2012 Indianapolis MotoGP Race Result: Unstoppable Winner Controls Race From Beginning

Results and summary of the MotoGP race at Indianapolis:

Dani Pedrosa has taken an impressive second win of the season, leaving the rest of the field for dead after the first few laps of the MotoGP race at Indianapolis. Pedrosa's victory opens the championship up again, cutting Jorge Lorenzo's lead to just 18 points over Pedrosa.

Pedrosa got the drop when the lights went out, but a strong charge by Ben Spies saw the Texan enter Turn 1 right behind Pedrosa, before barging through to take the lead at the next corner. Andrea Dovizioso edged Jorge Lorenzo to take 3rd, while Stefan Bradl slotted in behind Lorenzo in 5th. Spies was in no mood to tarry, however, and quickly pushed to open a gap at the front, Pedrosa chasing hard to follow the Texan.

The Repsol Honda chased the Yamaha man for a couple of laps, Pedrosa using his speed advantage along the front straight, but Spies holding him off bravely on the brakes. A lap later, Pedrosa got a better drive down the front straight, getting far enough ahead to hold off Spies' surge on the brakes into Turn 1. Once Pedrosa was past, he opened a gap to Spies, quickly taking over a second from the Texan. Just as Spies looked set to stabilize the gap, disaster struck Spies once again, his M1 engine letting go in a massive cloud of smoke along the front straight. After the collapsed suspension at the last race in Laguna Seca, and a cracked subframe at Qatar, Spies' run of bad luck is starting to look statistically improbable. The fact that the engine that blew up was the engine he had crashed during QP will only add fuel to that particular fire.

Though Spies pulled over quickly, the masses of smoke still caused some following riders problems. Casey Stoner - at that point battling for 6th with Stefan Bradl - was completely unsighted by the smoke, and as he was riding with a badly injured ankle from a massive highside during qualifying, hesitated a moment, losing a lot of time in the process. Pedrosa, too, trod gingerly for a few laps in Turn 1, uncertain of the conditions in the corner where Spies had pulled over.

With Spies out of the race, Pedrosa was free and clear, and posting laps half a second quicker than anyone could follow. Pedrosa went on to take victory uncontested, with a massive margin over Jorge Lorenzo. Lorenzo, who had inherited 2nd after Spies blew up his engine, limited the damage to Pedrosa to a minimum, at a racetrack he had struggled at all weekend. Lorenzo was hampered badly by Steve Rapp on the Attack Kawasaki CRT bike, losing 3 seconds in the process of getting past the veteran American, but it made no difference to the final result. Andrea Dovizioso took the third spot on the podium, after battling with Casey Stoner for most of the race. The fight took its toll on a courageous Stoner at the end, the Australian having to let Dovizioso go, but still limiting the loss of points in what could have been a disastrous weekend. Dovizioso's recent results have been impressive, his 3rd place at Indianapolis making it four podiums in five races.

Alvaro Bautista crossed the line in 5th, ahead of Stefan Bradl, who had lost out after a strong early few laps. Valentino Rossi ended the race in 7th, but at nearly a minute behind Pedrosa, it was a disastrous weekend. Karel Abraham shook off a challenge from an outstanding Yonny Hernandez to take 8th, while Hernandez was first CRT bike in 9th, after an impressive race. Aleix Espargaro finished in 10th, retaining the lead in the CRT standings after Randy de Puniet was forced to pull out with a broken clutch.


Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Time Diff
1 26 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 46'39.631  
2 99 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 46'50.454 10.823
3 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO YAMAHA 46'56.941 17.310
4 1 Casey STONER HONDA 46'59.434 19.803
5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA HONDA 47'02.187 22.556
6 6 Stefan BRADL HONDA 47'09.703 30.072
7 46 Valentino ROSSI DUCATI 47'37.245 57.614
8 17 Karel ABRAHAM DUCATI 47'48.073 1'08.442
9 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ BQR 47'50.737 1'11.106
10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO ART 47'53.710 1'14.079
11 24 Toni ELIAS DUCATI 48'05.936 1'26.305
12 22 Ivan SILVA BQR 48'19.905 1'40.274
13 5 Colin EDWARDS SUTER 46'46.893 1 lap
14 77 James ELLISON ART 46'55.629 1 lap
15 15 Steve RAPP APR 47'00.909 1 lap
16 20 Aaron YATES BCL 47'54.994 1 lap
Not Classified
  35 Cal CRUTCHLOW YAMAHA 15'12.245 19 laps
  14 Randy DE PUNIET ART 13'45.971 20 laps
  11 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 10'04.406 22 laps
  51 Michele PIRRO FTR 1'51.921 27 laps
  54 Mattia PASINI      
  9 Danilo PETRUCCI      


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Valiant effort by Stoner, even though his championship is pretty much over. Lorenzo had a nightmare of a weekend, his race pace was awful. Still good enough for second due to Spies his horrible bad luck.

Even a fit Stoner probably couldn't have beaten Pedrosa today, simply perfect.

Good rides too by Dovi, Bautista, Bradl and Hernandez.

I hate to participate in conspiracy theories but it is becoming laughable.

Nick Harris' voice is in my head stating "poor old Ben Spies"

Spies bad luck is starting to get ridiculous. Come on! I'm absolutely not up to conspiracy theories, but his engine failure sure came in handy for Lorenzo.

At this point, I am not sure that bad luck can explain it. I'm leaning towards incompetence rather than actual sabotage but I do think there's something seriously wrong in that garage.

there's definitely an issue somewhere there. Broken subframe, broken swingarm, blown engine..........and that's not to mention the broken visor (during a wet race even), the chunked tire, two bouts of food poisoning. Someone has certainly put a hex on poor Spies.

Period. You need the balls to decide racing under this body and tarmac conditions - limits and double pressure. Full respect. Also another great race for Andrea, no mistakes, just full concentration. Yonny was another, this time CRT, hero. Great efforts and interesting overall race!
I'm so sorry for Spies and even it's unfair it just want to come out from my mouth that Yamaha factory team which works for Texan side is the worst one this time. Even in Tech 3 they don't have this kind of failures so repeatedly. It's just hard to belive it's a fate. Just crap and it sucks. Sorry. He deserves something better.
Another victim seems to be RDP for me. Another great chance and another technical fault. He also deserves better i don't know what..fate, team, bike?
ps.Yates has his 5 minutes, that looked cool being in front of Lorenzo for a while:)

edited:it was probably Rapp,not Yates - Lorenzo said something about it fortunatelly put it as dangerous but funny.

Obviously when it looked like Spies would take points from from Jorge...push the destruct button. Beyond chance.

Are you suggesting they had a device inside a sealed engine, that has been in use since Mugelo, that allowed them to case the failure when ever they wanted?

For the conspiracy theorists it's also worth considering that Lin Jarvis made it clear Yamaha want the triple crown, they don't just want one rider at the top they want both riders at the top. Incompetence is the rational explanation......

(Just for conspiracy's sake!)

This technology has actually been around for some time. (It was developed and perfected by Ferrari during the Schumacher Era!) I suspect that some creative ECU programming could cause a fairly comprehensive engine failure. Run one cylinder super lean, and crank the ignition timing - something will give before long!


If they want that, they can just disable ignition, injection... etc. There are million ways to slow down rider if they wish to do so, without dramatic and life threatening ways of: defect subframe, engine blowout...etc.

But OK, if you like alien invasion.... and so on. Go for it.

Ben bad luck this year is beyond bad luck. I agree on that. What is going on? I dont know. But theory like that, just dont work.

they're supposed to be already in the paddock so why not go this way further;)

I have strong feeling Dani can win the title this year. He's changed, he looks so constant and mature.

It's funny that even though he's been in the top three the whole season I've never really considered him a real title contender. It's like the boy who cried wolf.But I think he's got a better chance this year than any other season.

He was flawless today and I'm not a big fan. Stoner showed his grit for sure. I'm just wondering how he passed the physical that Crutchlow went thru awhile back.

