For many years the World Superbike event at Laguna Seca was a terrific destination with a reasonably clubby atmosphere. For a reasonable amount of money, you could go to the races, walk around the paddock and mingle with the racers and anyone else, get some trackside food, and have a great weekend. A few years back, SCAMP, who runs the track, decided to consolidate the AMA bikes with the Superbikes, and only have one weekend of racing, which morphed into the current single weekend MotoGP weekend, coming up this July 21-23. Unfortunately, the consolidation was enough to overbook every hotel in Monterey, and to sell out the premium tickets and fan ride very quickly. As a result, the hotels are doubling their prices and more, and scalpers are selling the hot tickets on ebay for gross profits. It is shameful to see this event, which was always somewhat intimate, become a crowded circus where many of the true fans won't bother, and their places will be taken up by those who are willing to pay the outrageous prices of hotels that simply aren't worth the money being charged. The track says that it is trying to work with the hotels to mitigate the problem, but if that is true, there is little evidence to support it. I wish that I had a concrete proposal for how to rectify the situation, but the fact is that motorcyclists are second class citizens in the eyes of SCAMP, as demonstrated by the original idea to consolidate the motorcycle races. Really, there doesn't seem to be a solution except to stay away. Failing that, many Bay Area riders can commute to the races, and simply avoid the hotels. Unfortunately, this means cutting ourselves out of the fun in the hope of being recognized by SCAMP. Not likely that anything we do as a group will improve the situation. Nonetheless, it can certainly be said that SCAMP has nothing to be proud of in the way they treat the motorcycle fans they depend on for the success of this event. | 
