Weekly 98 - The start

Since 98 I have been activly going to MotoGP races in Assen. Since 2004 I'm sitting on grandstand. Which means you get very close to the rider, BUT there's a fence between you and them. But that doesn't matter. You're close anyhow!

There's this other huge advantage of sitting on grandstand, you get to smell and feel the start of every race. And I can tell you it is intense!

It's the pre grid that get's you all warm and fuzzy all this activity on the grid all the riders approaching their starting place after they done a sighting lap. This is the moment, the last time you can scream something to ur idol! Often the whole grandstand yells out most of the names, but if really want to get the attention of your rider, you stand up and walk down, stand close to the fence, and in my case scream "MAAAAAAAAARRRCOOOOOOO", and YES! he looks at you smiles a little, and waves, and sinks away in concentration!

So they're all ready to go for the warmup lap, light goes out and "Bwaaaaaap" they're of all slowly...

after 2 minutes or so they return and all find their spot on the grid. Every racer is revving up his bike a little to keep it warm, and tearing of another tear-off, puts the correct foot on the ground, looks at the lights, BLING! They pop on and turn red the man with the flag goes away across the grid you hear every bike make a "CLICK" all bikes are set in gear 1. The lights go out and BWAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

check the vid: Start of TT Assen 2004