Indianapolis GP - Sunday Races
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For the last few Indy GPs that I've attended, I had chosen to sit in either stand J or H at the final corners.
There, you first catch sight of the bikes as they come off the short straight at turn 10. You clearly see turn
11, can follow them through 12, 13, & 14 (although the distance makes them pretty much tiny specks). You
again clearly see them in 15 & finally 16 when it's only a sprint to the brickline finish. THIS year, I took
the chance of missing all that to sit in the South West Vista. There you see the riders coming out of turn 1...
looking to draught and pass. Turns 2, 3, & 4 are right in front of you and this area is often (but not alwaya)
THE passing zone. You can also see the riders as they ride into the distance around 5 and if you pay attention,
you'll see riders make turn 9. I chose my seat VERY well because all the best passing during all 4 races was
right in front of me. The Moto3 race SHOULD have been the closest but a small bit of rain mixed up "wet or dry?" and made a race a bit of a sham. The two or three riders who took a chance and kept on slicks, were almost a full lap ahead of the rest of the field within 3 laps. It was confusing because Livio Loi, who won the race, was at the tail end of a pack of riders who he'd either lapped or caught up. John McPhee, who came 2nd, was a good 1/3 of a lap behind Loi and also in a group he'd lapped or caught up to. Philipp Oettl and Romano Fenati were 3rd and 4th but a full lap behind 1st & 2nd. You'd see them THEN Loi. Like I said, confusing! The Moto2 race was much better. There were many passes in turn 1 off a draught then hard breaking. I couldn't keep track of the number of times guys passed one another in turns 3 or 4. The lead switched on almost every lap between Hafizh Syahrin, Sam Lowes, Johann Zarco, Dominique Aegerter, and Alex Rins with Tito Rabat, Franco Morbidelli and others in the mix but never leading. Final result: Rins 1st, Zarco 2nd, Morbidelli 3rd. In the GP, Lorenzo led from the start with Marquez shadowing him for 24 of 27 laps. Finally in the 25th lap, Marquez passed him and kept that lead to the end. For the final podium spot, Pedrosa slipped into 3rd close to the leaders for several laps. It took Rossi a couple of laps to get into a fairly distant 4th. He was about 1.5 seconds down from Pedrosa but gradually over many laps, he caught up. The crowd went nuts when Rossi finally passed Pedrosa in the 18th lap but they remained neck in neck. With a couple of laps to go, Pedrosa caught Rossi in turn 1 off the draught. Rossi immediately fought back in 2/3 to regain 3rd. Pedrosa kept threatening after that but Rossi held on to the podium spot until the very end. I stayed for the MotoAmerica race. Roger Hayden led for the first part of the race. Cameron Beaubier would pass him but Roger would immediately regain his lead. Eventually Hayden and Beaubier reversed roles. Josh Hayes was always in the mix. He was often 2nd but couldn't manage to get the lead. It was also interesting to see Elena Meyers race and actually compete for better and better positions. The race ended when it started to rain. Beaubier 1st, Hayden 2nd, Hayes 3rd. |
 Moto3 Race |
 Moto2 Race |
 MotoGP Race |
 Moto America Race |