Only Casey Stoner’s excellent reflexes stopped him from running over this furry little animal that crossed in front of him during the second free practice at Indianapolis.

The animal has been described as being a gopher, a groundhog, a beaver or an otter, can any wildlife animal lover out there confirm what species this is?

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Today’s free practice sessions at Indianapolis ended up being more about the newly asphalted surface than the actual lap times, with the morning practice all about how slippery the track was and in the afternoon it was about excessive tire wear for several riders.

Here’s what the riders had to say:

Casey Stoner - 1st

“This afternoon the track was slightly better and of course the lap times improved with more bikes on track and cleaning it up, but I’m still not comfortable on this surface. It’s incredibly slippery and the track is certainly my least favorite of the whole season. It’s very tight, slippery and the new surface is pretty bad, it’s not just the dirt on the surface but there seems to be something strange where the two surfaces join, some grease of some sort that creates more issues. We tried the harder front this afternoon which gave us good feedback and we were able to go a little bit faster, but in general the track needs to improve before we can know what direction to go in, and I just hope the conditions improve for the race. My last few exits were slightly ruined from traffic on track and also wildlife! I saw something out the corner of my eye, I’m not sure what it was perhaps a gopher or something, I thought it was a part from someone’s bike, I’m just glad we both escaped from that situation unharmed!”

Continue reading: MotoGP riders review first day of practice at Indianapolis

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The newly asphalted Indianapolis track has received stinging criticism from the MotoGP riders ahead of free practice 2. The majority of the riders have complained that the track is extremely slippery and offers no grip at all and the level continues to be irregular, however this afternoon’s laps times dropped dramatically, with Casey Stoner heading the top of the timesheets.

Stoner almost ran down a furry animal that looked like a gopher before laying down a flying lap that let him pip Ben Spies who lead most of the session and then a final 1’40″724 lap that left the American rider in second and 0.194s adrift.

Dani Pedrosa had a definite improvement from this morning’s 10th spot to take third, the Repsol Honda rider was followed by Jorge Lorenzo who also shaved off more than a second from his lap times, but was still more than seven tenths off pace.

Continue reading: MotoGP Indianapolis: Casey Stoner takes over FP2

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It was a warm and sunny morning for MotoGP’s first free practice on the newly resurfaced Indianapolis and since the track had to be rubbered, lap times were a little less than 4 seconds slower than last year and Ben Spies was the fastest rider on track with a flying lap of 1’43″260 that put him on top of the chart in the last minute, however he was fast throughout the session confirming his feeling with the circuit where he took a second place last year on a satellite Yamaha M1.

Casey Stoner struggled through most of the practice, but bettered in the finale to take the second spot and was 0.292s slower than Spies. Colin Edwards took third and was always in the top spots along with Marco Simoncelli who lead the top of the timesheetuntil the last minutes where he fell back to fourth and 0.333s adrift.

Nicky Hayden was fifth with the GP11.1 followed by team mate Valentino Rossi who was 1.102s off pace. While Andrea Dovizioso and Hector Barbera were 7th and 8th respectively.

Continue reading: Ben Spies leads in FP1 at Indianapolis

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That Yamaha Tech3 star Colin Edwards is a very strong supporter of the military (besides loving guns and rocket launchers) is a pretty well known fact, and to honour those soldiers who were shot down in Afghanistan earlier this month, he’ll be donning this special design on his Arai helmet featuring the insignia of the US Navy Seals for this weekend’s Indianapolis GP.

Source | hellforleather.com

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Rizla Suzuki boss Paul Denning made good on his promise because Elena Myers finally got her chance to ride the Suzuki GSV-R yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and making her, to our knowledge the second female racer ever to throw a leg over an 800cc MotoGP bike (we believe Letizia Marchetti was the first, riding the Ducati GP10 at Jerez for a TIM advert).

Ahead of the run, the 17-year old Myers received some advice from Alvaro Bautista on the quirks of his bike and then she proceeded to complete five laps on the prototype machine (sans carbon brakes) managing to clock 306km (190mph) on the main straight and according to some Italian journalists a best lap of 1.59.8.

“Wow! I can’t really say anything else; it was just such an incredible experience!” said the lucky teenager. “I can’t thank the guys at Suzuki MotoGP enough – they have been awesome! This makes me so hungry to come out here and try it someday for real on a race weekend – well I guess this is a race weekend, but I mean for real next time. I can’t say enough about the bike either, it does everything 20 times better than I ever would have imagined – this has just been amazing, and I think I’ll slowly realise what just happened over the next couple of days. The GSV-R just blew me away!”

Continue reading: Elena Myers rides the Suzuki GSV-R at Indianapolis (w/video)

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Earlier this month Nicky Hayden was the first rider to check out the re-surfacing of the Indianapolis Speedway on board a Ducati 1198 and here’s a video from behind the scenes of his day at the track and shows Mel Harder, Senior VP of Operations, what lines the MotoGP riders use on the track.

During the post-race test at Brno, Hayden spent the day testing the GP11.1 that debuted with Valentino Rossi at Assen. Since Hayden lapped almost seven tenths of a second faster with the new bike than with his old bike at Brno, he’ll be using the GP11.1 at Indianapolis August 26th-28th.

