A trip that took double the amount of time around London’s infamous M25 ring-road was to be expected. There was scant moment to think about the trip ahead as the affable taxi driver wasted no opportunity to chat about football, holidays and football again. The walk through to the impressive Terminal 5 at Heathrow airport was a swift one, with zero queues at the check-in at 9am on a Wednesday morning.
The ten hour hop to Los Angeles to meet colleagues and travel onto San Bernardino was the second flight of six (and first long-haul of four) in what would be a hectic two week period of covering the U.S. and Brazilian MXGPs; rounds three and four of the FIM Motocross World Championship.
Having missed breakfast I duly filled up at Starbucks and scanned The Times incredulous at yet more front-page news about the FIFA corruption allegations. It makes you wonder how officials are able to escape with that kind of (alleged) behaviour and after digesting several pages of news the sad realisation that there is little that will be done to rectify any injustice.
Magazines, power adapter, a couple of new CDs and a large bottle of water later and it was onto the gate where I bumped into a few Italians; a journo, the Pirelli crew and MX2 factory Husqvarna rider Alessandro Lupino. Alex has a soft, high-pitched voice that perfectly matches his personality as I doubt there is a nicer guy in the motocross paddock. I had worked with the youngster for several years as he rode a series of Yamaha 250s and now he was trying to ‘find his way’ on the new Italian machine. I was genuinely dismayed for him when he recounted that a fall at the previous round at Valkenswaard had separated a ligament in his shoulder and that he was going to try and complete the season before going in for surgery. Lupino – Italian for ‘little wolf’ – has not had the best of luck with injuries and has yet to fulfil the hype of being Italy’s best upcoming star after Philippaerts and Cairoli. His backing from the federation for the best part of three world championship seasons now had resulted in only a handful of decent GP finishes but the top five has remained elusive.
Halfway through the flight and I’m starting to think about the schedule ahead. A meet-up with Ray Archer, Mike Van Cleven and Juan Pablo Acevedo (creator of a great new MX website in Spanish www.mx1onboard.com) should happen at LAX, time for a bit of shopping/sight-seeing before the energy levels crash and then onto the hotel in West Hollywood. No doubt I will find another opportunity to give Starbucks some more of my cash; although the need for caffeine will grow increasingly as the clock ticks.
Thursday brings an appointment at the Pro Circuit workshop, a trip to Riverside and an interview with Malcolm Smith and then a little exploration of San Bernardino, site of GP circuit Glen Helen and about an hour east of LA. I had read in a recent feature in ‘Q’ – the UK’s leading music magazine and perhaps the only monthly I read cover to cover – that the Artic Monkeys sang in a renowned Karaoke bar downtown. I think we might resist the urge to seek that one out…
