Phillip Island - Race day at last.

19/10/14

We kicked off the day with our lunch preparation forming a production line making wraps for lunch. For about the cost of one wrap at the track we managed to put together eighteen wraps at home, and they were delicious.

Uncle D, Rex, and Uncle G on lunch detail.

Out at the track I played catch up with some more old friends then set of for a walk around the track to pick my vantage points for today's races.

There are hundreds of places you can read full race reports so I'm not going to write one here. I'll just post a few photos that I took with my little travel camera.

The Moto 3 race was by far the closest and most exciting race of the day. Aussie Jack Miller was obviously a crowd favourite and didn't let us down taking a really close win, followed by Alex Marquez and Alex Rins. How close? Less than 3/10 ths of a second covered the top six riders. Fantastic! Remy Gardner was given a wild card ride but unfortunately he suffered bike problems on the warm up and started behind the field. He rode a great race and managed to catch and pass two riders, finishing 26 th. I'm sure he still impressed some team managers with his skill though. Well done Remy.

Jack on the celebration lap.

The Moto 2 race ended with Maverick Vinales winning from Thomas Luthi and Esteve Rabat.

Maverick Vinales leads Johann Zarco, Thomas Luthi,

and Nicolas Terol.

Esteve Rabat.

The boys giving the trophy girl a taste of champagne.

Then it was time for the main event. With Marc Marquez having already sewn up the championship it could have been a boring race...but it wasn't. 

This race was Rossi's 250th GP start, and he is a huge crowd favourite. Marquez bolted early and looked to have it in the bag, but then crashed, like many other riders had done during he race. Rossi and Lorenzo who were having a great race for second were now racing for first place, and the crowd were loving it. Rossi found his old mojo and took off winning he race easily in the end. The crowd went absolutely crazy, and Rossi looked pretty pleased as well.

Obligatory trophy girl photo.

Mr Rossi pre race psyche up.

Ready to go.

Vale on the way to his win.

Who's a happy chappy then?

OK, it's a very ordinary video, but it'll give you and idea of the crowd support for Vale.

Wow, what a weekend. That's another Moto GP under my belt, and it was a good one. It had a lot of great components, including an Aussie win, tyre issues, great racing, a fantastic atmosphere, and meeting lots of old friends.

I'll sleep well tonight.

We miss you Marco.