Tio Pepe..or Uncle Joe (or Jose), but not Jorge..!
Interestingly this is/was my third visit to Jerez inside twelve months. The same time last year was for my first visit to region for MotoGP, the second visit in October 2009 was with my wife Emily as a holiday, and now, here I am again in the same wonderful town for MotoGP once again. I love coming to Jerez. Truly feels like home.
Fortunately, just prior to my leaving, the "volcano that cannot be pronounced" appeared to have known about my visit and started behaving itself towards the end of the week that I had planned to leave for Spain. Air France had started returning to its normal transatlantic flight schedules and I could stop panicking about whether I would get there or not. I arrive into Malaga Monday afternoon via Charles De Gaulle, pick up the rental car (A BMW series 3 diesel - again) and head towards Jerez along the coast. The sun is out, it's warm and with the windows down I take a nice easy drive along the main toll road that runs from Malaga, through Marbella, past the rock of Gibraltar and turns inland where one finally ends up in the city of Jerez. It's a nice drive. The toll roads are hardly used and the view along the way is spectacular.
Arriving into Jerez I park just outside my accommodations, and after a brief chat with Alice and Jim, the apartment owners, I am in. I decide that I need to run to Carrefour to purchase some supplies for that evenings dinner, plus some beer, wine and water and I just make it in time before the store closes at 10pm! And they really do close. With supermarkets here in the USA they'll announce over the PA that the store is closing in 5 minutes and that's fine, but here, they turn all the lights off!! They obviously have no idea how hard it is to buy Leffe Brun, or at least differentiate between the Blonde and the Brun simply by using the incandescent glow of a Sony Erricson W600i mobie phone. It's all good. I pay, and I head back to the house. A shower, a quick dinner creation and it's time for bed. I sleep like a log.
Tuesday rolls around, and I really do not get out of bed until noon! OOPS! I decide that perhaps it's time for a change and instead of taking the car out for a drive, I decide to go for another walk around Jerez. It's a pretty little town, with narrow streets, pretty flat with no major hills so to speak. I decide that maybe I should go to a different "Sherry House" for a tour vs going to Tio Pepe as I do each time I visit. I arrive at the Sandeman bodegas and along with 4 other people we're giving a tour around the front end of the business. In fact, it's only a 30 minutes tour, and although it's well presented it just doesn't come upto the quality tour that is the one given at Tio Pepe. After this tour, in which felt a little rushed, I decide to kill some time, go for a walk and go back to the Tio Pepe bodegas for the 18.30 tour later that day.
In the meantime I have a couple of hours to kill. I decide to visit the Alcazar of Jerez. Emily weren't able to visit this building last year, and it's just across from the Tio Pepe bodegas so it makes for a good side trip fitting in nicely with the schedule. Due to the time of year, again, I have this place to myself so I just walk around, then sit on a bench and soak up the lovely warm sunshine whilst enjoying the perfume being given off by the flowers in the garden. Perfect. The Alcazar closes at 5.30, so I leave head over to Tio Pepe, purchase my ticket and sit in their orange groves waiting for the tour to begin. The tour starts and by 7.45pm we're done, so a few purchases in the souvenir shop and I'm heading back to the apartment. Shower, dinner, a chat with Emily over webcam, then it's off to bed. We'll head off to Seville and their Alcazar on Wednesday.
I love sleeping without the use of an alarm clock. I wake at 9am. Make coffee, have some chocolate all bran, shower change and am out the door by 11am. The drive to Seville is quite pleasant. About an hour. Arriving into the city through a 6 lane wide boulevard, I have forgotten the street peddlers from last year who like to try and sell you packets of tissues. It's odd. I have never thought about little packets of tissues being something that someone would want whilst sat at a traffic light. Maybe the Spanish buy more of these little packets of tissues than anywhere else. I suppose it's less of an intrusion that someone washing your windshield and then trying to demand you pay the for the work you never wanted in the first place. Everyone has to try and make a living some how so I can't truly knock it. I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to be someone trying to sell photos huh?
I park in the same place Emily and I parked last year. Oddly enough in parking space #46! I then head up to ground level and make my way to the Alcazar. It's off season, the weather is perfect, the crowds are manageable and I enter the Alcazar. This place is a must see. It's simply so nice to walk around, sit in the shade, listen to birds and watch people doing the same. It's a world away from what I do normally, the noise, the crowds, so for me, these outings to locations such as these are a way to recharge and just be a visitor. The Alcazar is for want of a better description, a castle. It's a walled palace, with gardens, baths, shaded walkways with palm trees, fruit trees, gardens and waterfalls. Exquisite. I leave a couple of hours later and stop for some tapas, after all, this is where tapas started! I go for tuna with tomatoes on toast, and a nice big glass of cold beer and kill an an hour or so watching people eating ice cream watch me eating tuna. Time to head back to Jerez.
