So, there I was. With my voice-recorder, videocam, digicam, presscard and full of motivation, waiting for Chuck Askland, team manager of Team Roberts, to arrive to main entrance and get me in. I thought it is rigorous effort, meaning lots of under-the-table money, eye-winks and constant pressure and lots of waiving with international press card. Nope. Chuck arrived with car, opened window, we shaked hands and greet and he gave oh-so-casually paddock pass. Bummer.

I’m in! Walking in paddock, smiling semi-familiarly to whoever my 10 second goldfish memory remembers, check the paddock girls, take pictures. With paddock pass you can get near to pits from back - not closer than door and from up. Yes, stairway to roof, where you can lean over and watch Rossi coming in from free practice as the God usually does. The God, not a god. Smile
I let the videocam roll. And then some more. And more. Then, word goes around that Colin fell. Sure, he’s not passing the start-finish line in regular fashion. I take a walk to other side, to see how they bring in the bike. Bike is on trailer, damage is quite light. Not simple lowside as Pedrosa does later but still, quite light. And for sure, I let camera roll.

Then somebody blows the whistle. No, literally! And some local dude in uniform shows me “time out” or “cross” sign with hands. Automatically, I stop the tape (I was done anyway) and hail “sorry”. Good enough. What did I do wrong? Because I filmed the damaged bike and following procedure? I will find out later.

Comes out, damage is recorded very exactly by MotoGP staff. What and where is damaged, how heavily, etc. I guess it’s needed for later checks, that the bike is still in compliance with rules. So, if they do it on regular basis, they should have a VERY interesting statistics. Nothing fancy, but I’d like to know, how different is damage for different riders. And how much money has Xaus flushed down with high- and lowsides.

I walk towards media center. Because I want to get certified anyway and I would like to know, what did I do wrong. Simple sign on paddock pass should have gave me the clue: no filming! OK … and then, on entrance of media center, there is a big poster with the same thing - if you want to film, you should have a RED STICKER in well visible place on camera. Or your cassette or camera will be confiscated. Oh-la-la …

I walk into media center and ask for a manager. Long story short: I’s illegal to film in paddock area without permit, which costs 1000 EUR. I pass, there’s no way I can get bank transfer confirmation from Estonia that quick. And my videocam is not that great quality anyway. But I do leave my contacts and explain, where I’m from and what I do and I assure, I want to keep everything professional and clean, etc.

My international press licence? It means slightly less than nothing. Really, it’s business-event and nothing related to free press. Their game, their rules - I totally understand and respect it. Still, with all that trouble I had for getting that licence, I fell a little bit dissapointed. But hey, I still can take pictures! I get his business card and I make a mental note to contact him again about fan websites. I also give him my contacts and he promises to check the site. Hopefully we will be friends and can work something out Smile

Here I am again, cruising the paddock. Mamola is nowhere to be seen so I try to keep it stateside and take pics of Hopper and try take pic of Roberts Jr but he does not come out from pit area (where is forbidden to take any pics, personal or not) and so I just wave him. I know your dad!).

As you can see on accompanied pics, lots of paddock girls. And after FP3, total silence in ether. Riders are nowhere to be seen, team members walk quick and have pokkerfaces. Public is very supportive, with every new leader or personal best, majority applaudes.

My lucky shot of Capirossi comes in hand. To get autographs of Rossi or US Riders? Forgetaboutit. Even when I’m taller than all other autograph hunters and more ignorant than they combined, there just too many of them. And Rossi - as you can see on the pic, was oh so close but he didn’t give any. Maybe it doesn’t show from TV, but their concentration is so high it would take several slaps to their face to get them notice you. Can’t blame them, every one of them has their reasons to do well in following race(s).
I call it a day and take a cab to nearby city, Utsunomia. 20 miles (30 km), it’s about $100. But since I don’t have any cash left and taxi doesn’t take creditcard, I ask the driver to take me to some ATM machine. Where it all starts to go wrong.

You can’t take cash from national ATM machines with foreign credit-card. And Utsunomia, with more than million citizens (approx) is too small city to have a major bank with international ATM machine. And No, there is not a single ATM machine, national or not, on Motegi Twinring. How heavy is that?

Then the taxidriver gets worried. Do I have cash? No. “Ok, wait ten minutes!” and he parks his taxi and goes somewhere. I hope he went to ask from fellow taxidrivers but he returns with police, who politely asks for ID and my creditcard. And where I’m from and where do I live. I give him my hotel contacts.

Then we take a walk to Utsunomia central police station where he checks, that there really is no international ATM machine in his district. He calls to hotel, speaks some heavy japanese I don’t understand and after that tells me “you’re free”. Like I was not before?

Later I hear what happened: police called to hotel and explained, that their guest is in nearby city, with no cash and unpaid taxi bill. Hotel manager took his car and rushed to Utsunomia, which is approx 40km from the hotel. He paid from his pocket to taxi and took me back to hotel. Now, that’s what I call customer service Smile. He just charged my card for some more and gave me cash so I would survive in following days.

Since the hotel didn’t have internet and my booked 2 days were over, I decided to move to another hotel. Now I’m in Palace Hotel, Tokyo. “Free, Fast internet”, as stands in my reservation confirmation. Not too shabby. And it is, quite fast.
Seconds after checking in, Jim calls from US and is worried that he hasn’t heard from me. See, we need internet! I catch up with him quickly and
first, I finished the first report and then I took to the city. I did find Starbucks. Honestly - after eating for 3 days things that I have never tasted or even seen on TV before (only thing I did recognize was rice), I was craving for some familiar thing. Thank you, Starbucks, for that Mocha Frappucino, never tasted better.

Day 3 preview:

warmup bravado, Rossi’ promise, more paddock girls, Team KR future, killer bees and of course - more lucky shots.

(ed note: This is Heiti, raw and uncut, without the proper accompanying photos. Due to popular demand we are putting thiese up now, and will fill them in as time permits. best…)

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