Portimao WSBK Trip

[Capnrip]

I had been considering going to Europe for a race, and with BMW being in WSBK began looking at those. In addition, BMW had a pretty cool VIP package deal: https://rokit-bmwmotorradworldsbk.com/vip-club. So Elizabeth and I pulled the trigger on going to Portimao for the race this past weekend. The BMW package gave you track access for Friday through Sunday, but after arriving late Wednesday, we took Thursday and Friday to do some touring around. Portimao was beautiful. We took the first half of Thursday going to the beach, then the second half going to a Moorish castle in Silves, which was just a short distance away.
Here's the view from our hotel window
Looking down the Arade River

The beach at Praia de Tres Hermanos

Across the Arade River

Castle at Silves






Inside the castle

It was a great first day and I didn't do anything stupid driving in Portugal. The castle at Silves was really impressive and a great example of Moorish architecture.

[Capnrip]

The second day we drove to a town called Tavira, which dates back to when the Romans were in Portugal. It's a big tourist town now.

This is the Roman Bridge, built on the site of where the Romans had one. Y'all know Elizabeth.



More from Tavira
We wanted a real Portuguese dinner and there was a really nice little restaurant right around the corner from our hotel.
Food porn. Squid kabob. Delicious.


.

Elizabeth at the restaurant

Tomorrow, RACING!

[Martin_D]

We want more ...

[Capnrip]

The track at Portimao is kind of in the middle of nowhere about 20 minutes outside of town. There's no public transportation out that way so you have to either take a taxi/Uber or have a car. We had planned on taking our car back on Friday since we were going to leave too early on Monday to take it back. We were hoping to find someone at our hotel to share a cab with since it was about 30 Euros each way. After missing a train connection arriving on Wednesday night we had to take a taxi from the train station where our connection was supposed to happen. We had a 9 PM deadline to check in and we got there a few minutes before 9. While I'm paying the super nice cab driver, Elizabeth goes to check in. There's a guy in the lobby wearing a motorcycle t shirt and just like that Elizabeth has found our cab partner. Ian was a very nice gentleman from the UK and the 3 of us got along really well. He had a Uber account and made arrangements for all of our transportation to the track.

So first practice was at 9 AM so we found a good viewing site right above the paddock. It just happened to be right behind the two BMW teams.

Gerloff entering the pit



It was interesting watching them compose the pit sign for the riders with their time, current position, etc. Gerloff had a sign available for his that simply said "Breathe". You can see it a bit in this picture.

Elizabeth checked us in with BMW and brought me a mocha while first practice was going on. You can't ask for more than that. Here's the BMW headquarters in the paddock. They had breakfast and lunch, which was fantastic, along with whatever drinks you wanted throughout the day. One of their sponsors was ABK brewing so their beer was available on tap downstairs and in bottles upstairs. ABK also had a separate venue in the paddock as well.

Upstairs where we ate.

Everyone ate there including the team. On the first day both riders and the head of BMW Motorrad Racing, Marc Bongers, ate when we did. The paddock viewing didn't provide great race watching as the few sites got really crowded. We ended up watching the first Superbike race upstairs in the hospitality room as it was easier to keep up with the race. The SSP race was after the Superbike race and things cleared out a bit so we went back to the paddock viewing. Here's the start.

OK, no race report would be complete without some ladies who represent their manufacturers. Here's a picture taken in the ladies room of the girls from MV Agusta.



Elizabeth said they were very nice and I'm pretty sure they weren't hiding any weapons.

And lastly for Matt, I tried to get you some tires as you could certainly get more life out of these but we only traveled with carry on baggage.

[955i]

Wes, I like umbrella girls . . . with or without umbrellas!

[Pete_Tallahassee]

I clearly saw weapons!

[Capnrip]

One of the cool things we got to do was a pit box tour given by the head of the Rokit BMW team Shaun Muir. It was very informative. There's a lot that goes into racing when success or failure is separated by hundredths of seconds.