Thursday the real world of motorcycle racing, or my "job" kicks back into gear so it's off to the track I go. Arriving early afternoon, Thursdays have become a bit of a "White Elephant" in terms of doing any work. With engines being "blipped" in the garages below as the teams prepare the bikes for the weekends action, the only thing that really happens on a Thursday is the press conference at 5pm and that's it.
Friday mornings are a little busier than Thursdays, but with no on track action until Friday afternoon, everything is very low key. Even the number of fans attending on a Friday is less, possibly because they're not willing to spend money for half a days activities, and the accompanying costs of hotels etc. Why not arrive Friday evening for the weekend and save a days expenses?
Oh that's right!! I'm here to photograph the racing! I am going down with the flu as this seems to be the time of year I catch something and it tries to incapacitate me. Andrew Northcott has agreed to help run me around on his scooter (too kind and I am immensely grateful) and so at least I can pace myself over the weekend and not make myself any more sick than I need to. Sitting in the media centre with David Emmett from Motomatters, Julian Ryder and Toby Moody from Eurosport along MotoGP technoboffin Neil Spalding, the off track entertainment is already taken care of.
The weekends events follow their well scripted chronological paths, with Friday afternoons practices, Saturday mornings practices followed by Saturday afternoons qualifying. The weather is again, perfect. The crowds on Saturday fill the hillsides and add the signature colour that would be repeated ten fold on Sunday.
Sunday. Race day arrives. It is a huge event, with air horns, whistles and a new feature, someone has brought in a ships foghorn that when "tooted" simply obliterates any other noise coming from the crowds. With huge crowds lining the hills, and with men trying to get their pictures taken with scantily clad umbrella girls, the smell of food being cooked mixed in with cigarette smoke, race day get's underway. The 125's and the new series Moto2 have their fair share of excitement and fairing to fairing battles, and initially MotoGP looks like it's going to be just another procession to the end. But no. Sadly Ben Spies drops out, and the field spaces out as usual with Spaniard Dani Pedrosa taking off on his own race in the distance. But that wouldn't last for long. We witness Jorge Lorenzo starting to run everyone down, catch and pass them. He passes Nicky Hayden, then passes Valentino Rossi and now he's closing in on Dani Pedrosa. In the meantime I am being whisked around the track at amazing speeds by Andrew Northcott from one shooting location to another and we simply witness Jorge Lorenzo catch and then pass his fellow countryman. Only to go on to win the race.
It was a Spanish hat trick, both the 125cc class and Moto2 class were won by Spaniards. Now the MotoGP class has been won by Jorge Lorenzo. Another Spaniard! The crowds are going bezerk! I am in the stadium section on the outside of the track and the noise is deafening as Jorge Lorenzo dismounts, plants his now customary "Lorenzo's Land" flag and walks to the tyre wall, whereupon he jumps up and salutes the crowd. After a few moments he returns to his bike, hops off in another location and jumps into a small lake..which we do not see from where we are located. We head back to shoot the podium and wrap up the days visual events. In a few hours after editing images, and uploading them to our various outlets, we head back to the apartment. After packing and getting ready to leave the next day we head off to bed.
Monday, it's a swift drive to Malaga via Ronda. Tuesday, it's time to head home. Next race is Le Mans. We'll see what a swift visit to France brings!
Interestingly this is/was my third visit to Jerez inside twelve months. The same time last year was for my first visit to region for MotoGP, the second visit in October 2009 was with my wife Emily as a holiday, and now, here I am again in the same wonderful town for MotoGP once again. I love coming to Jerez. Truly feels like home.
Fortunately, just prior to my leaving, the "volcano that cannot be pronounced" appeared to have known about my visit and started behaving itself towards the end of the week that I had planned to leave for Spain. Air France had started returning to its normal transatlantic flight schedules and I could stop panicking about whether I would get there or not. I arrive into Malaga Monday afternoon via Charles De Gaulle, pick up the rental car (A BMW series 3 diesel - again) and head towards Jerez along the coast. The sun is out, it's warm and with the windows down I take a nice easy drive along the main toll road that runs from Malaga, through Marbella, past the rock of Gibraltar and turns inland where one finally ends up in the city of Jerez. It's a nice drive. The toll roads are hardly used and the view along the way is spectacular.
