MotoGP travel report pics Assen TT Circuit 2009
A visitor of Grand Prix Cities.com, motorsport travel guide, Darin Wolfaaardt out of South Africa, wrote to me and asked a few travel questions about his intended trip to Assen TT Circuit for the MotoGP events . I helped all I could but I couldn't have foreseen the absolutely magical experience he had on his first trip to the Cathedral of Speed, and his first experience of MotoGP Live. He's sent in a brief report of what he saw, HEARD, and enjoyed while in Assen.
From the sounds of it he had a magnificent time including getting an autograph from and being pictured with 7 times world champion Valentino Rossi after his 100th MotoGP victory!...
Those of you headed to Assen will find some of Darin's email info very informative and might also like to check out my guide to the Assen Circuit . If you've got tips, notes, info about any of your sports travel adventures, please feel free to send them to me via my contact/social networks page If you found this useful, other sports travelers will find anything you can add about one of your experiences just as handy. After Darin's feedback, below, you'll find a bunch of handy links for travel to Assen, Holland, and other MotoGP related stuff.
As always, Godspeed on all your Sports Travel Adventures, Cvetko Ostroznik.
Here's Darin's input.....
....
Hello again.
My Amsterdam/Assen Trip was a huge success! Many of things seemed very unsure and didn't know if it was going to work out but I prayed for guidance and everything worked out so well. Lucky my ticket arrived Thursday afternoon, as I was flying Friday morning!
Met up my friend on the Fri in Amsterdam,he unfortunately had to leave sat morning,so rest of the weekend was alone but I slept in a Hostel called Slovenia,very good value for money and they serve breakfast and its very easy place to make friends, everyone very friendly and all travelers like yourself.
Getting to Assen from Amsterdam:
Sat morning caught the bus into central station think its bus 14 but ask hotel receptionist,very helpful. I caught a train just after 7.15am and arrived at Assen station at about 9:00. You must change over at Amersfoot station between Amsterdam Central and Assen station. Return ticket cost me just over 30 euros,and the shuttle from the station to the track is 5 euros return. Note there was no signal of what train stations were approaching and sometimes difficult to see the names of the stations so sit with other people on the train and ask them to tell you when you arrive at Amersfoot (think it was about 30min into the journey) and at Assen. But I found some Rossi fans and just followed them,easy enough,you know where they going!
When I arrived at the track and saw so many people all going into the circuit stadium with the atmosphere and I could here the bikes practicing I actually become a little emotional as this was a dream of mine and I was actually there!!! I couldn't believe it,1 year ago I thought this would be impossible. Was such an intense feeling.
Best Viewing General Admission Ticket
I had the cheapest Tickets , general admission and chose to sit above turn 2. Great spot as you can see them entering turn one go through turn 3 and 4 and see them just open up on the straight!
The sounds of the GP bikes are truly amazing, like nothing in this world and you can see the riders are pushing them to the limit every lap! Atmosphere was also great when Rossi won his 100th race!
Stuff to do around the track - if you're a lucky git! (pics below)
Being very satisfied with the day so far,the next thing I wanted to do was buy a Rossi shirt which I do and also popped into the Rizzla Suzuki tent where they actually had a competition to win pit passes after the GP race,which I entered and WON!!! I was late to get to the pits as I was on the other side of the track and there are 1000s of people leaving at that time,so it takes very long to get there,but I ran all the way in the heat of the day (was actually great sunny weather that day!) I made it just in time,dripping in sweat. I got a guided tour of the Suzuki garage,saw the bikes up close,and met Chris Vermeulen and he signed my pit pass. After that I wondered around, spotted, Divizioso, Melandri and couple others and waited outside Valentino Rossi's transporter truck for 3hrs to see him come out. Eventually he appeared and I got a photo (pics below) with him, and he signed my new Valentino Rossi T-shirt,on his 100th victory! That was the best moment of my life!! I will say all the riders I met were very down to earth and very friendly people.
So my dream came true and turned out to be even better than I imagined! Don't have many pics unfortunately as there was too much going on with me running about and I didn't have a proper camera,only my phone. Also wasn't allowed to take pics of the bikes at all! Didn't get any pics of my journey to the track unfortunately, sorry about that.
Hope this helps you a little and you enjoyed my little story, not bad for my first MotoGP race!
As I said I'm from South Africa but I'm living in England for a short while so I'm thinking about watching another race while I'm up here as its a long, expensive journey from South Africa,so thinking about the Portuguese race. Which other race would you recommend what is left of the season?
Also thanks for some of your help, was very helpful. Any other questions for me,just ask!
Regards, Darin
Related Pics from the Assen TT Circuit 2009
Related MotoGP Motorcycle Racing Links:
Related Assen & Netherlands Travel Links
A few South Africa Sports Travel Links, for when Darin finally gets home!