Jarvis can put a bike under Ben. He just has to quit building it from Jorge's trash bin. Disgusting.

are still sticking pins in the Spies voodoo doll..............

I wonder if that was the engine that he crashed with Saturday and they have no downloadable data on oil pressure ?

Still, an interesting race ( no doubt the usual suspects will be on here soon, moaning about no " action ". Good to see both the wildcards finish, very creditable.

" Stoner showed his grit for sure."

+ 1

If this is making Rossi nervous!

He jumps on this thing next season.... Hopefully his usual entourage will build a bike to last a whole race!
On a more serious note, I hope people in Spies' team are being held accountable for these woeful errors, these type of failures could very easily result in someone getting seriously hurt or worse.

Unacceptable in the premier league of such a dangerous sport!

Agree with comments re voodoo...:-)
Spies must have run over a number of black cats.
Did the engine run on its side for long? Dunno if M1 is wet or dry sump race engine - if it's a wet sump lying on its side would likely starve the oil pump. Would have thought, though, that more likely to be a dry sump to reduce surge and frictional losses. Anyone know?

I, too, was glued to the screen here in Oz (got up at 3am to watch it). Dani was wickedly fast, and Jorge must think it's Christmas, bagging 20 points on a bike that was clearly outgunned.

Stoner's cautious start and then push to pass Bautista, Bradl, Crutchlow and Dovi was rivetting. He didn't seem to be able to pick the bike up as easily out of corners, and hence didn't have the usual speed advantage he gets from that. Must have been pretty hard on his right foot. Dovi said he wasn't taking his usual lines.

IMO, a healthy Stoner would have taken his time and won the race, like 2011. Pedrosa got away with a lucky and competent win, but he need there to be people between JLo and him. But Stoner doesn't seem like ever playing the number 2 role. Sachsenring, anyone? Decision time is coming at HRC while Lorenzo remains in a comfortable spot in the team and the point standings.

And Cal sure did lose some thunder. Is his mind in 2013 already?

If Stoner takes long to recover while Pedrosa suddenly closes the bap to Lorenzo, there might be a point in which HRC might ponder the value of employing some sort of team orders.

Big if, obviously, but not impossible.

So if Dani crashes and Stoner win then this is just coz Stoner is number one. If Stoner crashes and Dani wins... then this is lucky win for Dani?

Nothing lucky about this mate. Dani was the most reliable and fastest for the whole race weekend. He was number one this time.

I dont know why everybody underestimates Dani. He can run with Stoner and Lorenzo on the same level.

just check out race results since the beginning of 2011 and see how many wins Pedrosa has against Lorenzo and Stoner. Do the math.

And, by the way, don't extrapolate on what I have posted. First I said Pedrosa was lucky and competent. That means circumstances favoured him and he made ther most of it. Clear enough? And where the hell did you find anything about Stoner being number one when Pedrosa crashes? That's your own bias straight from your keyboard. I believe Stoner would have won easily based on his practice results and how the Indy GP race had gone in 2011. I'm not pulling anything from thin air.

Pedrosa running with Stoner and Lorenzo is a given. Him winning more races than not, as Stoner and Lorenzo have done through some periods, isn't such a certainty. But I'd love to see him champion.

I did not quote you. But I did take the essence of what you said in you post. If I got this wrong then you have my apologies.

Lets look at history.

Dani owned Lorenzo and Stoner in 125 and 250. In his first year MotoGP season, Dani scored 2x first place, 2x second and 4 x third. Now that is rookie on steroids. Than the crash party starts. Of course, Lorenzo and Stoner have similar number of crashes in the beginning, but without so much heavy injuries. Almost every crash from Dani resulted in heavy injury. After four years he has become careful. This year he is going in "smart" mode. Dani can fight on the same level with Stoner and Lorenzo. Here at Indy, if Stoner would race in full strength, he would have "Sacshsenring level" fight on his hand. Pace of Dani through the practices was up there with Stoner. Where in FP and quali have you seen some superiority from Stoner? Look at lap analysis. Both of them have been on the same level. If anyone was more consistent... it was Dani.