Arriving into Jerez I park just outside my accommodations, and after a brief chat with Alice and Jim, the apartment owners, I am in. I decide that I need to run to Carrefour to purchase some supplies for that evenings dinner, plus some beer, wine and water and I just make it in time before the store closes at 10pm! And they really do close. With supermarkets here in the USA they'll announce over the PA that the store is closing in 5 minutes and that's fine, but here, they turn all the lights off!! They obviously have no idea how hard it is to buy Leffe Brun, or at least differentiate between the Blonde and the Brun simply by using the incandescent glow of a Sony Erricson W600i mobie phone. It's all good. I pay, and I head back to the house. A shower, a quick dinner creation and it's time for bed. I sleep like a log.
Tuesday rolls around, and I really do not get out of bed until noon! OOPS! I decide that perhaps it's time for a change and instead of taking the car out for a drive, I decide to go for another walk around Jerez. It's a pretty little town, with narrow streets, pretty flat with no major hills so to speak. I decide that maybe I should go to a different "Sherry House" for a tour vs going to Tio Pepe as I do each time I visit. I arrive at the Sandeman bodegas and along with 4 other people we're giving a tour around the front end of the business. In fact, it's only a 30 minutes tour, and although it's well presented it just doesn't come upto the quality tour that is the one given at Tio Pepe. After this tour, in which felt a little rushed, I decide to kill some time, go for a walk and go back to the Tio Pepe bodegas for the 18.30 tour later that day.
In the meantime I have a couple of hours to kill. I decide to visit the Alcazar of Jerez. Emily weren't able to visit this building last year, and it's just across from the Tio Pepe bodegas so it makes for a good side trip fitting in nicely with the schedule. Due to the time of year, again, I have this place to myself so I just walk around, then sit on a bench and soak up the lovely warm sunshine whilst enjoying the perfume being given off by the flowers in the garden. Perfect. The Alcazar closes at 5.30, so I leave head over to Tio Pepe, purchase my ticket and sit in their orange groves waiting for the tour to begin. The tour starts and by 7.45pm we're done, so a few purchases in the souvenir shop and I'm heading back to the apartment. Shower, dinner, a chat with Emily over webcam, then it's off to bed. We'll head off to Seville and their Alcazar on Wednesday.
I love sleeping without the use of an alarm clock. I wake at 9am. Make coffee, have some chocolate all bran, shower change and am out the door by 11am. The drive to Seville is quite pleasant. About an hour. Arriving into the city through a 6 lane wide boulevard, I have forgotten the street peddlers from last year who like to try and sell you packets of tissues. It's odd. I have never thought about little packets of tissues being something that someone would want whilst sat at a traffic light. Maybe the Spanish buy more of these little packets of tissues than anywhere else. I suppose it's less of an intrusion that someone washing your windshield and then trying to demand you pay the for the work you never wanted in the first place. Everyone has to try and make a living some how so I can't truly knock it. I suppose it isn't much of a stretch to be someone trying to sell photos huh?
I park in the same place Emily and I parked last year. Oddly enough in parking space #46! I then head up to ground level and make my way to the Alcazar. It's off season, the weather is perfect, the crowds are manageable and I enter the Alcazar. This place is a must see. It's simply so nice to walk around, sit in the shade, listen to birds and watch people doing the same. It's a world away from what I do normally, the noise, the crowds, so for me, these outings to locations such as these are a way to recharge and just be a visitor. The Alcazar is for want of a better description, a castle. It's a walled palace, with gardens, baths, shaded walkways with palm trees, fruit trees, gardens and waterfalls. Exquisite. I leave a couple of hours later and stop for some tapas, after all, this is where tapas started! I go for tuna with tomatoes on toast, and a nice big glass of cold beer and kill an an hour or so watching people eating ice cream watch me eating tuna. Time to head back to Jerez.
Thursday the real world of motorcycle racing, or my "job" kicks back into gear so it's off to the track I go. Arriving early afternoon, Thursdays have become a bit of a "White Elephant" in terms of doing any work. With engines being "blipped" in the garages below as the teams prepare the bikes for the weekends action, the only thing that really happens on a Thursday is the press conference at 5pm and that's it.
Friday mornings are a little busier than Thursdays, but with no on track action until Friday afternoon, everything is very low key. Even the number of fans attending on a Friday is less, possibly because they're not willing to spend money for half a days activities, and the accompanying costs of hotels etc. Why not arrive Friday evening for the weekend and save a days expenses?
Oh that's right!! I'm here to photograph the racing! I am going down with the flu as this seems to be the time of year I catch something and it tries to incapacitate me. Andrew Northcott has agreed to help run me around on his scooter (too kind and I am immensely grateful) and so at least I can pace myself over the weekend and not make myself any more sick than I need to. Sitting in the media centre with David Emmett from Motomatters, Julian Ryder and Toby Moody from Eurosport along MotoGP technoboffin Neil Spalding, the off track entertainment is already taken care of.
