Reflections of the 3rd Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP 2010 Weekend

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2010 Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP winner Dani Pedrosa's Team Repsol Honda HRC RC212V sits outside the garages during the pitwalk on the first day of the big event held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pedrosa rode a flawless race in winning his third MotoGP race of the season, a first for the Spaniard after having won two races each season since signing with the team in 2005. His win was also his first at Indy after leading last year's race only to crash and remount to put in a magnificent charge back through the ranks to finish 10th.
The '03 125CC World Champion and '04-'05 250CC World Champion is still unsigned with Honda for the 2011 season, but his status is listed as 'almost certain' to re-sign and remain with the squad for what would be his sixth season riding for HRC, and with the weekend announcement that MotoGP will return to Indy in 2011 he should be back to defend Sunday's win in August 2011. With the momentum of winning the Indy event, look for DP26 to finish the season strong against title leader Jorge Lorenzo.
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Ben Spies took the pole and finished second to winner Dani Pedrosa by 3.575 seconds on his Tech 3 Monster Energy Yamaha YZR-M1. In his 'rookie' season, Elbowz managed to put it on the box for the second time in 11 rounds to go along with his third from earlier in the season at Silverstone. It was also his second time starting from the front row in the premier MotoGP class, and over the weekend the official announcement was made that he would be moving up to the full factory Yamaha squad next season.
Team mate Colin Edwards fared much worse as tire problems seemed to be his undoing and he retired after 12 laps into the event. It was mentioned over the weekend that Colin is now expected to stay on the French team for the 2011 season with Brit Cal Crutchlow moving up from the WSBK squad to the seat Ben will be vacating.
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The Team Marlboro Ducati Desmosedici GP10's of Casey Stoner #27 and Nicky Hayden #69 sit in and out of the garages in preperation for the 3rd Annual Red Bull Indy MotoGP event, the 11th round of the 2010 MotoGP season. Stoner, the '07 MotoGP World Champion, had an awful weekend, crashing in practice as well as out of the final event on Sunday afternoon. He's surely at the point the way his season has gone that he is looking to 2011 with the move to Honda.
The Kentucky Kid had a much better all-around weekend, although his final result of 6th place Sunday afternoon was not what he, the team or even the fans wanted. After qualifying third and starting on the front row, Nicky was just getting into race rhythm when his left knee got snagged on the track, tearing the velcro and puck off of his leathers and wearing a hole in his leathers as well, effectively ending any type of real charge to the front.
But good things did indeed happen over the weekend as Nicky was the Grand Marshall at the Lucas Oil Indy Mile running of the AMA Pro Flat Track K&N Filters Grand National Championship. It was announced at Indy, officially, that Nicky has been resigned to the Ducati team for not only 2011, but 2012 as well. And then #69 jumped on a Lloyd Brothers Ducati 1098 (that had been set-up with a special '#69' number plate with stars and stripes) and proceeded to run off a couple of laps the reported 'low 39s' that would have qualified him around 8th or 9th in the Expert Twins race. And then he told the crowd it had been since 2002 he had even been on a real dirt tracker at a real dirt track ("....other than Earl's Lane...." back home.) Oh, and he did mention after wowing the crowd that he WOULD be back to flat track one day. Very cool.
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The French LCR Honda RC212V of Randy DePuniet sits outside the team garage as one of the lovely umbrella girls does her thing to entertain the crowd during the pitwalk on Friday, August 27. The team didn't have a good weekend as the mostly-left turn track took it's toll on DePuniet's healing left leg, not to mention the heat and the slippery track surface that they never were able to completely overcome. After starting the weekend out in the final spot of the first practice session, Randy finished 13th in the MotoGP event on Sunday, and remains in the 8th position in the standings. Talks are strong that he will remain with the Honda satellite team again for the 2011 season, in what will be his third year with the team.
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The 125CC World Championship title fight was tightened up after Indy thanks to a crash by points leader Marc Marquez on the #93 Red Bull Derbi team entry, although he did remount to finish 10th to salvage valuable points to series runner-up and winner on the day Nicolas Terol on the #40 Bancaja Aspar Aprilia (L) who won by 4.995 seconds. They now stand 172-168 in the championship with seven rounds remaning in the season. Terol's team mate Bradley Smith, who campaigns the #38 Bancaja Aprilia (R) crashed out at Indy but remains a solid fourth in the season standings.
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Toni Elias #24 Gresini Racing Moriwaki Moto2 machine sits in the garage at Indy on Friday. Elias, who signed with the team in the off season after contesting the MotoGP class last year, can't turn a wheel wrong in the new class with the control Honda motors, as he pulled out the win on Sunday by .405 seconds and now leads the inaugaral Moto2 World Championship standings by a whopping 67 points over Andrea Iannone who finished a solid fourth on the day. Both survived the crazy initial start that saw eight riders crash in two seperate groups in the same turn 2 of the event. After numerous delays, the race was shortened from 26 to 17 laps since it took so much time to clean up the carnage.
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Roger Lee Hayden's #34 American Honda/Erion Racing/Moriwaki Engineering Indy wild card Moto2 machine sits in the pitlane as the Kevin Schwantz-led Erion crew discuss the weekend to come. Little did they know that with the massive effort put forth that 17th place on the weekend would be the result. Although for the way the race started, with Roger one of the eight involved in the initial turn two melee, that finish probably isn't too bad. Not only did he take a nasty fall, but his head was run over as well (and ruining what was one of the nicest special event helmets ever seen!) and the bike was left in pieces. After scrambling to get it together, the team wasn't even sure they were going to be allowed to restart at all, and once the dust (and confusion) cleared, RLH was able to bring it home. Down on the weekend from the start, they were never able to capitalize the way that they, and the fans, had hoped. But team manager and '93 500CC World Champion Kevin Schwantz told SuperBikePlanet.com that they are 'very hopeful' to put together a full time team for an assault on the 2011 Moto2 World Championship, with an American rider.
A very special shout out and congratulations goes out to the other American rider who was given a wild card entry into the Indianapolis Moto2 round. Former AMA Road Racing competitor Jason DiSalvo took a Team GP Tech FTR machine from the 26th qualifying spot all the way through the woods and on to Grandmother's house to a fine ninth place finish. Staying out of trouble on both starts and working his way through the field, Jason put on some great racing in making passes where he was strongest on the track. The SpeedTV crew covering the race said there was a good chance he may be invited to finish the season for the team, but I have heard no more on that statement. He should be, though, as Jason rode like a champ and was obviously in fine form on Sunday.
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The lovely Red Bull girls smile for the cameras in the Gasoline Alley garage area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With the world economy still suffering, the vendor and crowd count were down for the weekend, but attendance numbers were reported to be in the 69K range for the final events on Sunday, after high 70s in 2009 and around 93K the initial year in 2008. There was a great show to be seen by all.

Of note, there was a tragic loss at the track when young Peter Lenz died as a result of his injuries sustained on the warm up lap of the USGPRU Moriwaki MD250H support race. A very freak accident that could have happened on any track and involving any rider, this young man was a multi-time competitor in this and many other series, and at the young age of 13 had already won several championships in other road racing series. God Speed Peter and our condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.
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