much more choice at Motegi. The ability to purchase cheap, fresh food at convenience stores in Utsynomia and take it into the track with us was a breath of fresh air. In Australia everyone entering the track precinct and their backpack contents are treated like Osama Bin Laden’s offspring - not so in Japan - it was extremely refreshing to be treated like an adult!

Thanks to my bro, Steve, for being an awesome travel buddy AND an awesome photographer! He let me borrow a bunch of photos and they are marked with his "Road To Nowhere Images" water mark.

Where are we going next Bro? 😁

Cheers.

Motegi MotoGP 2024 - Part 1

 

Day 1

Following on from our boycott of the Phillip Island GP last year when we went to Sepang in Malaysia instead, Steve and I decided to take a look at the Japanese GP at Motegi this year. Like the Malaysian GP, Motegi is basically in the Aussie time zone - well, only two hours behind - so no need for a fatiguing long haul, multi meridian journey.

As Japan is about as foreign as it gets as a culture and a language for us Aussies, we decided to book via a tour company which specialises in Moto GP (and WSBK) packages. Pole Position Travel proved to be fairly priced, very easy to deal with and as they have been doing this for twenty odd years, well organised.

Steve and I flew out of Brisbane on the Wednesday before the race weekend so that we could find our feet and have a very quick Look at Tokyo. We arrived at the airport earlier than strictly necessary but I had a plan to surprise Steve with breakfast in one of the lounges. It is also nice to not be in a mad tizz at the airport. We certainly weren’t for this trip!

We chose to go Jetstar to Narita as the flight was dirt cheap. 

Narita is also on the Motegi side of Tokyo which I thought would make it easier but to be honest, the rail system is so good that flying into Haneda airport would not have been an issue for access. We were on a 787 and I chose the aisle seats in the centre row of the aircraft, hoping that the middle seat would be unoccupied and we scored a win there, having the row of three seats to ourselves!

I had purchased the meal and entertainment add-ons for our flight. I was surprised that the meal was actually not bad and the time zipped by as we watched a couple of movies and sipped a beer. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt Fuji during our arrival but the combination of thick haze and our not-optimal-for-viewing seating saw us miss out.

The whole disembarkation/customs process was as painful as always. Once through we grabbed some Japanese cash from an ATM then went in search of a train into Tokyo. 

I think we messed up here by not catching the AirPort Express, instead getting an “all stops” jobbie that took about an hour and a half to get us to our hotel.

Steve had booked the hotel and it was a good-un. Near a train station so we could walk the short distance but also near a street of restaurants. We wandered around trying to figure out what to eat. Here, my recent work trips to Japan came in handy as many restaurants are hidden upstairs and not right on the street front. We followed some signs into a lift, went up six levels and hopped out in some sort of chicken restaurant. Trying to figure out the menu, the easiest thing to order was beer…..so we did! 

The food (and beer) is so cheap that we decided to just order a heap of dishes and if we didn’t like something to just push it aside and order more of what we did like. Luckily, everything was very tasty and was washed down with another bucket of beer while I got to giggle at Steve trying use chopsticks.

Day 2

We got up reasonably early this morning and made our way down for the buffet breakfast. While there seemed to be a lot of westerners having breakfast, the western style breakfast was pretty ordinary fare and the Japanese version was not very enticing at this hour of the morning, so we ate like sparrows.

That done, we dumped our suitcases with the concierge and hoofed it. Steve wanted to have a look at the massive SkyTree tower and as it was only a few blocks away, why not? 

Straight out of the hotel we came to a park with a temple in it.

 It was a cool, cloudy morning and the setting of the temple in the trees was stunning. 

We took a few photos then kept walking…

Only to discover that the first photos were of the rear of the temple! The front was even more impressive! 😆

There were some relics in the park that had been badly burnt. We assumed that they were WWII wrecks but applying Google Translate to the signs revealed that they were from a massive fire that ripped through Tokyo after the great Kanto earthquake in 1923.

Pressing on we marvelled at how clean and tidy the streets were for such a huge city. Not a scrap of rubbish or a dot of chewing gum to be seen anywhere. Refreshing!

After quite a hike we were at the base of the Tokyo Skytree. It is an impressive building at 2080ft (634m) high and a mighty feat of engineering.

Finding our way inside we were there about fifteen minutes before opening time. Perfect timing! At $35 Aussie for a ticket it isn’t cheap but how often do you get to go up a building this tall in the middle of a city this big? Not often for a couple of bumpkins from the bush!

There are two observation levels, one at 350m and the other at 450m. 

We decided to check out both even though the upper level looked to be in cloud.

The view was pretty impressive, despite the haze and by the time we got to the upper deck the cloud had lifted to reveal more of this massively spread out city.

Touristing done, we headed back down in the fastest lift I have ever ridden at something like 600m a minute. Exiting the base of the SkyTree we were greeted with an Oktoberfest beer hall. Ah, that’s right, it’s October! It was approaching lunch time so best we take on some fluids and munch on something more to our taste!

This dinky little car was outside the sword museum. The sword museum that we didn't want to pay to get into....

After what felt like a looong walk back to the hotel we collected our bags and took our chances catching a train to Tokyo station. Here we would transfer to a Shinkansen (bullet train) to our base for the next few days, Utsunomiya. 

