Advanced Fun at MotoGP ‘25
How Planning and Logistics Improved My Experience
This essay was originally finished April 2025, submitted to a few major motorcycle magazines, and completely ignored. C'est la vie.
I’m a freak in the sheets! And by that I mean spreadsheets! I’m also an ADVdad, and I love logistics and process improvement, which have been the most interesting and integral parts of my entire career. With that in mind, and with a clearly fun but improvable MotoGP experience from 2024, I set forth this year, 2025 (my 45th trip around the sun), with a very clear plan, armed with years of experience in planning projects and personal adventures and a goal of enjoying myself thoroughly and cost-effectively.
After riding up to Austin from San Antonio the twistiest efficient way possible (which means avoiding I-35) on my fully loaded ‘12 Tiger 800XC in the misty rain and stopping by a friend’s workplace for lunch en route on Friday, I got to COTA around 1:30PM, changed from my riding boots into my barefoot style shoes sitting in my panniers, passed quickly through the gate with digital general admission tickets in my Google Wallet, passed through security quickly with a bag full of gear that was 100% within COTA policy guidelines, and headed straight for the massive water jug near the base of the incredibly tall and modernist observation tower to fill my three liter hydration pack. Hydration is critically important in Texas.
After that, I walked straight over to turn 19, knelt down, and unpacked some of my gear. I set up my lightweight camp chair, which folds down to a tiny encased thing about 4” x 4” x 10”. I usually wear a wide-brimmed hat when outdoors in the warm months (fits perfectly in my Tiger’s top-box), and it was overcast following the rain, so I didn’t need to bust out my umbrella on Friday. It definitely proved useful throughout the rest of the weekend though. I pulled out my binoculars, sat down comfortably, and watched Moto2 Practice.
This was my first year watching the races with binoculars, and I loved it! It made such an incredibly huge difference in my experience. Now, I only have small 10x25 binoculars (held in a nice, soft case), but at certain angles and braking conditions, I could even see flames coming from exhaust pipes! The secret seems to be finding a focal point that is a compromise between the speed at which the rider is moving, the distance from your own position, and how much you’re willing to move your head.
Armed with this new experiential knowledge, I keenly observed as much as I possibly could of the riders’ techniques, like their body position, head angle looking through the turn, lean angle, etc. From 19 I could see them coming down the short stretch from 18, bank hard into 19, and accelerate as hard as possible again towards 20. There’s so much that happens in that one little piece of the track, and it was enlightening and exciting to watch it in such detail.
After Moto2 practice, I made my way to another favorite spot. There are so many great places from which to view the race, and this year the stretch between 19 and 20 was unavailable due to construction, which was nice for its little row of shady trees, but my favorite spots are much farther out.
I walked from 19 around the amphitheater, grabbed a pretzel, and headed across the bridge and down the tall steps from 16 to 14, then over to the support paddock. All of the motorcycle manufacturers and other retailers and servicers have their mobile showrooms out there, offering demo rides and showcases of all their flagship products. It’s cute. I walked around it very quickly, noting all the bikes I’d love to ride, especially from CFMoto’s fleet, which I dallied about for a bit. There’s not a bike in their fleet I wouldn’t like to ride, especially the sportier ones, not my usual. New things are exciting and fun!
COTA’s map of their campus
From there I sipped on my water and headed outward, up another giant set of stairs and across the next bridge out towards 3 and 4, the Ss, then to the left and ENE to a spot I really like on the sevener side between 6 and 7. I really enjoyed this spot last year, but it was even better with the binoculars!
With the naked eye you can see them come out of 6 and start braking right in front of you for 7, then switch to the binoculars and watch them race up and around 8 and towards 9, where I saw several overtakes during the weekend. The detail seen with the binoculars delighted me way more than I imagined it would’ve, and I found myself following riders around the turns. From that same spot, you can even watch them blast along the long straightaway between 11 and 12, and with the binoculars you can follow a small group of 2 or 3 riders and see if any of them are overtaken! There’s no big screen in front of this section; it’s between 5 and 6, but if you have the MotoGP app, there’s a very special feature for nerds like me that I used for the first time this year: Timing Pass.
