The quest for the 2009 MotoGP World Championship became more interesting Sunday as Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo capitalized on the mishaps of his main competitors and ran away with the second running of the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Starting second on the grid behind Dani Pedrosa and just ahead of defending World Champion Valentino Rossi, Lorenzo battled with both of his rivals until Pedrosa crashed on lap four, leaving the Fiat Yamaha team riders to simply challenge each other for the lead. But on lap nine, Rossi uncharacteristically lost control of his mount and crashed, leaving the door to the winner’s podium wide open for Lorenzo, who would not be challenged after Rossi’s mishap.
Alex De Angelis finished second for Honda, and Nicky Hayden brought his Ducati home in third to round out the podium.
Andrea Dovizioso, riding a Honda, finished fourth and Colin Edwards brought home his Yamaha in fifth place.
With just five races left in the season schedule of events, Valentino Rossi leads the points standings with 212 points. Jorge Lorenzo is second with 187 points, while Casey Stoner is third with 150 points. Stoner did not compete at Indianapolis due to an undisclosed medical condition.
Notes: Marco Simoncelli won the 250 cc classification race, and Pol Espargaro captured the 125 cc classification contest.
Both preliminary races provided solid entertainment for the 75,130 in attendance. The three-day total attendance for the event weekend topped 146,000. No rain on race day certainly provided a far better time than last year for both the drivers and the fans. A few clouds mixed with some sunshine worked just fine for this old dog who tries to limit his sun exposure.
I want to say thanks to Jana Strange of the IMS Public Relations Department for making it easy to cover this world-class event.
Great job ladies.
Jorge Lorenzo celebrated his victory in style by riding a wheelie down the entire straight away at IMS on his last lap.
A wheelie at 190 mph. No big deal eh?
IMS did a great job in turning the garage area generally used for Indy Cars in to a giant retail village for bike enthusiasts.
The area was heavily populated with folks looking to spend money on various items. Again, a very strategic set up.
Danny Bridges, who thinks MotoGP is cool stuff and hopes it is here to stay, can be reached at (317) 578-1780 or Bridgeshd@aol.com.
