Reflections of the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Weekend August 17-19, 2012

The 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Weekend saw the first repeat winner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when 2010 winner Dani Pedrosa on the #26 Repsol Honda RC213V took home the top honors on a weekend that will be remembered for the Spaniard's second win on the oldest race track in America, but also for the carnage that littered the track and paddock long after the checkered flag had fallen.

Pedrosa is seen at high speed rocketing down the long front straight at Indy during the first practice session of the weekend, where speeds of 208 MPH were recorded during the 3-day weekend in the series' first visit to Indy in the 1000cc era of MotoGP World Championship racing.

Pedrosa's team mate, Casey Stoner on the #1 Repsol Honda (and the defending MotoGP Champion and Indy winner) faired much worse then his double-winning team mate over the long weekend at The Brickyard.  After a seriously nasty highside during the qualifying round that saw the Australian suffer serious ankle injuries, Stoner at first wasn't expected to contest the weekend.  But like the tough competitor he is, the #1 machine soldiered on to a strong 4th-place finish at Indy.

Stoner however had to sit out this weekend's Brno event and is hopeful for the next round at San Marino on September 14-16.  This was Stoner's last trip to the track he loves to hate as he announced his retirement from the sport earlier this summer after the 2012 season.

Honda was one of the many manufacturers on-hand for the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Weekend, and one of theirs and all of the displays that was catching a lot of interest was the new Honda CBR1000RR.

Ben Spies' 2012 season troubles continued at Indy in spite of his 4th-place qualifying effort on the #11 Yamaha Factory YZR-M1.  Elbowz got a monster start at the drop of the green in the MotoGP main event and led a few laps before being passed by eventual-winner Dani Pedrosa.  But while giving chase, the motor expired on the long front straight and was highly reminiscent of his 2012 season in which he has suffered a series of maladies and get-offs.


























On a brighter side for the 2009 World Superbike and 3-Time AMA Superbike Champion, the 2011 Petronas Factory Yamaha M1 that Spies rode at the Laguna Seca and Indy rounds last year graced the Yamaha display in the infield at IMS.  The paint job helped Yamaha celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Andreas Dovizioso continued his season of superior runs on the #4 Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha M1 with a 3rd-place finish at the 2012 version of the Red Bull MotoGP Weekend. Dovi signed between Sunday's Brno round and Indy to ride for the Ducati factory in the 2013 season alongside America's own Nicky Hayden.

You can't talk MotoGP without making a shoutout to and about 9-Time World Champion and 7-Time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi.  The Italian was the first Ducati home at Indy, bringing the #46 Marlboro Factory Ducati GP12 home in the 7th-place spot.

Rossi was also on-hand at the Lucas Oil Indy Mile on Saturday, August 18, hanging out with Tommy Hayden and Chris Carr on the stage as a special guest of Family Events Promotions and AMA Pro Flat Track.  He also went home with his own Harley-Davidson XR750 to ride on his backyard track, and it was reported that Carr helped to broker the deal for the popular MotoGP icon.

Ducati Island at The Brickyard was at the usual level of excitement that is seen amongst the 'Ducatista' fans and one of the nicest displays at the track was set up for the Ducati compatriots and other fans on-hand throughout the weekend.  The display included two street versions of two of the three Ducatis that 3-Time World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss rode to his titles, and a Ben Bostrom #1 Vance & Hines Ducati from the '99 AMA Superbike Championship season.  Can you say drool...............

The #17 Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati GP12 of Karel Abraham and the #69 Marlboro Ducati Factory GP12 enter the garage area at Indianapolis after the end of the first practice session of the weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway-hosted 2012 MotoGP World Championship round.

In another case of two ends of the spectrum, Abraham brought the satellite machine home in the 8th-place spot (and just under 11 seconds behind Rossi) while The Kentucky Kid saw air/sky/ground in a brutal crash during qualifying that saw him suffer serious wrist injuries and miss his first home race in the five years that the series has visited Indy.  It was a sad weekend for fans of the popular former '06 MotoGP World Championship and former '02 AMA Superbike Champion.

Teknic Leathers had one of the coolest displays on-hand in the Gasoline Alley vendors area at IMS, which among others included a pair of Miguel Duhamel's leathers from his season of racing the Harley-Davidson VR1000 in the '94 AMA Superbike Championship and a pair of Kurtis Roberts' leathers from his days with the Erion Racing Honda team in the early '00s in the AMA Superbike Championship.  Alongside are a set of Aaron Yates' leathers from one of his years with the Yoshimura Suzuki team and John Hopkins' leathers from his days with the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP squad.

In what was a joint effort among IMS, AMA Pro Flat Track and Family Event Promotions, the promoters of the 2012 Lucas Oil Indy Mile on August 18, 2011 AMA Pro Flat Track Saddlemen Rookie of the Year Brad Baker and Bryan Smith were on-hand Friday afternoon, August 17 to sign autographs for the fans and talk about the next night's great racing at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  AMA Pro Flat Track announcer Scottie Duebler talks with the boys while Baker's #12 Dodge Brothers XR750 and Smith's #42 Crosley/Howerton/Eaken Kawasaki sit on display for the several hundred fans that showed up to talk to the two stars of the greatest racing series on wheels in the world.

For the first time ever, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted a garage at the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP round called the Social Media Garage.  Set-up for the fans with several laptops, big screens showing the action and racing simulators, the lounge-like atmosphere was a very cool place for fans to come and hang out and chat with some invitees that were on-hand to cover the action at the track for Twitter, Facebook and their respective websites.

