2006 retirement tripSpain March 22 to April 7

Circuito de Jerez

Saturday 25 March, 2006  We caught the train to Jerez for the MotoGP. The tickets were cheap - grandstand seats for €70 or A$140.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  When we got to Jerez station, we looked everywhere for information about public transport to the circuit. Not a word, so we caught a cab, only €15. This is one of the grandstands.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Saturday is qualifying day, always very exciting. It is 09:30 AM and things are looking good.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Like the Australian GP, there are many suppliers' stands flogging motor bike gear.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We found our way to seating area XO, right on Curva Alex Criville, turn 11. We can see the bikes coming around turn 10 Curva Peluqui.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The 125's were having free practice. The chicane that rejoins the track on the left is the Chicane Ayrton Senna.  It's to slow Formula 1 cars down when they race here.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The next turn is Curva Ferrari, turn 12. Our seating was great because we could see turns 10, 11 & 12.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  After the 125's had finished , the MotoGP bikes came out. This was the last year of running the 990 cc bikes. Ducati followed by Suzuki.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Dani Pedrosa from the Repsol Honda factory team in his first MotoGP race. He's so small (50 something kg) that people wondered if he'd have the strength to ride a 990. There were no such problems and he only gets better.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Colin Edwards, factory Yamaha, follows a Ducati. If the Ducati is the one ridden by Loris Capirosi, then it is the bike that won on race day.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  One of the privateer Yamahas run by Tech 3. This is bike 7 ridden by Carlos Checa.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Fortuna Honda ridden by either Marco Melandri or Tony Elias.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Dani Pedrosa again. The next day, race day, he finished second. This was his debut race after graduating from 250 cc.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Ducati of the Pramac d'Antin team - privateers. One crashed and the other came second last.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Valentino Rossi qualified only 8th. His Yamaha started the year with dreadful chattering problems (where the tyres have so much grip, that the frame twists and distorts and causes the whole bike to shudder uncontrollably)
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Sete Gibernau on a factory Ducati. He retired with electronic shifting problems on the second lap.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Yeah Rossi! Sad story. Tony Elias took him out on the first lap. He remounted and finished 14th.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  It was not a good year for Rossi although was clearly the best rider in the 990 field. Bike and tyre problems pushed him back to second place at the end of the season.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  He's a joy to watch though. Look at how he brushes the edge of the right side of the track . . .
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  . . . so that he can finish as wide as possible on the exit and align himself correctly for the next turn.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  A Tech 3 Yamaha.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Rossi again at turn 11.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Jose Luis Cardoso privateer Ducati.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Either John Hopkins or Chris Vermeulen on a factory Suzuki.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  After the MotoGP morning free practice had finished (1 hour) we decided to walk around the perimeter of the track. Lo and behold, another Aussie.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Even in Spain, Italian Valentino Rossi has a huge following.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  With a crowd of over 131,000  rows of toilets were required.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turn 10 Curva Peluqui looking down to our seating location to the left of the betandwin.com sign. Not too crowded right now.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turn 8 viewed from an area between turns 9 and 10.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Exiting turn 8. The 250's are having their morning free-practice session.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turn 9, Curva Angel Nito. The seats cost €80 each - cheap compared with Australian GP.  This part of the track is called the Grandstand Section.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Looking across at the X1 seating area in the background.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Behind me is the sweeping turn 8.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  My one and only. We were having a great time even though we couldn't understand a word being yelled, with great enthusiasm, over the very loud loud-speaker system.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Continuing our walk around the perimeter. Note how quickly the stands are filling.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The sweeping turn 8. This is quite a fast left-hander that leads into the grandstand section. In the far distance is turn 1
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turn 7 in front of us. Behind that is turn 13, the final left-hander that leads onto the straight.  It has been renamed Curva Lorenzo after the Spaniard's  five  world championships.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Look at the rows of motorcycles on the horizon. It looks like Indians across the ridge in a cowboy movie.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  This is turn 6, the Dry Sac corner. This is the most dangerous corner on the track as it is a hairpin at the end of the back straight and it's where the most crashes occur.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The back straight.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The civil guard keeping order. This is one of three Police organisations in Andalusia, all of them armed.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The Dry Sac corner has enormous run-off areas.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The 250's at full speed down the back straight.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Looking across to turn 7.   Just prior to the Repsol signs, is Curva Lorenzo, turn 13.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  This isn't a very popular spot for watching the races. The reason is that other parts of the track are so much better being closer to the track and with more of the track visible.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The Tio (Uncle) Pepe control Tower. Tio Pepe is a brand of Sherry.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  A 250 entering the back straight from Curva Sito Pons, turn 5.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  This shot gives a good view of the surrounding rural area. That's turn 4 in the centre of the picture.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Walking up the hill towards turn 5.  The stands in the distance, at turns 9 & 10 , are filling up.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turns 4 & 5 with the helicopter pads visible.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  At Curva Sito Pons, turn 5, looking down the back straight with the Dry Sac hairpin at the end. Imagine doing close to 300 kmh with a hairpin at the end..
