FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I can’t imagine what SCRAMP, the volunteers, and the Monterey Police were thinking on Sunday. The shuttle bus system was a disaster of epic proportions. Some people have reported that the buses went to the wrong pickup location, but starting around 3:30 pm I observed about a dozen buses waiting at the top of the hill with NO traffic in front of them. And those buses didn’t move for another 30 to 45 minutes. My theory is that someone was concerned about the condition of the access road – with the heat there were major potholes developing – and so the buses were intentionally being spaced out. But even then, why didn’t this collective bunch of idiots let us BOARD the buses to escape the heat? The only person who probably didn’t spend 3 hours waiting for a shuttle bus was my wife, because she left the track right after we realized there would be no racing until 2:00 pm. Changing the schedule at the last minute was an insult. What were we supposed to do for 4 hours? The long wait did accomplish one thing, however. It made me realize that Laguna Seca is a filthy, second-class facility unfit for a major event. The lack of wash rooms alone would be reason enough to shut this place down. My wife and I will never go back. Bill Pepoon Roseville, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Outstanding. Exciting. Awesome. These are adjectives which describe the racing at Laguna Seca on Sunday, July 23rd. Outrageous. Pathetic. Ridiculous. These are adjectives which describe SCRAMP’s management of the event. My wife and our three children (ages 6, 6, and 5) left Fox Hill immediately following the MotoGP race. We figured we’d take the most direct route to the shuttle buses, and this involved going by the entrance to the paddock area. As reached the area near the paddock we encountered a huge crowd of people trying to get out. Everyone was sandwiched between a building and the track fence, with little movement of the line and even less movement of air. We were in the midst of this crowd when my five year old son looked up at me and said, “Dad, I want to be up high.” It was clear he wasn’t going to last long in the stifling heat near the ground, and I can only hold a 50 pound kid in each arm for so long. I told my wife that we’d need to find another way out, so we did a U-turn and battled our way out of the crowd. I finally located someone in a SCRAMP uniform and asked when a track crossing would occur. He said “the first one didn’t happen” as it was scheduled to after the MotoGP race. He couldn’t give an explanation as to why no crossing occurred. Nor could he offer any assurance that a crossing would be allowed after the second race. I couldn’t help but wonder why this guy with a SCRAMP uniform and a radio in hand didn’t know such a fundamental piece of information, given that we were clearly facing a dire situation with the crowds and the heat (I was speaking to him right after he had finished calling paramedics for help with a fellow suffering from heat exhaustion). So we decided to exit the track area by crossing back into the vendor area and going all the way over to the road near Turn 5. Once outside the track fence we’d be able to follow that road to the shuttle area. Notably, as we got onto the road near Turn 5, I noticed that there were Monterey city buses which had no lines the buses would simply drive up, load people on, then drive away. Only later did it occur to me that we could have taken one of those buses to Monterey, then taken a taxi to our car at Fort Ord. This would have been *much* faster than SCRAMP’s shenanigans. In any case, we made fast progress up the hill until we met up with the main body of people trying to leave on the shuttles. At this point we got into line and basically reached a standstill. To make matters worse, the line went around a parking lot where motorcycles were parked, and a lot of unethical people were simply cutting through the parking lot to get a lot farther ahead in line. At the rate people were cutting and considering how slowly the line was moving, those of us not cutting would have not gotten anywhere. So people in line started becoming irate and yelling at the cutters. I went and asked a SCRAMP person standing nearby whether she would make an effort to stop them, and she said, “I was specifically told not to try to stop them.” I’m not sure who gave her this ill-founded advice, but luckily after around an hour of this nonsense the sheriff’s department finally started stringing up yellow tape to keep the lines orderly (although earlier I had watched a sheriff do nothing to stop people from cutting). Then the fire department started bringing in boxes of water and passing them out. In the meantime, of course, people collapsed from heat injuries, including some people stuck in an enclosed bridge over the road. Those poor folks were immobile in the bridge for around an hour, and I can only imagine their level of suffering. After that the authorities decided that they wouldn’t use the bridge at all, and would instead allow people to load onto the buses from the side of