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Last year Rizla Suzuki boss promised Elena Myers that she could ride the GSV-R around the Valencia track during the end of season MotoGP test, unfortunately for Myers it didn’t pan out.

Luckily for Myers, Paul Denning didn’t forget her nor his promise, because she’ll be finally getting her chance to turn a few laps on the Suzuki MotoGP prototype next Thursday at the Indianapolis Speedway ahead the GP weekend.

Myers who finished fifth in this year’s AMA Pro SuperSport West Division on the Team SuzukiScoopFans bike after missing two rounds due to a broken wrist, said “Words cannot describe how excited I am to ride the Suzuki GSV-R at Indy during the MotoGP weekend this year.We had talked about it last year, but things didn’t work out, so here’s a big thanks to everyone involved for making this possible. When I sat on the bike last year, it felt like it was made to fit me. So actually being able to spin a few laps on it will be quite the treat. I’m really looking forward to the weekend.”

Suzuki’s MotoGP Team Manager, Paul Denning, commented, “We are delighted to be able to give Elena this opportunity to get some understanding of how Suzuki’s MotoGP bike feels and operates. She is a very talented racer – not ‘for a girl’ – she’s just fast full-stop! MotoGP is the pinnacle of every racer’s ambition, and there aren’t so many people who have ridden the very latest 2011 GSV-R – Bautista, Hopkins, Aoki and now Elena! I would guess she’s also the only female racer to have ever ridden an 800cc MotoGP machine? Either way, we really hope she enjoys the experience.”

Check out this video from OTT on Myers after the jump.

Continue reading: Elena Myers finally gets the chance to ride the MotoGP Suzuki GSV-R

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The tarmac at Indianapolis was a bane for MotoGP riders who had complaints about the different types of ashpalt, the bumps and cracks that they encountered, making set-up very difficult, but the Speedway addressed the issue by repaving the infield section in time for upcoming Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP race, August 26-28.

Ducati’s Nicky Hayden was the first rider to test the the new surface using a Ducati 1198 yesterday, and after his run the 2006 champion declared himself happy with the job that was done and can’t wait to race on what he considers his home track as it’s just three hours from his home in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Indianapolis Speedway Q&A with Hayden after the jump.

Continue reading: Nicky Hayden tests Indy's new asphalt (w/video)

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We’ve got a nice video highlight and a great batch of pics from this weekend’s Indianaplis GP for you to enjoy.

Continue reading: Video and Gallery of Pics from Indianapolis GP

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When you’re a champion expectations are high, and sometimes unreasonably so as demonstrated over the weekend at the Indianapolis MotoGP. With Valentino Rossi’s performance after the free practice sessions described as a ‘debacle’ and then variously criticised during the race before a respectable fourth place, you’d think the world had suddenly forgotten what Rossi’s season has been so far.

After a serious injury that nearly saw him out for most of his last season with Yamaha, Rossi’s early return (perhaps because it is his last season) has been considered nothing short of a heroic miracle. A predictable announcement of his move to Ducati was only spiced up by his own hand written goodbye Yamaha letter, and otherwise mired in the usual PR treatment. The announcement followed a dramatic crash and re-entry to racing but it seems we’re intent on underestimating the stress a champion might feel and overestimating his ability to live up to our idolising.

When Rossi got his fourth place, some of the negative commentary died down, perhaps finally indicating that some of the hype surrounding the rider and his announcement to move to Ducati is subsiding. As David Emmett writes, MotoGP races are proving to be about chasing perfection, and Rossi is a good example of where you can arrive on being consistently high class. His performance over the weekend shows that firstly, he does make mistakes, and then secondly, he still knows how to fight. And has every intention of riding the rest of his season with Yamaha to the best of his ability. Rossi himself was far more realistic about his performance, as the rider quotes reveal. He says:

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi: lacklustre or misunderstanding a champion?

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The 11th round of the MotoGP championship at the famed Indianapolis Speedway that saw Dani Pedrosa conquer the top spot of the podium for the third time this season in very difficult race for all the riders who had problems with the heat and the slippery and bumpy track.

Jorge Lorenzo continues to lead the series with 251 points followed by Pedrosa who clawed back 9 points from his rival and now stands at 183 points.

Here’s what all seventeen riders had to say about their race.

Dani Pedrosa - 1st

“I’m really happy with this win and it was an especially tough one because of the heat today. I didn’t make the perfect start but I was quite quick through the first few tight corners and stayed close to the leaders. My rhythm was good today and even though Spies was strong in front I was able to close him down and make the pass. I’m really pleased with the performance of my bike because it was fast on the straights and also was working well in the corners. When I was out in front it was quite hard to stay focused and at the end of the race I was really tired - but I’m very happy because last year I crashed when I could have won and now I have made up for it. There were many crashes this weekend and it would have been easy to make a mistake in the race - you only need to go a little off line and you can be on the ground immediately, especially towards the end of the race when the tyres are worn. I’ve gone past the barrier of two MotoGP race wins in a season so I’m very happy. We are doing a good job and I hope we can maintain this momentum next weekend at Misano. I want to thank the team and all the people around me for this win.”

Continue reading: Rider Quotes from Indianapolis MotoGP Race

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