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Like Phillip Island, camping is available. However, because of the huge traffic jams on race day, nearly everyone who comes on Saturday stays overnight for the race on Sunday.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  That's Jerez de la Frontera on the horizon, 10 km away.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The roads right now are so badly jammed that VIPs have no option but to get here by helicopter. Their timing is such that they arrive in a squadron of helicopters between sessions. Six helicopters are coming in to land after 250 FP is finished.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The stands are filling rapidly.  That's turn 8 just above the "Village" sign.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The very distinctive "Flying saucer"  tower that sits across the main straight. This tower immediately identifies the track as Jerez in commercial photographs.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The first turn exiting the main straight, Curva Expo 92 is visible across the centre of the picture. On the left, you can see where the riders leave the pit area to join the track.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The garages. Right in front is the Rizla Suzuki garage and Sete Gibernau's Ducati garage is the one on the far left.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006   This is the area between turns 3 and 4 where Mick Doohan crashed out of the 1999 500 cc race.  He suffered a broken leg, wrist, and collarbone, and muscle damage to his back.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Turn 2, Curva Michelin.  Doohan lost control of his Repsol Honda on his fifth lap of the session and he was injured after he slammed into a trackside tyre barrier. The crash ended his career as a racer; he was 33 years old.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Looking back from Curva Michelin Turn 2 to turn 3. Doohan apparently touched a white line at turn 3, still wet after some rain, high-sided, and crashed into an unprotected area of fencing shortly after.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Walking between turns 1 & 2 looking down the main straight.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Diagram of the Circuito Jerez.  Our seating was at turn 11.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  It was  starting to get really crowded.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We returned to our seats and there really wasn't enough room. The seats were steel benches and not proper seats like at the Oz GP.  Look at how full the stand at turns 9 and 10 is.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We were worried about getting back to the Jerez train station for our return to Sevilla.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  So we decided to leave before MotoGP qualifying.  We couldn't understand the language, the giant screen was too far away to see and we didn't know what was happening.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The mess outside was chaotic.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We waited about 15 minutes for a cab or bus but realised that there was no way for them to get in.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The motorcycle parking area is full and the freeway exit in the background is at a standstill.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We felt we had no option but to walk the 10 kms back to Jerez and hope that we could spot a taxi once we got free of the mess.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The reason that no traffic was getting in was plain to see: all of the approach areas were being used as parking areas for bikes.  Look at them parked across the overpass as well.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The bikes would go around the cars on the freeway and park on the streets going to the circuit. That's a Police bike on the right.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Cars were waiting on the freeway up to 5 kms away not knowing that they were never going to get in. Remember again, this is the day before race day, not race day itself.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  After about half an hour's walking after leaving the circuit, we joined the freeway exit.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  It was an absolute mess.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Cars were stopped everywhere while the bikes proceeded to the front and blocked the roads into the circuit.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We're now looking back towards the circuit. The cars are stopped with their engines off. They can't even do a U turn to go back home.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Motorists out of their cars, probably discussing their range of options which is zero
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We walk along the freeway for a while and you can see even this far from the circuit, people are out of their cars. The sign says the exit is 500 metres away.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Bikes continue to push past the cars to the head of the queue.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  From the previous spot, I turned 180 degrees and saw that the traffic extended for kilometres. On the right, traffic is going back to Jerez de la Frontera.  Not too bad in that direction.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  Interesting sign
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We've now been walking for 1 1/2 hours. We've walked about 5kms and are about half way back to the station.  Around about now, I exploded and declared I was never coming back to Spain. They couldn't organise a chook raffle.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We finally waved down a taxi, we were never so relieved.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  I was surprised at the number of big bikes, nearly all sports bikes. Surprised because the cities are filled with motor scooters.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  The riders were mad. Apparently they take over Jerez for the weekend and the cops turn a mostly blind eye to the street racing, wheelies and burnouts. Victorian police could learn a few lessons about over-reacting at the Australian GP.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  That's why we decided to stay in Sevilla for the weekend and to commute the 70 kms each day.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  We caught the train in time but it was quite obvious that we had no way of getting to or from the circuit on race day. This was one of the greatest disappointments of my life - I'd dreamed of this for years and it was a disaster. Years later this event still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
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Saturday 25 March, 2006  This is an article published by Dennis Noyes about the horrendous traffic at Circuito de Jerez.    END OF OUR VISIT TO THE CIRCUITO DE JEREZ      The beautiful village of Jerez is next where, at last, we meet some helpful Spaniards.
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