the road we were already on. Why this painfully obvious bit of common sense wasn’t part of the plan from the beginning is only known to a handful of people at SCRAMP who are undoubtedly engaged in a skilled bit of CYA right now. And let’s face it, even if it hadn’t been so horribly hot, it still took far, far, far too long to get everyone out of there. We finally reached our car at 7pm, some four hours after leaving Fox Hill at 3pm. Had I not been in the company of my wife and kids, I could have literally walked to my car in less time than it took SCRAMP to get me there. A friend who stayed until the end of the last race (probably around 6pm) didn’t make it to his car until 9pm. What a fiasco. In the days following the race, I gave a lot of thought to how things could have been improved to get people to their cars in a reasonable amount of time. After much deliberation, I concluded that due to the location of the track and the poor access to it, the only good solution at Laguna Seca is to greatly reduce the number of people allowed at the event. I realize that this goes against the greedy nature of the powers that be, but my family’s safety comes first and I simply won’t attend a MotoGP race at Laguna Seca again unless they cap the attendance at a much lower level. I’m a big fan of MotoGP, but next time I’ll skip the eight hour drive from my house and watch it on TV from my recliner with a fridge full of beer nearby, rather than put myself and my family at the mercy of a bunch of incompetent people at SCRAMP. Justin Dillard Bishop, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Here is a copy of the email I sent to the officials at Laguna Seca: Dear Laguna Seca operators, if any one there is responsible, I waited for 3 hours in the 100+ degree sun to get on a shuttle bus to get back to my car on Sunday afternoon. There were thousands of us in line. It took about three hours to walk the distance of one or two football fields. There was no information about why we had to wait for the buses, or how long the wait would be. Throughout these 3 hours, we all expected the nightmare to end any minute. But then the line would move 2-3 feet, and stop again for 10-20 minutes, and repeat, and repeat, etc. There were children and babies crying, dehydrated and hungry for 3 hours with parents trying to console them. The parents trying to console the children were themselves dehydrated, exhausted, frustrated, angry, and lacking any information about how much longer the wait would be. There were senior citizens near collapse from fatigue. I heard many people say they will never return to Laguna Seca. I heard experienced race goers said that Laguna Seca does not deserve to ever host this race again, that they will write letters discouraging the authorities from letting you host it again. We had no option but to continue to wait; our cars were 10 miles away. And we had no estimate of how long the wait would be. This was a Death March for thousands of race fans. I did not hear of anyone dying, but, having seen how exhausted many people were, I would not be surprised. You owe something big to the thousands of fans who paid hundreds of dollars to be at your race track, who trusted your judgment regarding what your web site touted as “A new traffic flow plan is in place to also help to increase the fan experience.” This was a nightmare which was much more frustrating, and much more physically dangerous, than the 2-3 hour traffic jams of last year. At least then we were in our cars, out of the hot sun, and, at least for me, with an air conditioner in my car. If your staff had at least informed us of how long a wait was in front of us, it would have given me, and those of us in above average health, the option of walking to our cars. If I had known that I would wait 3 hours to get on a bus, I would have walked the 10 miles, and given someone else my seat on the bus. The only explanation offered to us was from a police officer, I believe his patch said sheriff. He told the crowd of exhausted and frustrated race fans that the cause of the delay was that too many fans were asking the bus drivers questions as they got onto the buses, and too many fans were lugging coolers. Talk about “blaming the victims” for the problem! I have read some of the press coverage of this debacle. They say they are now sure what caused the problem. To me it is simple: You did not have enough buses on hand for the peak demand on Sunday afternoon. This peak demand was anticipatable. You just didn’t think it through. It was a very amateurish mistake. People should loose there jobs at Laguna Seca over this. Please respond in a meaningful way! Dr. Edward I. Mendenhall Scotts Valley, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Laguna GP was a great event, sure there were problems, I experienced some problems with Laguna myself, but to those complaining about waiting to leave I offer this simple advice ARRIVE EARLY, STAY LATE. Laguna Seca Moto G.P. is an event, it is not like going to a movie, in and out. Celebrate the event, make a long day out of it, ENJOY IT. After a race there are thousands of incredibly