[GIBSON]

OK, I gotta tell this story to somebody so it might as well be you guys.
I'm director of Race Operantions at Laguna. I run the Vicotry Circle and help with anything to do with the race itself, anthem singers, celebrities etc. It's not a bad job but it can be intense.
For this race, I had my 4-Runner in victory circle to drive the top three qualifiers to TV interviews and take the winners to TV and media interviews. It was a pretty big undertaking to bring this size of an event to Laguan. We spent (courtesy of Yamaha) 2 million bucks just making the track safer, runoff areas etc. Then we sold out the track, never done that before. Access to the track is not that great anyway so the traffic was a nightmare.
Today, we got the last cars parked at 1:30. Tempers flared but we did our best. We had somewhere around 59,000. That does not include all of the people who travel with the MotoGP group, our people, vendors (huge group) etc.
So, I get things set up in our new, elevated victory circle (very cool by the way, looks just like any F1 podium now). I get asked to take all of the American riders (Nicky, Colin etc) to meet Michael Jordan. Ok, I pile them in the 4-Runner and off we go. Jordan seems genuinely glad to meet them, some of them want to leave asap, other riders want to talk to him, we all eventually leave.
Then I take the top three qualifiers (Rossi, Nicky and Biaggi) to their TV interviews (live to 82 countries, 120 million people-NASCAR feels good when they get 7 million on TV). All the way over those guys where reaching out the window of my 4-Runner trying to grab girls, I'm not kidding. These guys are hound dogs.
Just get off thet track doing 150mph plus and all they can talk about is women. Seems healthy to me.
Then, I get a call that the master of ceremonies needs to be picked up and would I do it. OK, why not. Turns out it's Brad Pitt. Along with his friend Matt LeBlanc (sp?). So, I get them in the car and Matt hardly says a work but Brad is Mr. talkative, loves the track, wants to get out and just walk around the thousands of bikes. Of course, that won't work, he can't walk 5 feet without an escort, people seemed to know where he was. My car has more hand prints all over it than I'll ever get washed off. I can say this, Brad Pitt is no stuck-up celebrity. He thanked me many times for driving him around, loved the track, greeted everyone with real sincerity and had a blast.
I wish I could say the same for Rossi, I'm kinda glad he lost. He griped about how unsafe the track was, his "personal photographer" said he didn't care for the place, thought it was dangerous. Nobody else complained. And he makes more than Tiger Woods per year.
Anyway, an interesting day to say the least. Anybody in the area intersted in volunteering at the track should contact me. We do occaisionally have some fun.