Getting to the track was an adventure. When I got to the train
station there was nothing to indicate I was even in the right town. No
signs, buses, taxis or anything. As I was looking around to see if I
was in the right place 2 guys jumped on the back of bikes with no
helmets on to get a lift to the track.
A taxi finally turned up
asking for people going to Mugello, but he wouldn't take me because I
needed to go to an atm first. An old italian man ended up giving me a
lift to an atm, which didn't like my cards. It was about now that I was
having a little freak out because I only had 65 euro, no spoke english
and it was pretty scary tearing around this little town with a strange
man on the wrong side of the road, flying around blind corners in tiny
little streets.
Luckly the next atm worked and we attempted to
talk, with very limited success, on the way to the track. finally got
there, very relieved and set up my tent and went for a look around. It
pretty much rained from when I started putting up my tent to just after
I got the fly on, then on and off for the rest of the day. Very wet and
muddy.
Mugello was a madhouse. It's like a little country with no rules. Pretty much anything goes. 7 people on a 4 wheeler, scooters and bikes with no exhausts, little engines with megaphones for exhaust pipes, crazy scooter tricks. It was pretty much about getting drunk and making as much noise as possible. Quite often what was happening off the track was louder than the bikes on the track.
A couple of memorable moments, a guy riding a scooter doing a burn out then taking off and going straight into a wheely that lasted for about 40m. A triumph speed triple with a huge megaphone for a muffler. A scooter with a flame thrower in the exhaust. Pocket bikes with 2 people on them(pocket bikes are tiny little bikes).
There was probably more people there on saturday than there was for the whole weekend at Phillip Island. For all the people, drunkeness, crazyness and carrying on I saw no crashes off the track and no fights.
I'm in Bologna now to tour the ducati factory, but it's a public holiday so nothing is open. Tomorrow then. So up early tomorrow tour the factory then training over to Milan for the Ducati Riding Experience at Monza on Wednesday.
Starting to get into the swing of things now and how differently everything works. I'll upload some photo's when I can, I left the cable in my bag today.
Having a great time.
Micheal