interesting people wandering about, what better way is there to pass time and avoid traffic than to hang out and engage these interesting motorcycle enthusiasts in conversation. Joe Fenech Ballico, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Concerning the 2006 USGP, Okay, I think I’ve had it up to my blinking eyeballs with the feedback on the MotoGP. I have even done my share of complaining about one or two things, but I’ve thought about it, and heard other peoples take on the subject when they went to other motor sport events. I have the impression at this point that some attendees may be asking a bit much. Did you not know that it would be hot? Did you not prepare yourselves for the possibility of high temperatures at a racetrack in the desert? I feel that some of the responsibility should fall on the shoulders of the fans. If you didn’t want to spend $4.00 for a bottle of water, you should have gotten a hydration pack, or had a backpack with some water in it. As for the busses, I again don’t know what you expected. Don’t get me wrong. I was at that 2002 Olympics in SLC where you were not allowed to drive your own car to the events. The shuttle was the only option. Standing in below freezing temps for over an hour was no fun either. But until beaming people from place to place becomes common practice, patients with others is our only option. I have talked to people that have been to NASCAR races in hot climates and they have told me that similar things happened to them. My favorite was from my sister, who after waiting for the shuttle bus, saw people pass out in line, and she had others that offered her $10.00 for her spare bottles of water. So as you can see, it is not just SCRAMP. You can only move so many people so fast. I thought everything went well. We paid the extra money for the parking pass and had an easy time. All things considered it was a great show. I enjoyed see the improvements that were made, I enjoyed seeing the Yamaha Champions, and having them sign autographs for me, I enjoyed the racing. I don’t think it is SCRAMPS job to baby sit us. It’s their job to put on a show, and every year they learn something and do better. I will admit that my trip wasn’t perfect. Some of the SCRAMP folks could be morons, blah, blah, blah. Not all of us are perfect. Get used to it. Thanks to all of those that were there and work hard during the event. You have not gone unnoticed. Andy Rumble Boise, Idaho FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Paddock Mobs and boiling Gixxers Parting the crowd was harder than Moses parting the Red Sea (at least Moses had help). A few of the bikes were overheating badly coming off the track and trying to get back to the pits with the crowd unwilling or unable to clear a path. I was pitting for Scott Jensen who came back with a bellypan full of coolant and a steaming engine. We need to consider requesting a marked-out alternate routing back to the pits – there’s no reason to force the racers to have to return to the pits at barely a walking place with hot engines through the heavy crowds. I can’t say whether signs would help along with occasional announcements. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if the heat weren’t so oppressive. Pulling all our gear out to the pit wall in the wagon was no better – for qualifying or for the race. Even hollering a loud but polite “excuse me, pardon me, coming through” wouldn’t get people to move until I’d have to reach out and push them aside by their shoulder rather than run into them. Steve Slaughter WSMC #604 Pit Slave For Scott Jensen, AMA #61 AND NOW THE LAST WORD WE’RE GOING TO POST ON THIS SUBJECT: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Well after reading all that has been said about the ’06 Red Bull GP I fully agree with the blame resting firmly on SCRAMP. Me and my wife went last year and it was a disaster, and this year it was a disaster also. As for Joe Fenech’s e-mail–Joe says stay late and leave early, well common sense would tell you that if every one stayed late then there would be a three hour wait at 9:00 instead of 3:00. So that is not a solution that works for everyone only works if just a few thousand people are leaving late not 20,000 people! And Andy Rumble’s e-mail if I did not know any better I would say either he works for SCRAMP or has a relative that does. Andy probably does not grasp the fact that you can’t carry enough water to properly hydrate oneself on a 100+ degree day, also to say the same thing happens at nascar races does not make it ok, remember two wrongs do NOT make a wright. And as for Andy saying about the busses what do you expect. ……. we as cash paying fans expect all of or at least some of the promises that are told to us, SCRAMP spent lots of money on PR in all the mags on speed TV and etc. to get the point across that they have fixed the traffic flow problem, THAT is what we expected. And yes Andy we did know it was going to be HOT and guess what so did SCRAMP and I am pretty sure they could have done better if they cared to plan ahead. Thanks Roadracing World, Aaron Millar Lake Zurich, Illinois