brett's birthday race weekend

It was Brett's birthday this week, on May 27. This weekend just happened to be when the World Superbike races came to Miller Sports Park. So we got together (financially) with Brett's family and were able to buy him tickets for all weekend long.

This race is pretty cool, first of all because Brett and I have been following the motorcycle races for the past three or four years. We rent the DVDs of the racing season to watch, we own the racing XBox games, we just plain love racing! The second reason this race is so cool is that it's the only one that comes to North America. The there are 14 races in each season, and they happen all over the world, and they come to Utah for one of them.

The festivities started on Thursday evening, when a few of the racers had a press conference up at the Capitol. Then they got on their bikes and led a parade from the Capitol to the Delta Center. But this wasn't any boring old regular parade, this parade was for the motorcycle riding public! Meaning that Brett was totally there, and totally riding his Ducati in the parade behind the racers!!! You can imagine the excitement. But you don't have to imagine, because I took a video!!

But first, I took some pictures. While Ethan and I were waiting, we saw tons of motorcycles all heading up to the Capitol. The excitement of waiting to see his dad in a parade became too much for Ethan, so I had to give him his Floydster (that's his pacifier) to calm him down.
Then we saw the bikes coming! The video is about 2 minutes long. The first 8 bikes are the racers, and the rest are just regular people who came to be in the parade. Brett shows up about 30 seconds into it. You can tell it's him because the camera jiggles (because I waved at him) and then you can hear me laugh about how much fun he's having. He comes into the frame on the right at 32 seconds and then I follow him and he turns the corner at 41 seconds. So if you just want to look at him, go to those spots on the video.

As you can tell, Ethan was beside himself with delight to see the parade.
Then we went home to wait for Dad to come back. Good looking!
On Friday, Brett went out to the Sports Park. The actual races happen on Sunday, but Friday and Saturday is when the racers do their practice laps, getting to know the track and preparing for the race.
There is also a lot going on around the track for people to see. Like walking around and looking at all the hot bikes! This grey one in front is Brett's. He's parked in the special Ducati only parking lot. VIP!
These are some of the other hot bikes.



Brett's seat is in a cool place in the track, a place where the riders speed way up for a long straight and then have to brake for a few turns. He gets the best of all the race in one spot. Here are a few racers doing the practice laps.


The problem is getting a clear picture of the racers. Brett took a lot of empty shots because the bikes zoomed through too fast!

Brett is so happy to be able to see and do all this stuff this weekend. He's been talking non-stop when he gets home, but he's also so exhausted that it's not entirely coherent. hee hee. This morning when he left he said, "I'm off...to the races!" His eyes got wide. "For real!!"