[MJS]

Well, what can I say? What a race to pick as my last race of the year.

Living and working in Poland at the moment meant Brno was within what appeared to be easy distance - until I mentioned it to one of the Poles and he started telling me all the paperwork I would need to take the car across the border - highway sticker for Czech motorways etc. Following the advice on the Autodromo Brno website for drivers I was taking no chances, avoided alcohol throughout the entire day etc. 3hr45 to Brno, a bit of pre-planning meant we avoided the main exit off the motorway and came off at one on the Prague side of Brno, and got into a car park fairly close to the motorway and only 5 minutes walk from the shuttle bus.

Those who have been will know very well, but it's an awesome place - we say in the stands in the natural amphitheatre at the back of the circuit, the atmosphere was electric, the place was jammed. One of the nice things about Eastern European countries is the total lack of organisation, which also means no-one cares what you do, no stewards telling you where you can't go etc.. From our seating position, we could hear the bikes thundering down the straight behind us, before dropping down and into the area we could see. Every lap we could hear Loris' lead getting bigger, until eventually it got to a stage where we were listening to the Desmosedici the entire length of the straight before even hearing Rossi.. Funnily enough, the only other bike we heard running on it's own was the other Ducati at the back - still no idea which one it was that ran the race distance!

Getting out afterwards was no problem - it was a 40 minute walk back down the lane to the car park, and then getting out of the car park the Czech police lived up to their threat and checked documents for EVERY car leaving the car park... fortunately we were away fairly quickly and within an hour of the end of the race we were already back on the motorway and heading back towards the border.

For those who have been, you know what it's like. For those who haven't made the effort to go - Brno is a must.. it's got character...

Cheers
Martin