Stu's Shots was one of the five invited guests to this special event, thanks to Cassie Conklin with the Indianapolis Motor Speeway, along with Lance Lau, Terry Hampton, Daniel Lo and Larry Lawrence of The Rider Files.com.  It was due to LL's kind mention of Stu's Shots to Ms. Conklin that we were invited and I owe a big thanks to both for allowing me to attend this special event, which included among other perks full access to any stand in the house and free premium parking and credentials that made it a breeze to enter and exit the track I have been stalking since the spring of '69 when I was just a wee junior high student still living in Iowa.

For what was started this year as an experiment with the Indy 500 and The Brickyard 400, the special event was a big hit with fans and with Stu's Shots.  I was and still am humbled by the invite and the great treatment that was given me and I appreciate the efforts of all in putting this super weekend together!

In a finishing touch to wrap-up the 5th Annual Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP Weekend review, and a shallow and self-serving mode of self-promotion, 'Stu's Shots' was advertised inside the Social Media Garage over the weekend along with the other four invitees with scrolling LED read-outs of each of our respective sites and/or Twitter feeds. 

I'm still not quite sure to know what to do with seeing my name in lights for the first time in my life, but I guarantee you I won't let it go to my head!

Again, a big thanks to the folks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a great weekend of racing and for the special invite.  It was a blast and again a stellar running of another World Class event.

Bravo and thank you!

Casey Stoner Takes His #27 Repsol Honda to His 7th Pole of the Year For the 4th Annual RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP

Casey Stoner rolls down pitlane during free practice session #3 at the RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, August 27.  The Australian again showed the field at Indy this year that he is on top of his game in leading the fastest practice session of the first day of on-track action on his #27 Repsol Honda RC212V, and backed it up by leading the 3rd session this morning, and then decimating the field by over .5 seconds to win his 7th pole of the 2011 season.

The '07 MotoGP World Champion showed the way this afternoon and set his fastest time on lap 22 of 25 laps turned in the qualifying session, laying down a time of 1.38:850 to take pole over Texan Ben Spies on the #11 Yamaha Factory Racing M1 by .523 seconds.  Defending 2010 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on the #1 Yamaha Factory Racing M1 was another .256 seconds back of team mate Spies to round out the front row.

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Casey Stoner is on a roll in 2011 and is well on his way to what could be his 2nd MotoGP World Championship.  The Repsol Honda rider led the 17 rider field this afternoon in qualifying, and dusted the competition while doing so to set a new track record at the recently repaved Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, in preparation for tomorrow afternoon's 4th Annual RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round 12 race. 

Ben Spies on his #11 Yamaha M1 ended up in the middle of the front row, .523 seconds behind pole man and championship points leader Stoner, with fellow Americans Colin Edwards on the #5 Tech 3 Yamaha qualifying in the 6th position, and Nicky Hayden on the #69 Ducati ending up in the 8th qualifying position.  9-Time World Champion Valentino Rossi struggled during the afternoon qualifying session on his #46 Ducati, setting in the 16th spot throughout the 60 minute session, and with less then 10 minutes left managed to qualify 14th on the grid.

Reliable rumors have it that tomorrow IMS and Dorna will officially announce that the RedBull Indy MotoGP round will return for the 2012 season, as not only were the crowds strong today, but the MotoGP folks are very happy with the recently repaved track.  This is great news for the East Coast fans not wanting to have to travel to Laguna Seca, or for that matter to Texas in 2013, to see a premier road racing event.  Indy's dedication to keeping the MotoGP round here at the infamous Brickyard looks to have paid off with the announcement expected during tomorrow's events.


You can check out the full qualifying results below as well as the story of the afternoon qualifying session.
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Here is the link to the complete results in the qualifying session at the 4th Annual RedBull Indianapolis MotoGP round thanks to MotoGP.com:

http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2011/INP/MotoGP/QP/Classification.pdf?v1_8c1c71ce

And you can read the story of the qualifying session at Indy here:

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/motogp+report+QP+indianapolis

Repsol Honda released this press release via MotoGP.com on the story of the afternoon at The Brickyard as Casey Stoner led all comers in the mid-afternoon qualifying session for tomorrow's 2 PM EDT race:

http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/Repsol+Indy+QP
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IMS to Undergo Re-Paving In Time for 4th Annual Indianapolis RedBull MotoGP Round In Late August

Nicky Hayden on the #69 Repsol Honda leads Casey Stoner on the #27 Marlboro Ducati and one of the Rizla Suzuki riders during a practice session at the inaugaral Indianapolis RedBull MotoGP round in September of 2008.  The long awaited race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was fraught with the remnants of Hurricane Ike, and as a result the 250CC GP race was canceled, and the MotoGP race was shortened to 20 laps.  Attendance numbers have dropped for the last couple of years, mainly due to the slow-to-recover economy.  The 4th Annual Indianapolis RedBull MotoGP round will kick off on Friday, August 26, 2011. 
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In what will surely be a good move to shore up inconsistencies in the track surface, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced today that turns 5-16 will be repaved starting in early June to repair sections of the track that came under fire from some riders during last year's 3rd Annual Indianapolis RedBull MotoGP round in August of '10.  The sections in question were originally paved back in early 2000 when Indy had signed their first agreement with the folks at Formula 1.  With this part of the Midwest suffering a severe winter in terms of snow and ice, the track suffered even more then it usually does during the winter months.

You can read the official press release here thanks to Dean Adams' SuperBikePlanet.com:

http://superbikeplanet.com/2011/Apr/110421ims.htm
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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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