The weekends events follow their well scripted chronological paths, with Friday afternoons practices, Saturday mornings practices followed by Saturday afternoons qualifying. The weather is again, perfect. The crowds on Saturday fill the hillsides and add the signature colour that would be repeated ten fold on Sunday.
Sunday. Race day arrives. It is a huge event, with air horns, whistles and a new feature, someone has brought in a ships foghorn that when "tooted" simply obliterates any other noise coming from the crowds. With huge crowds lining the hills, and with men trying to get their pictures taken with scantily clad umbrella girls, the smell of food being cooked mixed in with cigarette smoke, race day get's underway. The 125's and the new series Moto2 have their fair share of excitement and fairing to fairing battles, and initially MotoGP looks like it's going to be just another procession to the end. But no. Sadly Ben Spies drops out, and the field spaces out as usual with Spaniard Dani Pedrosa taking off on his own race in the distance. But that wouldn't last for long. We witness Jorge Lorenzo starting to run everyone down, catch and pass them. He passes Nicky Hayden, then passes Valentino Rossi and now he's closing in on Dani Pedrosa. In the meantime I am being whisked around the track at amazing speeds by Andrew Northcott from one shooting location to another and we simply witness Jorge Lorenzo catch and then pass his fellow countryman. Only to go on to win the race.
It was a Spanish hat trick, both the 125cc class and Moto2 class were won by Spaniards. Now the MotoGP class has been won by Jorge Lorenzo. Another Spaniard! The crowds are going bezerk! I am in the stadium section on the outside of the track and the noise is deafening as Jorge Lorenzo dismounts, plants his now customary "Lorenzo's Land" flag and walks to the tyre wall, whereupon he jumps up and salutes the crowd. After a few moments he returns to his bike, hops off in another location and jumps into a small lake..which we do not see from where we are located. We head back to shoot the podium and wrap up the days visual events. In a few hours after editing images, and uploading them to our various outlets, we head back to the apartment. After packing and getting ready to leave the next day we head off to bed.
Monday, it's a swift drive to Malaga via Ronda. Tuesday, it's time to head home. Next race is Le Mans. We'll see what a swift visit to France brings!
However, for me it made me feel like I was being forced to live through real time jet lag. I knew it would be weird, however, for someone who really does have a hard time grasping time and continuum it threw me a wobbly.
I had a a great week exploring, going shopping, dealing with the worlds hottest parking lot (in the mall that contained Carrefour) and meeting some really really kind, and courteous, locals. On Thursday we headed to the track early afternoon so that I could pick up my credentials. It is always a thrill to go and pick up my "official pass" as I have never taken any of this for granted. This year however, I do not have to ask for the "vest" at each race. I have been given my own personal bright orange "MotoGP" vest to take to each round as I travel. I am officially photographer 058. Back to Thursday. It's pretty much a day of re-acquaintance, snagging a locker for your gear and making sure you get the desk that'll be your office for the weekend. Thursday afternoon is the 125 and Moto2 team shoot and then we're done.
Friday starts late with the group shot of the MotoGP riders as the sun goes down, then it's kicking tyres for a couple of hours before we get some track action. With the 125's heading out with it just getting dark, we're treated to really nice comfortable working conditions. Moto2 and MotoGP bikes hit the track and then we're done. Time to drive back to Andrew's Arabian Palace and call it a day with a nice can of non alcoholic Moussey..
Saturday rolls around and I have already decided that we need to visit the Islamic Museum of Art (image above shot at night). What a trip! If anyone goes to Doha to cover MotoGP you must, I insist must, visit this fantastic museum. Chock full of truly interesting artifacts, books, sculptures and just about everything that takes your breath away. For me, the only sadness I has was the fact that Emily wasn't with me. So much stuff to see and absorb. We could've stayed longer but we had sandwiches and food for later on that night to purchase. So we headed off to the City Centre Mall, and the worlds hottest parking lot and bought food.
Did I mention you really have to visit the museum?
Saturday was the usual race deal, with of course Casey Stoner snagging pole position, and the usual suspects being up front. Ben Spies managed 11th in qualifying but that would eventually change as the race on Sunday progressed and he'd make up 6 places to finish fifth. Casey would crash out giving Rossi the win. Nicky Hayden did a bang up job to finish fourth battling with Dovizioso who would finish third after the man who likes to hurt himself, Jorge Lorenzo. Ben battled with Pedrosa and passed him up the inside right in front of me at the first corner. Not your usual Qatar race to be honest. So fortunately Casey wasn't hurt by crashing, but it did mean we didn't really have a snore fest race from Qatar with someone running away in the lead. Valentino Rossi ran out of gas on the cool down lap and made a local super happy as he rode his scooter back to parc ferme. I almost got annihilated by Dovizioso's crew as they became crazy dudes over his third place finish...
