he fabulous MotoGP series came to America for the first time in 2005. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in scenic Monterey, California was host to a crowd of 153,000 who witnessed America’s Nicky Hayden win the first Grand Prix race of his career. And how sweet it was to do it on his home turf.
     For 2006 Nicky will be back on a similar-looking red, white and orange Repsol Honda to attempt to repeat the win. It may look the same, but for 2006 Honda has built an all-new machine in hopes of taking Nicky all the way to the top of the point standings. Other changes this year include some new riders in the series (Dani Pedrosa, for one, moves up from the 250cc class to join Nicky on the Repsol Honda team); veterans moving from one team to another (among others, consistent top performer Sete Gibernau moves from Honda to Ducati for 2006), and even the facilities at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will be different. It took millions of dollars to improve the facilities there for the first year, and now, thanks to sponsors such as Yamaha, Red Bull and Parts Unlimited, the track is spending millions more to address feedback from last year.
     The 2006 Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. It all happens the weekend of July 21-23. If you don’t have your tickets and hotels booked yet, get on it now! Hotels will sell out and all reserved seats likely will too. For more info, check the official event website at: http://www.redbullusgrandprix.com or call 1-800-327-SECA (7322).

The massive changes being made at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for this year’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix show how committed the management there is to give the MotoGP World Championship a permanent home in America. Seen here is one of the buildings along the front straight that had to be rebuilt after the track was widened going up over the hill towards Turn 1.

When the MotoGP riders asked for some changes to improve safety, the track responded with bulldozers, not shovels. This photo looks back down the hill from the Turn 7 Corkscrew to show one more area that was widened to allow a bit more margin of error in the heat of battle.

Last year it was really tough for the fans to navigate around the raceway, especially when you needed to cross the bridges. Much thought has reportedly gone into making it quicker and easier to get around, not to mention improvements to the traffic flows coming in and out of the raceway.

Yamaha will be back this year with its ever-popular Weekend of Champions. Come meet many racing legends of the past from the worlds of roadracing, motocross and more that Yamaha will have in the infield exhibit area during the race weekend.

Colin Edwards hasn’t won in MotoGP yet, but when the Texas Tornado hit his stride in the World Superbike series a few years back, race wins and world championships followed. In the last preseason test prior to the start of the 2006 season, Colin set the fastest lap, despite some less than ideal conditions.

On the track, former Honda rider Sete Gibernau has been Valentino Rossi’s chief rival the past few years in the MotoGP series. He rides extremely hard and is not afraid to go to the limits of adhesion (and at times beyond) to race for the win. He gets a new start this year on the Marlboro Ducati MotoGP team.

It’s rare nowadays to be calling the reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi a challenger. The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix was not one of his better performances of 2005, however, and the “Doctor” surely wants to improve on that this year. He is rumored to have a seat waiting for him in an F1 Ferrari for 2007, so is it possible that this may be his last year in MotoGP?