| July 26, 2006 | Celebs, "Umbrella Girls," and Hot Motorcycle Riders |
 At E3 they have "booth babes." At MotoGP, they have "umbrella girls." Umbrella girls dress in revealing skin-tight outfits and carry color-coordinated umbrellas advertising their team's name. Part of their job is to hold up the umbrellas to keep their team's riders out of the sun when they're waiting on the grid. Another part of their job is to promote their team and brands. Guys line up to get their pictures taken with the umbrella girls (as Chris aptly demonstrates). These women were all very sweet and charming when I spoke with them -- much more pleasant than I would be if I was wearing spiked heels or platform moonboots for hours on the baking hot asphalt. Of all the female fans at Laguna Seca -- and it surprised me that the crowd seemed to be comprised of about 45% women -- most wore sensible footwear: sandals and sneakers. Hardly anyone chose high heels for hoofing around the huge track and paddock area. I kept wondering how the umbrella girls managed it all day long. In retrospect I'm surprised I didn't ask them to reveal their secrets. Monterey, California is generally mild temperature-wise, even in summertime. But this July, all of California was caught in the midst of an intense heatwave, and it was unbelievably hot, especially under direct sun on the blacktop of the paddock. There was hardly any shade for fans to escape to (except inside the Red Bull tent). I was wearing flip-flops, a short skirt, and a t-shirt and I was about to faint from the heat. The Laguna Seca announcer kept coming over the PA reminding everyone to drink plenty of water. At $4.00 per bottle for Dasani (which isn't even real spring water) -- you could see why some people needed encouragement. At those prices, I was drinking $16-$20 worth of water per day. Thankfully, we had access to free water in the Media tent -- I'm a frugal person, and I might've risked dehydration just to save $10. By Sunday, many of the vendors in the "International food court" of the paddock had run out of bottled water. They posted hand-written signs to tell potential customers "Sorry -- Out of Water." No one seemed to expect it would be this hot. In the women's bathroom, gals ran cold water from the sinks over bandannas and tied them around their necks. Others jumped into the showers with their clothes on. I wondered how the riders handled being out in the track wearing full leather outfits, helmets, and mesh long johns underneath for 32 laps. It seemed impossible and unbearable. During Saturday's post-qualifier press conference, the riders told us that the track is literally melting in the heat and breaking up in places, making the heat even more challenging to them. When the riders left the pitts area, they would immediately begin peeling off their leather outfits and hang them outside their trailers (or, their girlfriends hung their outfits on the metal stairs outside the trailers as we saw Cardoso's gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana bedecked lady friend do). We noticed some Japanese female fans getting their photos taken with their arms around Nakano's leathers, so I followed suit, pun intended.  Speaking of female motorcycle fans -- we saw Pamela Anderson walking out of the pitts area on Sunday afternoon. She looked great in a black tanktop with her MotoGP VIP laminate passes around her neck. She wasn't with Kid Rock when we saw her and we didn't recognize the guy she was with -- do you? Pam wasn't the only celeb hanging out at Laguna Seca. We also saw semi-celebs Ian Zierring (of "90210" fame) Matt LeBlanc (from "Friends") and Italian male model Fabio Lanzoni, known to most of the world, of course, as simply "Fabio." Fabio may have been my favorite sighting of the weekend. Just as you might imagine, he's very tan and his long-hair was flowing in the breeze. When we saw him on Sunday he was wearing a bright lavendar shirt and pin-striped jeans. He was standing next to two umbrella girls from the Kawasaki racing team wearing very short shorts. It could've been the cover of a romance novel. Or maybe not. Check out my Flickr photoset from the event. With all these umbrella girls, celebs, and hot motorcycle riders (as well as their hot girlfriends) roaming around and American rider Nicky Hayden winning MotoGP at Laguna Seca for the 2nd year in a row -- I'm still surprised MotoGP isn't more popular with the American audience (yet). Maybe if Hayden becomes the next world champion -- Americans will start to take notice. What do you think? Labels: celebrities, motogp, motorcycle, pamelaanderson, umbrellagirls posted by Jess Barron @ 3:14 PM 
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