The guy with the mean look on his face in the last picture gave me a fist bump. That ended Saturday race day. It was a great day but I didn't realize what was in store for the next day.

[Lee]

Wes goes to the beach and we get this picture.


Elisabeth goes to the bathroom and we get this picture.
Elizabeth takes better pictures

[Capnrip]

In my defense I couldn't go to the ladies room

[955i]

Lee is one hundred percent observant! Hard to get stuff by him!

[Capnrip]

So we head back to the track on Sunday and grab a good spot for the 9 AM practice. Our friend Ian goes with us as he hasn't watched anything from the paddock seats. Being relatively low and close to the track you really get a sense of how fast these guys are going. Elizabeth caught this picture of Gerloff. They were by in a blink so a hard picture to take.


We looked for a different spot to see the Superpole race and found a set of stands in turn 5. Here's the view from turn 5.



Here's what it looks like if you don't make turn 5



After the Superpole race we did a pit walk. That was pretty cool as all the riders had just come off the track. I had my Astros hat and I was hoping to get Garrett Gerloff to sign it since he's from Houston. He was back debriefing with his crew chief when we went by. Elizabeth motioned for one of the crew guys to come over and I asked him if he would ask Garrett to sign the hat since it was from his hometown team. The guy says "of course". He walks the hat over to Garrett, who gets a big smile on his face and signs it for me. Most of the teams were set up for the pit walk and had folks handing out rider posters and cards. Lee, here's where I redeem myself. Here's who Ducati had.



Immediately after we had a meet and greet with the BMW factory team riders, Michael Van der Mark and Scott Redding. Here's Elizabeth and I with Michael Vander Mark, who was very nice.

Scott Redding couldn't make it, and we were kind of looking forward to meeting him since we're from Gloucester, Virginia and he's from Gloucester in the UK. Elizabeth just casually mentioned it to one of the ladies working the hospitality. She immediately went over to the team boss and he got on his phone. We didn't know what was up but when we finished lunch they brought us a windscreen that he signed for us.
Here's the windscreen. We thought that was pretty cool. But something cooler was coming up.

[Capnrip]

So we're going to walk around a bit after lunch, and I can't tell you how it happened but but we ended up with two starting grid passes. I've seen that on tv a bunch and it was hard to believe we were going to get that access. We go down to the pit box first to see the riders go out and once they get around to the starting grid we go out along with all the team personnel.

Here's Michael Van der Mark leaving the pit box.



Chaos on the starting grid



Starting grid selfie



Scott Redding



Toprak Razgatlioglu



Garrett Gerloff



We left the grid and went back to the BMW place to watch the race. It was one of the best races many had ever seen. Toprak and Michael Bautista battled for the lead and there were 35 lead changes in 20 laps before Bautista nipped Toprak at the line for the win.

It was a great vacation and the folks at BMW and Shaun Muir Racing couldn't have been any nicer. They really wanted to make sure that your experience was enjoyable. It was amazing. It was great meeting Ian, we either had breakfast or shared a cab with him every morning. We left Monday morning for Lisbon, where we went to the Gulbekian Museum and we were pretty tired so that was about it. We flew to Geneva and had a scheduled 17 hour layover which we used to visit Elizabeth's cousins who live there. Hope you enjoyed coming along.

[955i]

Awesome! Awesome trip. Awesome photos! Awesome write-up! Elizabeth is simply awesome.

[Pete_Tallahassee]

Great trip Wes. "Elizabeth is simply awesome"

[Lee]

Lee, here's where I redeem myself. Here's who Ducati had.

The one in black or the ones in red

[Capnrip]

Everyone is beautiful in their own way Lee.

[802Mike]

Well said Wes !!

[955i]

I think the girl in the black skirt is the Harley hostess.

[justjoe]

Thanks for the post, Wes! Looks like a great time for sure.

[Riverfurm]