As Some Exalt With Cup Fever, Others, Well. . . : . . . In La Mesa

Usually, music videos have priority on the four TV monitors and the giant-screen TV at El Torito Restaurant and Cantina in La Mesa. But Dennis Conner and Stars & Stripes replaced Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Tuesday night.

The audio broadcast from Fremantle was even supplied to the parking lot via the restaurant’s public address system.

“This is the Cup, man,” said Matt Sajdera, a San Diego State University student who came to see the race. “This is it, this is the top gun.”

Sajdera and Dave Pond, also an SDSU student, had been searching for a bar that

was showing the race. They had become so engulfed with the America’s Cup that they have decided to enroll in a sailing class at SDSU.

“This Saturday we decided to take this sailing class,” Pond said. “We need the units, so we thought we might as well take sailing.”

The atmosphere at El Torito was calm. But when Conner won the Cup, there was a round of polite applause.

“I enjoy the Super Bowl, but I enjoy the social aspect of it a lot more than I do watching the game,” said Bob Starck of El Cajon. “But this has been quite boring in a lot of respects, as far as the actual race goes, because I haven’t seen any challenge to Conner because he has been incredible.

“I started watching during the last race of the first series--I’m not even sure that’s what it’s called. I just started watching it because of (Conner). I was swept up with it, flat out.”