Bartman10
26th June 2006, 23:51
I went to the MotoGP at Assen last weekend. It was truly awesome. Especially the sound of the Ducati’s under brakes into the corners. Cool.
Jumped on the Train out of The Hague on Friday and picked up my mate from Amsterdam Airport. Then back on the train out to Assen, took about 2 hours, where quite a few motorcyclist types were gathered. Jumped on the bus from train station to the circuit and secured a campsite a few meters from the circuit and some pretty good tickets. Went to have a look at practise and Rossi was clearly struggling. Nikano and Hopkins were putting in some great speeds as was Stoner.
Went back into Assen on Friday night by bus for a bender at Heathcliff’s Rock Café. Managed to find a bus back to the camping ground at about 1am and get a bit of shuteye.
Woke up feeling surprisingly good on Saturday and had some chips with mayo for breakfast.
Got to the circuit just in time for MotoGP warm up.
The 125’s started and it was an exciting race particularly in the early stages. Great to see the KTM win.
250’s were also exciting with some great two stroke sounds and smells.
For the MotoGP a lot of people thought it would be Hopkins race and he was doing well for the first few laps, with the Zook showing it had the legs. Unfortunately it became obvious that the tyres were going off quite early on. A real shame, because a lot of people thought it would be Hoppers race, myself included. You know the rest anyway….
One great thing about the Netherlands is the public transport. An extensive train network spans the entire country. There is a direct train from the major airport at Amsterdam to Assen every half hour, even when the TT is not on, and there were busses that ran continuously between the train station and the circuit day and night. The camping and catering facilities were great and the place didn’t struggle with 100,000 people.
Anyway all this got me thinking about the possibility of the MotoGP at Taupo and that’s why I’ve included this little survey. I want to know how much you’d pay for a basic stand ticket. I recon the Assen organisers made about 15 million NZ dollars on ticket sales alone. Could Taupo ever hope to pull a crowd that will spend that kind of money? Does NZ have the infrastructure to support such an event?
I’ve got to say I’ve never seen anything like the organisation at Assen and although I hate to say it I doubt it could be done in NZ.
Your thoughts?
Jumped on the Train out of The Hague on Friday and picked up my mate from Amsterdam Airport. Then back on the train out to Assen, took about 2 hours, where quite a few motorcyclist types were gathered. Jumped on the bus from train station to the circuit and secured a campsite a few meters from the circuit and some pretty good tickets. Went to have a look at practise and Rossi was clearly struggling. Nikano and Hopkins were putting in some great speeds as was Stoner.
Went back into Assen on Friday night by bus for a bender at Heathcliff’s Rock Café. Managed to find a bus back to the camping ground at about 1am and get a bit of shuteye.
Woke up feeling surprisingly good on Saturday and had some chips with mayo for breakfast.
Got to the circuit just in time for MotoGP warm up.
The 125’s started and it was an exciting race particularly in the early stages. Great to see the KTM win.
250’s were also exciting with some great two stroke sounds and smells.
For the MotoGP a lot of people thought it would be Hopkins race and he was doing well for the first few laps, with the Zook showing it had the legs. Unfortunately it became obvious that the tyres were going off quite early on. A real shame, because a lot of people thought it would be Hoppers race, myself included. You know the rest anyway….
One great thing about the Netherlands is the public transport. An extensive train network spans the entire country. There is a direct train from the major airport at Amsterdam to Assen every half hour, even when the TT is not on, and there were busses that ran continuously between the train station and the circuit day and night. The camping and catering facilities were great and the place didn’t struggle with 100,000 people.
Anyway all this got me thinking about the possibility of the MotoGP at Taupo and that’s why I’ve included this little survey. I want to know how much you’d pay for a basic stand ticket. I recon the Assen organisers made about 15 million NZ dollars on ticket sales alone. Could Taupo ever hope to pull a crowd that will spend that kind of money? Does NZ have the infrastructure to support such an event?
I’ve got to say I’ve never seen anything like the organisation at Assen and although I hate to say it I doubt it could be done in NZ.
Your thoughts?