Laguna Seca: Pre-Event
All Aboard for the Cable Car Tour!
– San Francisco sights for WorldSBK ahead of Laguna Seca –
WorldSBK meets MotoAmerica as Round 9 kicks off in San Francisco
The paddock has arrived in California and the dreaming is replaced by reality – Round 9 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is upon us and to celebrate, action kicked off with a cable car tour of the City by the Bay – the Californian jewel of San Francisco.
Nicky Hayden, Tom Sykes, Chaz Davies, Leon Camier, Niccolo Canepa and Karel Abraham were joined by some of MotoAmerica’s finest for a classic tourist tour around the city in two traditional cable cars, starting in Union Square and taking in AT&T Park, the Ferry Building, Fisherman’s Wharf and Marina Green. The first stop at AT&T Park had Chaz Davies wanting to try out his baseball skills, but to his chagrin the tour was not a declared hop-on hop-off service and the journey needed to continue.
The next stop at the Ferry Building was both a photo-stop and a pitstop, with Chaz and countryman Leon Camier both partaking in a quick beverage to keep their tanks full ahead of the weekend of racing. Coffee safely finished before embarking once again, the cable cars rumbled on to the tourist hotspot of Fisherman’s Wharf, where the riders enjoyed classic local delicacy Clam Chowder at the Fisherman’s Grotto, with nods of approval going round before the final frontier was ready for the taking and Hayden’s cable car set off for Marina Green – with the Sykes-led second vehicle in hot pursuit.
It was a dead heat into the parking area at that final stop, with the Golden Gate Bridge on one side and the prison of Alcatraz on the other, and the fans waiting got to mingle with their favourite riders as the final photos and interviews from the event started to wind down. With Chaz Davies informed of his nation’s defeat in Euro 2016 – courtesy of Tom Sykes – all that remained was for the return journey to Union Square through the city streets of San Francisco.
Now the crowd heads south to near Monterey for the track action to get underway on Friday 8th as the paddock takes on the infamous Corkscrew corner at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, with lights out for the Races at 14:30 (GMT-7) on both Saturday and Sunday at the legendary Californian venue.