I headed for Phillip Island on a chilly Sunday morning – fortunately in the car! A round trip of near 600kms after a day out in elements is just too much for us at this time of year. I haven’t been to the GP for a few years now and we picked an absolute thriller to attend. It was great to meet up with and have, an albeit too brief, chat with Chillertek from the famed Road to Nowhere blog who was down from Sydney for the weekend. There were a couple of brief showers throughout the day. The morning Warm Up was on a wet track, however, it remained dry for each race. The corner speeds of the MotoGP bikes when the track was wet in the morning were just plain frightening! With typical PI weather we even found ourselves needing some sunscreen late in the afternoon to prevent sunburn! We secured a good viewing spot on the fence at turn 10 (just around from Lukey Heights) in the morning and spent virtually the whole day there. Below are a few of my pics from the event.
The only downside to the day was taking 40 mins to get out of the carpark! However, we had an unevenful trip home with lots of interesting motorcycles to look at along the way. Actually, we were amazed at how many riders and pillions were not wearing gear that was in any way suitable for drizzly, then wet and cold ride to and from the Island.
Tarsnakes 
How awesome is that Jules? It’s decades since I’ve been to a major bike meeting. Congrats on the great photos and how nice to catch up with Steve too. Your round trip distance came as a surprise – I assumed it was really close to your new home!
Hey Geoff, it’s a few years since we’ve been to the MotoGP as I genuinly prefer the ‘all areas access’at the smaller events. Having said that it is an exciting event to attend. Seeing the lean angles and speed of the riders on a wet track in particular has to be seen to be believed. TV certainly does not convey “the vibe”. It was great to meet up with Steve though far too brief. I’d left Dorothy on the other side of the circuit guarding our little piece of track-side real eatate so I didn’t want to leave her too long. I’m sure that Steve and I could have talked for hours otherwise! He told me of your hospitality when he visited you and the spectacular coastal views from your deck. It is a fair hike to do the round trip from Torquay to PI and back in a day and we were pretty tired the next day. Mind you, we did stay up late watching the recording of the race. I’ve done the round trip on the bike a few times, but always in warmer Jan – Feb weather conditions which makes the ride home after a day in the sun much more pleasant than in the cold and drizzly twilight as it was on Sunday.
I haven’t responded to your blog posts on your trip to Africa as yet Geoff, but I’m really enjoying reading them and your photos are magnificent. I appreciate how much time it takes to write reports such as those you’ve done. However, it is also a great way to extract a little more enjoyment from the trip as one pours over the various images I find.
Cheers Jules.
HI mate
It was great to catch up and chat again, its been a couple of years even though it feels less due to emailing.
The racing was absolutely fantastic through all the classes, what wasn’t so fantastic was Phillip Islands fickle weather. It was typical 4 seasons in 1 hour stuff. We were getting sunburnt at one point and rained on at the same time, I kid you not.
The FA-18 was an awesome additional and is so much fun to watch, the noise they make is incredible.
Your right about the men of Moto GP, they are fantastic, they entertain us all year, the least we can do is to turn up an watch. And entertain us they did. The speed and noise of a Moto GP machine just has to experienced in real life, tv just doesn’t do justice to it. Your right, those guys are riding faster in the wet than we can in the dry, so impressive.
Yes great to catch up again Steve. I really think that October is a bad time for a PI round to be scheduled weatherwise. The hour between the end of Moto 2 and the start of MotoGP passed really quickly with those two aircraft demos. I read online that Marquez is lobbying for the race to bein at 3.00pm on safety grounds – namely that the track temp drops off too quickly later in the day thus effecting grip.
Oh forgot to mention your photos are fantastic, close ups of the riders are so very good.
Did you get any good one’s of the FA-18?
Thanks Steve. My pics of the FA18 were terrible as I was looking into the sun unfortunately.