CORKSCREWED? Indeed! (Part 1)

For those of us who've been to the USGP at Laguna Seca, the last two years, I just want to say...
don't get CORKSCREWED!

If Steven Colbert can coin a phrase, so can I. I would define 'corkscrewed' as getting the shaft in a most expensive and time consuming way. I've never seen such a messed up situation in my life as I have at that track these last two years. Each year being different, yet equally as messed up.

2005 was the return of the USGP to our soil. That year cars were allowed to park on the grounds with the parking fee included in the cost of the ticket. How nice! Getting in was ridiculously silly and slow. But nothing would prepare us for getting out.

This was the most ridiculous exit strategy since the second Gulf War. We were in a car on Sunday instead of the bus (which I'll get to later) and it took us over two and a half hours to get out to the main road. Add to that the two plus hours we waited at the track to 'avoid the rush'. The only exit road for cars was two lanes and traffic was restricted to one lane only. They had to keep the other lane open for the occaisional shuttle bus that would pass us going the opposite way into the track every 10 to 15 minutes. Thank goodness! Motorcycles were not allowed to split lanes and were being ticketed if they did so. Many bikes overheated and were sitting on the roadside. Nice work gents.

The main reason we took the car on Sunday was because trying to get the shuttle bus back to Carmel was like trying to grab on to a helicopter at the fall of Saigon. Extremely poor planning California style. People were fighting to get on buses in a frantic state in this was only Saturday. If you got on an your friends didn't you just had to hope you'd meet again someday. We had had enough and decided to drive in ourselves on Sunday. We would've been better off coming in on horseback. Although I'm sure we would've not been allowed to split lanes either and the Sheriff's department would've probably had to shoot our horses on site. And then given us a ticket.

Is this the best we have to offer?