MotoGP Indianapolis

So TC, are you on site?

Pretty good racing today. Marquez is showing a maturity beyond what I expected in his first season of MotoGP, and right now is pretty much dominating Lorenzo and Pedrosa. It will be really interesting as of next weekend in Brno, which is really the point at which Pedrosa began dominating last year, and he is only 21 points behind Marquez. Whatever happens, I am sure Marc will be kicking himself for his blunder in Mugello.

Moto2 and Moto3 were fun to watch, but seriously that shitty Indy track has to go. It sucks for bike racing! There is absolutely no flow to it, the surface is crap (and three different surfaces around the lap), Bring on Brno!

I'm on site. Ill have some pics and maybe a vid later. I do know they are changing the track to better suit the bikes. A few of those turns are just Mickey Mouse.

Ok I'm back,

Rather interesting bit of racing today. Moto3 started off with a late pass to victory. The guy who was 2nd seemed to have made a mistake because he was ahead by a good margin.

Moto2 saw three guys take off and once they cleared the field it looked like mind games until the last lap. You could actually see these guys sit-up begging for someone else to take the lead.

Finally MotoGP. I expected Marquez to walk off and win, but he didn't. Lorenzo looked good, but the bike is no match for the Hondas. Rossi had a great fight from 9th to 4th, but he should have qualified better. Side note, Lorenzo's bike sounded a little deeper than Rossi's when he passed by. What was odd was that Lorenzo was falling behind, and Rossi was gaining ground toward the end of the race.

Ducati, have fallen off the map both on track and off it. They ditched ducati island, and opted to do this little stage show next to the souvenirs. Their grandstand was changed too, and was in a bad location. It was so pathetic that when they announced the drawing winners nobody could hear the guy with the shitty speaker system they had. As for racing itself, it looked like they were better last year. This was bad. The bikes sounded the deepest of the field. They just couldn't hold the pace.

As for other bikes the guys in last place from Ioda Racing had a bike so loud that it was like listening to a saprano witch wail away.

The facility issue,

I think everyone knows by now that the IMS has been actively pursuing LeMans racing for some time. They have even tested running at night as a way to see what is possible. One of the biggest complaints is the shitty infield. Multiple tarmacs, crap turns, and bad seating are just many of the issues.

So the IMS has responded by asking for a $100 million dollar bond to update the facility, and the neighborhood. The city is all for it, and it looks like we are going to get expanded roads around the track, updated infield, and a small arena to hold rock concerts.

Why so much? Well the cost just to pave the oval is $20million, and one company does it due to the banked turns. I talked to the local guy who paves everything at the track ( but the racing surface), and he won't touch it. I guess the banked turns are really an issue. The city itself wants that area of town cleaned up. Anyone who has been there knows it's a dump. Plus the town sees the speedway as a way to draw crowds for rock concerts in the summer. Currently we have to drive 30 miles out of town to see a concert, so keeping it in the city would allow for money to stay in town.

I hope that helps. Im half exhausted so if I typed wrong oh well.

Thanks for the updates, and the inside news. At least IMS seem to realize they have to do something. Dorna has signed another one year contract with them, and made it clear they will not extend this unless the tarmac is re-done. Now I can imagine it would be difficult to do the banked curves, but what looks really bad there is the tarmac on the inside track. They could easily do something about that.

Rossi did have a good end to the race, and it nice to see him fight his way back to fourth. But he shouldn't have been that far back to start with!

In Your comments above I think you confused Moto2 and Moto3. It was in Moto2 that Nakagami was way ahead at first, but then started losing ground and finished second. Tito Rabat, the winner, was much better at conserving his tires and made the difference in the end.

In Moto3, the top three guys would obviously be slip-streaming each other down the straight, meaning you did not really want to be in the lead at the start of it.

Yup, you are correct. I flip flopped the two. Below is a link about the bill that has already passed.

http://www.wthr.com/story/21194076/speedway-lights-proposal-set-for-statehouse-today

Funny the article makes no mention of the ALMS. I'm guessing lighting the place up is also not being done to attract ALMS since their endurance races run at night but without lighting. But, I can see how lighting it up could attract more lucrative Nascar races as they like to do night races under full flood lights.

To be honest, I really don't think ovals are able to provide interesting street circuits. The first problem is that the infield is flat, and completely flat tracks are just not that interesting. What they have done at Motegi is a lot more interesting since their street course actually goes through a tunnel to exit the oval, thus giving it access to some more interesting terrain. Still, if the they did that at Indianapolis (even though I don't think it would be possible) it still wouldn't add much in the line of terrain change.

With Austin having been added to the calendar, I really think they can do away with Indianapolis for the MotoGP. If ever, they could add Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City instead which offers a really interesting track for bike racing. Just look at the WSBK races there...

Here is an article on the new infield idea. When I saw the inter iew on tv Boles basically admitted that the infield sucked, and needed a major change.


http://www.indystar.com/article/20130816/SPORTS/308160074/Pit-Pass-IndyCar-test-IMS-road-course-next-month-could-pave-way-race?nclick_check=1