Timing Pass is great for nerds who like details!
MotoGP Timing Pass is cheap to buy for a year, but if you’re at the track it’s free through the app! So, what this remarkable piece of technology allows you to do is track the rider by sector, watching their progress live, in a spreadsheet format (party!), and you can actually even see overtakes happening in real time on the bits of track you can’t see from wherever you are. This was another obvious improvement from last year for me, and I really enjoyed the detail involved using this little bit of nerdy tech.
I’m a hybrid tech guy. For example, in music I like old tube amps and acoustic drums captured well with digital clarity, so I applied the same ideals to my MotoGP experience. I used the MotoGP app to keep track of the schedule and used its Timing Pass as a great-to-have accessory. I occasionally watched the MotoGP Instagram Live between sessions, and I had my earbuds in my ears almost the entire time I was on COTA property. I’m a lifelong musician, and I like to protect my hearing, so I used them as earplugs, to listen to music, and to listen to MotoGP Instagram broadcasts. I know a lot of people out there also had MotoGP Video Pass, and that’s cool too, because no matter where you are on the track, you can hear the live commentary while watching the live television broadcast, and see everything in that vivid, high definition detail. At a few hundred dollars per year, it’s a little too rich for my blood...for now.
All of that was just Friday afternoon! I stayed in an Airbnb in East Austin, ate at a local taqueria for dinner that night and breakfast super early Saturday morning, then rode out to Lime Creek Road, a locally famous lakeside road with many twists and turns, to do a couple of out-and-back laps, then back out to the track for Saturday’s events.
A view of Lime Creek Road and its valley below, coming from the North end.
This is a great little place to chill when breaking from riding Lime Creek Road.
I basically followed much of the same route at COTA on Saturday, but with the intention to go all the way out to 11, the Bobby Pin, by the time the MotoGP sprint race started. This is my favorite place from which to watch the races, but to get there takes some strategy. There are no bathrooms out at 11. The closest I saw were down by 5, and that’s probably almost a mile away. It seemed logical to stay and watch Moto2 and Moto3 from my spot at 6 & 7, where I busted out my umbrella for some blessed shade from the Texas afternoon sun, then refilled my hydration pack back near 5, hit the head for a last opportunity for a while, and mosied on out to 11.
At the Bobby Pin, they come flying downhill on a stretch from 10, braking hard into the extremely acute turn, and accelerate as hard as possible onto the long straightaway to 12. It’s my favorite place to watch the race, and I sit right next to the smaller of the two turn 11 signs so I can see through the tiny Cedar Elms they planted recently.
Coming in hot at Turn 11!
This spot was made even more awesome by the binoculars, again! Plus, this spot also has a monitor right in front of where I sit. Am I giving a secret away about this spot? Maybe, but I also think it’s really difficult to get out to for most people, so I don’t think they’re as willing to hoof it out there as far as I am just for a “better angle.” C’est la vie. It’s a lot of walking for a shortish race, and I’m totally comfortable with that.
My Sunday was much like my Saturday except I used my umbrella for rain rather than sun, and it all worked out great again (except for Marc Marquez). I followed much the same route, only ate big, soft, salty pretzels as a snack and a single lunch out there each day. The lunches were awful, especially for the money, and I drank only water from my hydration pack. I read the print program between sessions, which, along with a really great pair of gloves were the only things I bought at COTA, texted my special lady back home, and quite literally just relaxed from the regular routine of working, wrenching, and homeownership.
It was a marvelous experience (literally), and despite having a great time last year, also much improved this year. I had some great conversations with very interesting people, enjoyed all the sights, sounds, and smells that a race event like this encompasses, and I’d like to thank the concepts of planning and organization for all they’ve taught me all these years that allowed me to enjoy some truly advanced fun!
Here’s a list of what I packed in my pack, and apparently you can smuggle in some snacks, too, but I haven’t tried that yet.
-Camp chair
-Reading tablet
-Official MotoGP program
-Charging bank and cable
-Camp towel and pillow (in case I wanted to chill on the grassy slopes)
-Umbrella
-Sunscreen
-Binoculars
-3 liter hydration bladder for the pack
-Earbud headphones
