We
checked out of the hotel with a slight credit card glitch. They promised to
refund our pre-payment since their authorization code was not working. We hope
so!
An
orange cat we had not seen before now greeted us at our car with meows. We
think it wanted tuna for breakfast. We had to skip our own delicious hotel
breakfast since we wanted to get to the track early. We were on the road at
6:41.
Our
commute to the track was smooth and traffic moved slowly into the track area.
The stewards parked us in a horse grazing field in a different area than the
past two days. Rob later called this “the suckers’ lot”. It was just past the
rowdy camping site.
We got
to the gates around 7:20 and had a short line for bag inspections. We were
happy that our arrival was easy with no long lines. We expected that our
departure would not be so quick.
Many
people had lawn chairs to get their seats in the grassy areas. We got muffins
at the concession for breakfast. They had two types, blueberry and chocolate.
Michele got the blueberry and Rob the chocolate. Rob said his was a brownie in
a muffin shape, yummy. As we walked to our stands, a lot of people were getting
Rossi gear as the retailers were opening up. Most people were already wearing
Rossi gear.
We made
our way to our seats and could hear the safety cars beginning their track
rounds. First, event management drove around the track while the medical corner
staff stood at the side of the track on each of their corners. This is an easy
way to confirm each corner has the required number of crews. Then it was the
technical corner workers turn (they are responsible for clearing crashed bikes
and dealing with any fires). There were four cars that slowly drove around to
inspect them.
At 8:20
the stunt pilot was out doing air tricks.
All
three classes of riders had 20 minute warm up sessions. Our seats gave us a
view of part of the back straight, the front straight and a turn opposite us.
We were close to the track and could feel our seats vibrate as they zoomed past
us. After warm up we waited about an hour until the Moto3 race started at 11
am. It was an exciting race and Jorge Martin won. In his interview he said he
wanted to win this 88th Assen race since his number is 88. We are happy for him,
especially since he was riding hurt from his crash in practice and was
limping.
After
the Moto3 race we went to the concession area and got lunch within 20 minutes
despite how crowded it was. The Moto2 race started at 12:20 just a bit after we
got back to our seats. The stands and grassy berms were full by this time.
Italian racer Bagnia was out front and led the entire race.
Afterwards,
the charity two-seat riders did a few laps. Rob has always wanted to do this,
but we hear it is a several thousand dollar donation that is an auction event
so the sky is the limit on what it might actually cost. Randy Mamola is the
legendary rider who does this.
A stunt
rider on a trials bike also also entertained us doing wheelies, stoppies, and
jumping over a volunteer.
A former
racer also did a few laps on a new electric bike. The announcers joked that we
could not hear him coming around the track. It sounded like a high pitched
whine.
The
MotoGP race started at 2pm. It was very exciting with many top riders changing
positions and passing each other. The website said there were 100+ overtakes.
The Rossi fan club across the track from us had their smoke sticks out in full
force. Unfortunately he did not get on the podium today yet you wouldn’t know
it by the crowd’s reaction.
We
slowly made our way out with the other 100k people. It took us 30 minutes to
reach our car around 3:45. There was a parked line of cars waiting to get out,
all turned off. Not a good sign! So we just sat in our car, enjoyed the weather
and waited. And waited...for two hours!
At 5:25
we saw progress, left the field and got on the highway with ease. We thought we
were home free, but traffic was very heavy all the way to Amsterdam.
Amazingly,
people had lawn chairs parked on the side of the highway and at overpasses for
well over 140 km. Apparently they just wanted to watch the traffic, and it was
crazy. Michele said watching traffic go by is not her choice of entertainment,
but people seemed to be enjoying it, especially those in the rural parts.
We even
saw a gold version of Michele’s NT. She had been watching the thousands of
bikes pass us hoping to see one.
Traffic
continued to be heavy all the way to Amsterdam, and a 2 hour trip took much
longer. We had to eat Michele’s emergency peanut butter crackers for
sustenance.
We liked
the decoration on this camper, clearly they are Rossi fans.
When we
got close to our hotel we tried to find a gas station. Two were already closed,
as it was 8:45 by this point. The one that was open refused our credit card. So
we will have to try tomorrow morning when the attendants are there.
We
checked in to our hotel, Hotel Herbergh Amsterdam airport, and went to dinner
next door for pizza. We were so weary from our nearly 6 hours wait/drive to
Amsterdam. After dinner we watched the ending of the World Cup Croatia and
Denmark match with penalty kicks. Tomorrow we leave for home!
