Sep 10, 2008

Indy, the dawn of the inaugural 2008 Indianapolis MotoGP

Made it to Indy this afternoon. Checked in the hotel and went for a great steak at St Elmo's. The first Indianapolis MotoGP is brewing. All the crews are in town and madly shopping (eh, the Euro is a rich man's currency nowadays).
Despite forecasts of rain for Saturday and Sunday, this should be a great motorcycling weekend and a great show. A lot on the agenda for us including a dinner with the Doctor tomorrow night, a few events on Friday, the Indy Mile flat track race following the qualifiers on Saturday, as well as a few business meetings and some fun.

MIC announced today that they will be launching their own road racing series next year, competing with the AMA/DMG championship. I think that it is a stupid move, motivated by pride and lack of flexibility and open-mindedness. The failure of the CART/IRL split up and the damaging results that followed should have been a good warning to MIC. Too bad.

It is now official that James Stewart will be on a SX-only contract next year... Too bad. Racing will be better in AMA MX with a more level field and more racing for the fans. I have heard that Bubba will actually participate in some MXGP's. Interesting. Definitely not the best way to show support to the AMA series.

Will Valentino win this Sunday in Indy? Does he need to push the limits on a track where the Ducati should be superior thanks to its speed? Maybe not. A safe second place will bring Rossi closer to his 8th title. But do Champion satisfy their thirst with 2nd places? Not often.

One Industries, which has been since its launch, one of my favorite brands, has released their first MX gear collection and it is definitely a success and what I would have expected from them. I guess I'll be wearing some One gear soon :-)

September 11th... In Memoriam!