I'm looking at history it shows that on equal machinery and teams Stoner owns Pedrosa. Comparing riders on different bike manufacturers and teams is not a fair and honest comparison.

As far going in "Smart mode" Dani has no other choice as Jorge and Casey have been clearly faster. 5 wins for Jorge and 4 for Casey while Dani has had 2 wins this season clearly says it all.

I'm not a Dani hater but I don't believe he is in the same league as Jorge and Casey.

the theory that Yamaha is sabotaging Spies in favour of Lorenzo is ludicrous, because nothing sells motorbikes better than seeing the companies BEST tech explode on 85 international networks during a Live broadcast

Saying that, if it was HRC they'd be talking about an electrical problem............

I've got a great screen-shot of Spies spewing a mile-long smoke trail that I'm sending to all my Yamaha-owner friends. Yes, this is precisely the sort of profoundly negative brand association that Y wants to avoid at all costs.

If, against all common sense, sabotage was actually occurring, it would not be with approval of the Yamaha Corp. It would be an independent enterprise, originating somewhere near the Jarvis level, and only a few select people would be in on the plot.

Lin Jarvis, the new Alberto Puig!? ;)

And now Ben have revealed that after Mugello a person high up in Yamaha told him if he didn't show up 100% at Laguna not to show up at all. With all these mechanical failures on his bike this year maybe Yamaha should try showing up 100%. At some point things between Spies and Yamaha took a turn for the worse and it was a serious turn.

Stoner racing a gutsy race today, Dovi showed why he's in line ahead of Cal for a factory seat, and good on Steve Rapp for getting a point. I would love to see Graves Yamaha build a CRT for Josh Hayes next year.

that it was the same engine he ran at Laguna. Only he and his team know how long it ran after multiple crashes on its side. There are limitations but if you tell your rider to give 100% it only seems appropriate to do the same.

The Yamaha engine seems to have an issue with being damaged if left running on its side - JL lost an engine at Assen that way.

Only the team knows the mileage of the engine BS used at Indy, but with a 6-engine limit, the team can't afford to replace them after each crash.

Regardless of the reasons for it, the bottom line is that the more often you crash the more likely you'll damage the engine.

This is true but the engine was just today. You had the broken swing arm or whatever at Laguna and the cracked frame at Jerez. Spies has had bad luck but he's had more mechanical problems than just about anyone this year. Probably more than any other prototype rider. If the guys upstairs at Yamaha HQ ask 100% from him or tell him not to bother showing up then they need to make sure despite any other thing that the bike with the tuning fork on it is ready to go 100% full race.

Spies brought his Crew Chief and mechanic with him to MotoGP from superbikes.

YMC provide an engineer to each factory team.

Presumably Spies/Houseworth are responsible for the other crew members being employed.

Unless you are going to believe in illogical conspiracies, then his own crew needs to be holding up their hands for any crashes caused by bike problems.

The rest of it is down to the rider and/or bad luck.

Possibly but I don't think his crew have much influence over the engine. It is sealed and then they use it, yes they can monitor it's condition but I suppose a decision to use another new engine comes from the top. With the way the technology and regulations are these days the crew in the pit are limited to changing the bike's set up and do very little mechanical engineering. Maybe his crew were already concerned about the engine but the management didn't want to use another engine yet as that's not the schedule, maybe there were no obvious signs it was damaged, maybe someone just missed something, who knows.... As usual we don't know all the info so it's not really possible to say for sure who is to blame, if anyone, but one thing is for sure; it wasn't Ben's fault yesterday.

is the man. would love to see him in the big show but on a production racer from Honda - his age may make it a problem. CRT wouldn't do him any justice (just as they don't do any riders justice).

it is a shame to see CE getting lapped every race.

