Snakes & Ladders: Motocycle Madness

When i sat down to write this post, i was torn between writing about what was going on versus what i have been going through the last month or so. But i decided that writing about what was going on would be much more cheerful business, so here it is.

We road tripped up to Sepang to shoot an episode of Engine Block during the Moto GP weekend. And it turned out to be quite a fun weekend indeed.

The Moto GP paddock was much more warmer than in Formula 1 and the riders were much more impressive. When we met Jorge Lorenzo for the first time, there was a sense of a rugged and more masculine character that seems to be lacking in Formula 1. All the driver in Formula 1 are so polite and PC to the point they are quite boring sometimes. They say that motorbike men are a different breed, and you know what? It was quite apparent.

Jorge Lorenzo was sitting at his table and his personal minder asked if we could push back his interview till after he’d gone to the medical centre and cleaned up a nasty gash on his hand that he’d suffered during practice. And on top of that, he already had a cut on the bridge of his nose from his last fall in Philip Island. This man has broken so many bones in his body that it’s amazing that he keeps getting quicker and quicker on his machine.

In Formula 1, I can imagine the press officer cancelling an interview cause the driver was bitten by a mosquito or something ridiculous like that, but here, you could sense that blood and broken bones came with the territory. Riders make drivers looks like little girls.

Paula chatting up Jorge Lorenzo

Interviewing Marco Simoncelli was great fun

The crowd waiting for autographs at the main mall area

The best thing about the whole experience was the fact that the organisers were going out of their way to try and make sure that we had everything that we needed for the weekend. I happed to mention to them that it would be great to try the Moto X2 which is a two seater ride around the circuit and they made it happen. It was awesome! It’s the second time this year that I’ve done something like this and it just keeps on getting better.

All geared up

And so was she

The best motor sports experience ever!

My ace rider, Randy Mamola

And just in case those pictures don't say a thousand words, then here's the video to give you and idea of how awesome this was...

We made our way to the starting grid and were under the podium for the prize giving. It was awesome to just soak up the atmosphere cause Rossi had just nailed the championship and the whole Yamaha team was in full celebrations mode.