Sunday morning we drove out to visit our friends the Prchals. They live about 30 minutes south of downtown Melbourne. They just finished adding on to their house and it is beautiful. I’d guess they had about 1,200 square feet before, and now they probably have at least 2,500. Radek Prchal is a contractor, so everything is top-notch. In addition to the new bedrooms, living room, and spa (Sauna and Jacuzzi), they completely remodeled the kitchen and backyard landscaping. We had a nice BBQ lunch in the new backyard along with Radek’s parents. I left for the Grand Prix about 2:30 and Misa and Katka stayed at the Prchal’s until almost 9:00.
Melbourne really had things running nicely for the Grand Prix. There were free express busses and trams from various locations around Melbourne straight to the park where the Grand Prix track is located. The stop at Southern Cross Station was about a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and then a 10-15 minute tram ride. I was nervous that driving into Melbourne from the Prchal’s I might hit traffic, but no one was on the roads. I guess because there is no parking at the Grand Prix site everyone drives to the closest public transportation and takes that in, spreading out the traffic.
I started watching the race from the spot where we watched qualifying on Saturday - on a hill overlooking the track. The whole race took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I didn’t have a great seat so during the last hour of the race I just walked the whole track and watched from various locations. I got some good video, as several times I was right next to the track.
I’d say it is hard to watch F1 in person without the right seat. It was great to go to my first race, but I’d never go again without a grandstand seat with a view of one of the large screens showing the race. The track is 3.3 miles long, and even from the hill I could only see about 100 yards of track, so getting to see any actual action (passing, spin-outs, crashes) is rare. Even on the hill where I could see an OK piece of the track I found myself watching the video screen of the race more than the actual race.
After the race I went to watch the Crusty Demons again. That is the freestyle motocross motorcycle team that we enjoyed so much on Saturday. They were having a competition among themselves for $50,000 and did some amazing tricks. They had to cancel the “best trick” part of the competition because of the wind, but what I did get to see was amazing anyway.
I stopped at the grocery store for food on the way back to the hotel, getting back about 9:15, just fifteen minutes after Katka and Misa got home from the Prchal’s. Overall all three of us had a great day.