Agreed. His age does seem to be a sticking point for teams but then again he is racing against a bunch of young, fearless guys and look at what he's doing. The results speak for themselves. He took his fitness to another level this year and even reading about guys like Cal and Chaz Davies training with him in California and the way they talk about his fitness makes me think maybe he's a oddity in racing who's peaking a bit later in age. I'd love to see Tech 3 either let Smith stay in Moto2 until he progresses more or let him ride a CRT and put Hayes on Dovi's bike next to Cal next year. At Laguna Seca the entire Tech 3 team came out to the pit wall to high five him as he went to parc ferme. He won the AMA race by about 10 seconds if I recall. I think that team remembers the work and result he got filling in for CE at Valencia and so who knows maybe Yamaha USA has been on the phone with Herve?

1. How tough are these guys - every one of them but shown this time by Casey.

2. Spies has had 3 bike issues and every one after a crash in practice - not a conspiracy as not crashing in the first place would have helped but more an issue of the team repairing the bike properly. Not so much this one as they cannot see inside the engine but the others are more a worry.

3. Casey's race time last year would have been just 1 second behind Jorge this year - chances are fit he would have won and that over a race there is little between the 800s and 1000s.

4. The gap between Casey, Jorge and Dani and the rest. Dovi only beat Casey when the pain really kicked in and was 17 seconds from the winner (exactly the same as last year on a works Honda).

It is problematic trying to make too many comparisons between this year and last year. The tyres are very different, the Indy track requires hard rubber and stiff tyres, that's why Bridgestone made a special tyre this weekend with a stiffer carcass but it is still softer than last years tyre. And we all know the tyres this year were designed to be less durable than last years tyres. So your assumption about Stoner in number 3 is overlooking this.

However the Honda did seem to be working better at Indy than the Yamaha so on the form of the past few days alone I reckon Lorenzo would have had a tough time getting second if Stoner was fit and Spies' engine didn't blow. But he wasn't and it did and that's racing.

Last year Dani's championship ended when he got injured, the year before Rossi's championship ended when he got injured and the list goes on. Stoner is fortunate his injury isn't so bad that he will miss races.

Remember when Ben was the quiet lad just happy to be there? There is only so much a person can take. Even in all that has happened Spies hasn't thrown Yamaha under the bus in public. If his team were in a club race series, they would be thrown out for being too dangerous. Any one of these incidence could have caused grave danger to Spies or a following rider. Thank God no one has been seriously hurt.

I don't know how Spies could ride their bike anymore this season. I would demand a new engine every race then take the penalty when his allotment runs out. Atleast you survive to race next season or just do something safe like wrestle alligators.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories or that a Japanese factory would want to televise massive mechanical failures and make it harder to win team and manufacturer trophies. An Italian factory on the other hand...you know that Rossi will likely be getting the Aspar/Cardion AB Package for the rest of the year.

That said, Spies was riding the wheels off that bike. He was doing the same at Laguna Seca. And Pedrosa didn't look like he was breaking a sweat sticking on Spies' rear wheel. I think the bike just may not be designed for reliability with his style in mind. I'm sure they were both giving 100%, but one style clearly was pushing the limits more.

But I recall Yamaha refusing vale the latest front end, or test any new stuff after he announced leaving to Ducati. I bet if vale had been allowed a test ride on the desmosedci 12 he never would have left Yamaha.

Pardon the pun, but Ben gave quite the interview posted on MotoGp's website.

David, Ben mentions there have been very heated words between him and Yamaha. Any insight?

Spies had a number of mechanical issues in WSBK too! Did he have them at Tech3? I hope he takes a careful look at who he brings with him to BMW or wherever he ends up.



Look's like Jarvis is playing favorites.. Even if the failures are just bad luck, bad luck reduces with preparation, I doubt that there is much focus on Ben's bike by Jarvis. Ah well, they'll have their 'focused Europen' back next year, and they'll have missed the biggest marketing oppotunity in years - Spies could appeal to middle America like no European/foreigner could've. A classic dice with Lorenzo would be great for the sport and Yamaha on two continents. Yamaha's folly.

