My Wsbk experience (2012 Portimão - Portugal)

[veteq]

Friday - September 21st, 2012

Having had the chance to watch MotoGP on many occasions, my wife and I decided to try WSBK for a change. Being Portuguese and with some relatives still in the old country, Portimão seemed to be the right choice. After landing in Lisbon and spending a few days enjoying its beauty, it was time to drive down to the province of Algarve and the beautiful track of Portimão. The highways are 2 to 3 lanes wide and pretty much traffic free but with the country in a recession the tolls are quite high. However, the beautiful scenic mountains and amazing sweeping turns kept us entertained throughout the 3 hour drive and made up for the overpriced tolls.
We arrived at the track around 2pm on Friday to pickup a pair of tickets that my cousin secured for us. These tickets gave us full access to the track and paddock and provided us with a great buffet for breakfast and lunch for Saturday and Sunday at a total cost €99.00 each, an awesome deal considering the cost of our tickets for MotoGP in Indianapolis.
We decided to spend a couple of hours watching the Friday testing before checking in to our hotel; it was great to walk through the paddocks and meet the riders with no crowd to fight off. As for the bikes, the first thing we noticed was how loud all the 4 cylinders screamed as compared to the deep
loud rumblings of the Ducatis. Both types of bikes were unbelievably fast (297kms on the main straight), though the 1000 super stock class were noticeably slower.
As we admired the speed of the riders that zoomed by us and took in the smell of the fuel, I was reminded why I was at the track...to appreciate the talents of others who dared to push 2 wheels to their limit and to appreciate the talents of those who built these beautiful machines. Surrounded by fellow motorcycle racing enthusiasts from around the world I found myself sharing stories and rumors about MotoGP and WSBK only to be brought the disappointing news that the track which I had just explored and was so impressed with might be hosting it's last WSBK event due to financial difficulties. Though the rumors may be nothing but rumors, I thought it'd be worth while to share this track and my trip with you...

(to be continued)

 

[loyal.uvf]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[boooya]

My parents have a condo in Algarve, think I'm gonna be planning a trip soon .

 

[Dahulk]

Thanks for sharing

 

[dirtbag]

Hope you made it to the beach. The squeeze & I spent 3 months backpacking Europe in '88. The Algarve was one of the highlights.

 

[dieselxx]

great stuff. been to many moto gp and f1 events, but never superbike. Maybe salt lake next year or monza lol. Nice Biaggi pics. ..the old goat can still ride.

 

[veteq]

thank you for all the comments, I will continue the post on the weekend; still trying to adjust to the time difference.

great stuff. been to many moto gp and f1 events, but never superbike. Maybe salt lake next year or monza lol. Nice Biaggi pics. ..the old goat can still ride.

and he almost ran me over twice on his scooter; he flies through the pits on that thing.

Hope you made it to the beach. The squeeze & I spent 3 months backpacking Europe in '88. The Algarve was one of the highlights.

No beach this time around. I spent two weeks travelling through Portugal last year, many days spent on the beach.


A few more pictures

 

[Roasted]

Dude, these look like professional shots. Did you have a tripod with you? Huge SLR? Nice pics man and a good read.

 

[dragonrider]

Thanks for sharing. I plan to take my wife to indianapolis to watch MotoGP. Any tips or suggestions?

 

[00ninja]

Wow! Those are great photos. Thanks for sharing.

I was born in Lisbon and have many relatives there and as well as Portimao. In fact my family used to vacation there in the summers and stay with relatives who lived in Portimao. I have many found memories of the beach as a kid.

It's great to hear the track is doing well even hosting GP races. Portimao was the place to be in the Algarve back in the 70's but got very quiet in 80's and 90's and now seeing a resurgence. Primarily due to the high real estate values in Vilamoura and Albufeira.

 

[nfq]

awesome pics!

 

[T.O. Rider]

Great pics! The Algarve is beautiful, spent some tme in Albufeira. Friendly people, cheap food and drink and fantastic weather.

 

[Roasted]

Thanks for sharing. I plan to take my wife to indianapolis to watch MotoGP. Any tips or suggestions?

I hope your wife is into bikes, otherwise she will be bored as **** (like my gf was). There is absolutely NOTHING to do in that ******** town once the race is over. You can get some cheap *** food on the outskirts of the city. Try a place called "Mann's Grill" for breakfast. You get a bucket of greasy **** for like $5..........tastes good man. The biggest restaurant in town seems to be called something and Izzy's.....I forgot. Expensive as hell and the food is nothing special. I would say stay away.

 

[dieselxx]

Thanks for sharing. I plan to take my wife to indianapolis to watch MotoGP. Any tips or suggestions?

Beautiful pics btw. Indianopolis is a flat uninspiring track and if you are going to make a trip to the US for moto gp, travel a bit further and go to laguna seca gp. The corckscrew is magical and so is hwy 1 along the coast of Cali. Much more worth it imo. The only problem with laguna.....no moto 2 or 3 guys go there and thats the best racing. You get AMA instead which aint bad but still lol

 

[dieselxx]

I hope your wife is into bikes, otherwise she will be bored as **** (like my gf was). There is absolutely NOTHING to do in that ******** town once the race is over. You can get some cheap *** food on the outskirts of the city. Try a place called "Mann's Grill" for breakfast. You get a bucket of greasy **** for like $5..........tastes good man. The biggest restaurant in town seems to be called something and Izzy's.....I forgot. Expensive as hell and the food is nothing special. I would say stay away.

lol funny post. my gf loves the racing thank god. she's always pressuring me to go on moto gp or f1 trips lol . Last year we spent three weeks in europe. We rented a little peugot 207 and logged over 5000km. we stopped in belgium at spa for f1, then misano italy for moto gp and topped it off with a few laps around the green hell Nordlescleife track in germany. Best trip ever

 

[veteq]

My wife also loves racing, this trip to Portimao was her idea. Funny enough, last year, we rented a Peugeot 208 to get around portugal, crappy car but got us around.
When it comes to indianapolis, if you girlfriend/wife is into motorcycles, she will have a great time during the race weekend; we never stayed past Sunday.

Saturday night in Indianapolis downtown:

 

[veteq]

While going through the 2012 photos, I came across a few more of the 2012 WSBK in Portimao...