Tokyo station was an eye opener. We found the Shinkansen ticket office easily enough but it took about 25 minutes to get to the head of the line and purchase our tickets. I thought we had missed our train, it being a special train but no, these special trains are just part of the everyday transport solution here and run every half hour or less! Finding the right platform wasn’t easy but Steve found an English speaker who pointed us in the right direction.

The train itself looked like some sort of dragon snake with its long, aerodynamic snout followed by a long  snaking body. Ours was actually two Shinkansen joined together. We had reserved seats in a specific carriage so I liked how the platform was marked with the carriage numbers and that is exactly where the train pulled up!

Once on, it was immaculately clean and very airplane like but with a lot more leg room than your average aircraft. Steve had purchased a couple of beers on the platform so we enjoyed them as we watched the countryside scroll by at 235km/h. When I say countryside, I actually mean urban build up because it seemed like we were in town the whole way to Utsunomiya.

Once there we walked the kilometre of so to the hotel. After this mornings trekking our legs were cooked. We should have cabbed it…..

Checking into the hotel, it had an old American hotel feel about it. It was clean and comfortable though. We met another tour group member almost right away. Chris from the Isle of Man was clearly happy to see some other MotoGP tragics and it took some getting away to our room!

Pole Position had put on some welcome drinks and Gordon, the owner, playfully cursed his luck that so many thirsty Aussies were in attendance, driving his bar bill up!

Welcome packs were handed out then we retired to a little Irish bar that Gordon knew for Guinness and Gyoza. Now that is a combination I wouldn’t have picked! We met and chatted with many of the others on the tour here. 

This was going to be a fun few days!

Day 3

The tour bus was slated for a 0745 departure so we were up early for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The food here was more to our liking with a good selection of western style breakfast that tasted like a western style breakfast!

Then it was onto the bus for the ~ one hour drive out to the Honda Motegi Mobility Resort - the track in other words! 

We arrived nice and early and Gordon set our meeting time and place before we all headed our seperate ways. 

Steve and I decided to check out the Honda museum this morning as it was right by the entrance to the track and not a lot happens on a Friday morning, MotoGP wise.

The museum is pretty unassuming looking from the outside but is a treasure trove of all things Honda. 

We wandered around for about an hour and a half but could have easily spent most of the day in here. I’ll just do a bit of a photo dump of some of what we saw. 

My phone camera photos don’t do it justice. Steve had his real camera and took much better shots here.

I had one of these back in '93. CBR900RR, brand new,  same colour. I wish I still had it.

Entering the track complex we were impressed with how picturesque it is, set into the hills and surrounding forest. 

Entry was sooo easy with no bag checks or metal detector wanding like we get back in the Nanny State. Nope, just scan your ticket and walk right in!

We decided to check out our stand, the “Z” stand which is located on the tight right corner at the end of the long back straight. It was just open seating on timber planks but as long as it didn’t rain, we were sweet!

Alex Rins - 340km/h down to 80km/h!

Wildcard rider Remy Gardener with front brake discs glowing red hot!

Like we always do at a GP, we decided to walk right around the track today. Our legs were still a bit weary from yesterday’s hiking but we revived our energy levels for the trek with some tasty micro brewery beer. 

Luckily we did that as it was a looong way around this track.

Steve stopped here and there to get some more awesome photos.

 A big portion off the end of the main straight is not visible due to the safety barrier on the NASCAR oval track(where the Twin Ring in Motegi's original name comes from). Luckily the forest off to the right along here was very pretty and made it feel like we were on a bush walk of sorts.

Thankfully for our legs, we finally came to the main grandstand and civilisation! Another beer to revive us plus a bite to eat and we were set. Did I mention that the beers were bloody good?

And cheap? Under half the price they are at Phillip Island and it is tasty full strength stuff too!!

 Taking a seat at the back of the grandstand we chatted to an Aussie bloke from Toowoomba. It turned out he was the guy that had left some Tripadvisor reviews back in 2016 and 2018 that I had referenced when planning our trip? Small world, right?!

The Honda merch stand was a ghost town. Only thing missing were the tumbleweeds....

A Marini replica was on show as a photo prop. They were very protective of anyone trying to touch it though.  Dunno why as they are plowed through the gravel traps at circuits all around the globe on a weekly basis. 😆

This lean machine looked like fun and I decided that as nobody knew me......so, braaap! 🤫

The day over and done with we loaded back onto the bus.  The trip home was a slow one at almost two hours and all were glad to get off that bus. 

My merch haul for the kids was considerable!

We had a hot turn around for dinner. This proved to be a fun night at a Japanese restaurant across the road from the hotel.  Most of the food was edible and ALL of the beer was drinkable.😉

We had a special guest speaker for about an hour. Can't remember his name but he was a Spanish MotoGP journalist who has been in the Paddock for the last 30 years. He had some very insightful information that we, the general punter, never gets to hear about the riders and teams.

It was a fun night for everyone. Our group proved to be a great bunch of people with Dutch, German and Isle of Man....ers sitting with us. Many beers were harmed that evening.

Part 2 is here.

Cheers....