With that, hours of editing took place and we left the media centre as some ungodly hour after 4am. Watching the sky, daybreak happen made me feel sort of panicky. Weird I know, but I had been up since 9am the morning before because I really cannot sleep past 8am and so being awake for over 18 hours (we still had to get back to "The Palace") was making me feel a little freaky. Insomnia freaky.
Monday rolled around and so we thought we'd visit "the souq" during the day, have some lunch and wrap up our Arabian adventure....I walked around the souq during it's "siesta time" so most places were closed. I decided to have some lunch. For me it was Couscous Royal, semolina, steamed vegetables, mutton, chicken and merquez sausages. Yummy. Whilst we were sat eating we saw Arabian horse mounted police and a little while after were joined by Gordon Howell of Pole Position Travel for a Turkish coffee. We sat around and had a chinwag before deciding we need to head back to base, finish packing and get ready to leave. As we walked through the souq taking our final photos we were invited to sit with two local Qatari's to have our photo taken. I'm still amazed at the courtesy and kindness I have witnessed during my week here. Needless to say I haven't felt so sad about leaving a destination since leaving Spain, which happens every time I leave Spain...I did mention to my wife Emily how much fun I had in Qatar, to which she answered, we're not living there..but she is coming with me next year!!
I simply cannot wait to come back. Contrary to what others said about going to Qatar I found the extra day or two to be helpful (even allowing me the time to replace my power supply for my laptop that decided to go "phht" and give up the ghost!) but it also allowed me to get some sort of feel or insight into the people and culture.
I can't wait to catch up with the museum in 2011. Oh and the camels...? Whist we were heading back to our car in the souq, Gordon Howell shouted out "watch out for the camels!!" to which I went yeah yeah.....! Low and behold...
Next race for me. MotoGP from Jerez...
This was my second trip to Valencia to cover the final round of the MotoGP World Championship, sadly without my wife. Nonetheless, I love coming to Spain, the scenery is very similar to California, the food and the people here are truly wonderful. 
I stay roughly 30km from the track near a town called Macastre in a cottage almost at the top of of a mountain that could be as far away from the excitement of racing as is possible, thus allowing me to simply unwind at the end of the day away from the noise of the track and the busy work in the media centre. With supermarkets in the nearby town I am able buy produce to cook dinner and it allows me to mingle with the folks who live there. To feel less of a visitor. 
Race day arrives at the Circuit Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, just outside of Valencia and it is always a feast for all of the senses. The ampitheatre creates a canvas which is painted with bright colours, yellows, reds, blues and greens of people supporting their favorite riders and teams.
Loud air horns and chanting fill the air with excitement. Paella, a combination that can include shrimp, rice, chorizo, chicken and rabbit; cooking on open burners fills the air and taunts the appetite with it's complicated aroma masked only momentarily by the smell of the 125 and 250 two strokes during warm up.The GP bikes are racing. Fans stand and clap as their favorite riders Pedrosa, Rossi, Hayden, Lorenzo and others pass them each time. Air horns blare in some oddball symphony and flags wave in the warm Spanish sun. We have a race as the main dish and the fans are eating it up. But as with all good things they come to an end and all the race are run, and the dessert is a firework show that sends vibrations through your core with each explosion. Valencia is special. As it's the last race of the MotoGP calender on the Monday following, riders who are changing teams are on track on their new machines.
Nicky Hayden has moved to Ducati, Marco Melandri has moved to Kawasaki and Sete Gibernau is back. The number one plate has left it's previous owner Casey Stoner and has disappeared once again as Valentino Rossi has won the championship and proudly wears the number "46" of his father on his machine and has done for each time he won the Championship. He wears a number "1" on his leathers.
Before I go, I'd just like to say a quick "Thank You" to Ian Wheeler, Steffi and Matteo of Kawasaki Racing for their kind hospitality, wonderful coffee, company and food during the race weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing you again somewhere in Europe in 2009.
Next up, the Dunlop tire test from Daytona.
After having 2005 MotoGP Champion Valentino Rossi on my 2005 cover, and 2006 MotoGP Champion Nicky Hayden on the cover of my 2006 book I felt that it was only right to have the two time AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies on the cover of my 2007 edition, especially as my primary job is to cover the AMA Superbike Championship here in the USA.
