Thoughts on Indianapolis MotoGP
Holy smokes. Racing in a violent thunderstorm. Water pooling on the track. Beer cans flying around. A red flag, and the 250s canceled. Rossi totally blowing off NBC's pimply faced pit lane reporter. (I'm downloading the BBC coverage) And, tragically for some, Rossi didn't make good on his promise to run naked down the front straight if he won.
Local boy (well, Spring, Texas) Ben Spies qualifies 5th in the dry, and finishes 6th in the wet, and is the fastest Suzuki by far, about 10 seconds ahead of the other boys in Rizla blue (one a wet weather specialist). But they have contracts and Ben doesn't, mostly because Ben wants too much money, and no-one want to put up with his pit-mommy. And there are no USA sponsors. And now that US roadracing has pulled a CART/IRL (you can tell because both sides deny that it is ANYTHING like the CART/IRL fiasco), what's a highly leveraged Texas boy to do?
But Nicky is the hero. Driving up from the OWB, to face his obligations with his long time employer after he gave his two-weeks notice. Just hoping they remember to unlock the garage. But Nicky knows the best revenge is putting the bike on the box in front of his hometown crowd, even if it means riding headfirst into a hurricane.
Labels: Indianapolis, MotoGP, Nicky Hayden