Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP

Photography by Marc Urbano

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" I always get goose flesh when I hear those words, and it was no different this past September as I watched Mary Hulman George, chairman of the board of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, stand firm against heavy winds to make that famous call to action. As a native of nearby Lafayette, I've followed racing at the Speedway for as long as I can remember, but I never imagined that phrase would be spoken toriders, not drivers. Motorcycles at the "Racing Capital of the World?" Never in a million years...

Or so I thought. Support for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP was unprecedented. In fact, from the moment CW Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and I landed in Indianapolis, we were inundated with event-related promotions. I've never seen a publicity effort quite like that put forth by IMS, event sponsor Red Bull and the city of Indianapolis itself. Other tracks would do well to use IMS as a template.

The Indianapolis media, well-versed in four-wheel racing, staged an all-out effort to become better acquainted with bike racing in general and MotoGP in particular. While coverage of Sunday's race in Monday's edition of national-reach USA Today was limited to a few column inches and buried on page 14 of the sports section, interest on the part of the reporters in attendance was high. One newcomer walked up to Kevin in the press room and told him that he had purchased his book, TDC, to bone up on the sport. In reading it, he received an education, for which he gratefully thanked Kevin. Another writer expressed dismay that, in two months of trying, he had not been able to score an interview with Valentino Rossi or Casey Stoner. "I don't want to sound like a prima donna," he told me in exasperation, "but I've covered football here for years, and I've never had to wait two months to get an interview with Peyton Manning!"

At the pre-event press conference, Nicky Hayden played down his forthcoming move to Ducati that will see him paired with reigning series champion Casey Stoner, stating that there were still races to run this year, and that his Repsol Honda team and sponsors deserved his best effort. When a reporter asked if a rumored early split from Honda was true, that he might not finish out the season, Hayden showed genuine surprise before exploding into a toothy grin. "I'm not going to lay down until the very end, until Valencia," he replied. "So, no, I fully plan on doing the whole season unless they lock the door over there on me."

Early in the weekend, I wondered aloud how much had changed in the sport since July's USGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. A great deal, as Kevin and I discovered during lengthy interviews with, among others, Rossi's engineer, Jeremy Burgess, and Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin's youthful director of motorcycle racing. A few questions into the interview with Burgess, Rossi's bushy-eyebrowed computer whiz, Andrea Zugna, walked into the hospitality area, and Burgess asked him to join us to better understand advances in electronics. "Valentino has an enormous ability to process information," Burgess noted. "He can spend 15 minutes with me talking about suspension, gearbox and tires, and then spend another 25 minutes with Andrea to take the bike into the future."

Rossi's Fiat Yamaha teammate, Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo, a refreshingly honest young man, provided further revelation. Kevin asked the two-time 250cc world champion how he had so very quickly become such an expert on a big motorcycle covered with electronic devices. "I think life can be as difficult as you want it to be," he replied. "If you think that you can't do it, you can come up with 100 reasons why you can't do it." Pressed further, he added, "Of course, you need talent, too. But attitude is more important than talent."

Despite a forecast that called for rain, Saturday was mostly sunny, and the many fans in attendance were treated to dry practice and qualifying sessions. "There's a helluva crowd up there," Burgess said of the throngs gathered near Turn One. "What they can see, that they don't get at Laguna, is the speed of the bikes. To have a reasonably fast, third-gear corner on the entry at the end of the straight, it gives them something to really look at."

Thanks to the lack of precipitation, the Indy Mile at the packed Indiana State Fairgrounds went off without a hitch. Kenny Roberts, winner of the 1975 event on a Yamaha TZ750, watched the action from Turn One. By the end of the evening, after Chris Carr narrowly edged current national champ Kenny Coolbeth for victory, Roberts' years of rear-steer preaching finally hit home like a brick to the head with the MotoGP paddock, crew members and writers alike, many of whom had never seen a dirt-track race, let alone a mile, in person.

Conditions changed for the worse on Sunday. But when the jet blowers began lapping the track, fans streamed to their seats. "They know something is about to happen," Kevin surmised. While the drying equipment is well-known to Indy regulars, IMS President and COO Joie Chitwood told me after the race that Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta received one text message after another from race promoters around the world wanting to know about the strange machines. That Indy managed to run three of the four planned races amidst hurricane-like conditions is testament to its strong organization.

Later, walking through Gasoline Alley, I caught up with Ben Spies. I applauded his fifth-place qualifying and sixth-place finish in his final wildcard appearance with the Rizla Suzuki team. "The last 10 laps I struggled a lot," he admitted, noting visor problems cost him a shot at fourth overall. Out at Suzuki ("I asked for the amount of money they already pay me"), Spies is looking for a new path to MotoGP. "There are a couple teams that I could have signed with a month ago to race MotoGP for sure, on decent equipment, but I don't know if I want to be there in two years. Whatever I do next year, I want it to be the start of a career in a family. It's not about racing here for another year and then moving to somebody else. Whatever I do next year, that's going to be the corporation I want to be with for a long time."

At Laguna four years ago, MotoGP riders were publicly critical of the track, citing concerns over both pavement irregularities and lack of runoff in some areas. Many of those issues have since been alleviated, but it took money and time to do so. Given a soothing pat from Ezpeleta, riders accept these shortcomings from a first-year event. Indy caught some flak, too, for differences in surface texture, poor drainage, a shortage of runoff in a several corners and use of metal curbing at the exit of Turns 4 and 16. Chitwood offered assurance that all will be made right in time for next year's race, to be run the weekend before Labor Day.

I believe him. It's Indy, after all.