Stoner is tough, but why? I hope he is fully fit for his home crowd at PI, he wont win the championship, so it must have been to thank his American fans. He's always been very well recieved there and has always said how much he likes the place. It might be a NASCAR future for him and our loss.

Good luck to Dani, Lorenzo cruised into second, its not over but I do feel that Dani will need some luck from here. The Bautista incident might have reduced the engine count for Lorenzo, so Dani might have a card up his sleeve.

This Texan track needs scrutineering immediately prior to use, too much dirt and crap... dangerous and the sport is dangerous enough, Barbera broken back, Nicky broken hand, Stoner broken ankle, and Spies needing physio for hours.... if this happened every round there'd be moto3 riders on a Repsol Honda in 4 weeks. Come on Dorna, show some guts... oh there's problem, again!

Ben may be an excellent racer, but the man has the charisma of a three toed sloth. Christ he's dull. The loss of simoncelli looms large.
I get a bit tired of the jingoistic militaristic helmet designs for Edwards and spies. Join the army guys, if you want.
Lorenzo has really impressed me with his on and off track behavior.

I don' think stars, red white and blue stripes, or a bull skull with the outline of Texas is jingoistic. Maybe you should look up what that actually means.

I appreciate Spies' dry humor, but I'll concede that it mightn't readily translate to mainstream advertising. Spies can be useful if placed in the right marketing context, though.

And I can't agree that flag-like paint schemes constitute "jingoism". National pride, sure, and you see that kind of thing on lots the riders (e.g. Stoner's helmet and #1 plate). Edwards may have US military insignias/emblems on his helmet and/or leathers, but it's very well-known that it's a show of support for American military personnel, not US military policy.

I don't think you want to go there. Just be grateful your not typing in German.


What do u mean by that? "watch it"

I really like Spies for his personality. Guy has a really dry sense of humor. Just seems like a cool dude. There are enough walking mouths on the grid that I can appreciate a relatively quiet, laid back guy.

I hope Rossi had a good nap during those 28 laps. pisses me off to see Nicky break himself and miss this race and possibly the next, while rossi's got his nice 2yr contract on the best factory and has completely checked out on his current ride. Primadonna.

he didn't crashed! Well, ok but there's saying that without crashes You can't learn proper bike handling. So for me it's understandable a little more why some would think Rossi is the one who doesn't give 100% on Ducati. He seems to be affraid he would crash and maybe hurt himself. And if Ducati is the bike You need to give 110% then departure is the way. Don't crash, stay unharmed, clean - that's not challenging.

The boring truth may be that spies' issues are a combination of unexceptional issues. Those may include that he often crashes his bike and then races with a crashed engine, that these damaged engines may produce unforeseen stresses on the engine frame, that spies is under a lot of pressure to match Lorenzo and pushes the bike harder and uses more aggressive engine settings than J Lo, and that he has a less smooth style that puts more stress on the parts, especially the corkscrew crash. Also, I doubt that his team is as thorough as J Lo's given the fact that he is disgruntled and on his way out and that he is just not the genius that the guy next door is.

Looks like championship is over for stoner but that means he'll be super gun ho to win all of the remaining races to make his point. "I won more races than anyone else this year!!!"

I would hope that a racing motorcycle is designed with a bit more safety margin than any load differences caused by riding styles.

Crashing a bike however, is definitely going to damage things, that may or may-not result in further failures, if not detected - and not every potential post-crash failure point can be easily detected.

Spies crashed the bike prior to racing on a cracked frame. Whether or not the team should have been able to detect it, only the team knows, but you can be pretty sure that is what caused it.

Spies crashed prior to the bike failing at Laguna. Again, whether or not the team should have detected the impending failure (or if the offending part was in some previous crash) only the team knows.

The engine failure may well have been a result of the previous crash(es).

The tyre failure was just bad luck, and he was not alone with that one.

Spies has crashed a lot. Some of the crashes were just bad luck, some were his fault, and some perhaps resulted from the previous two... but regardless, crashing is not good for a bike... let alone the rider.

All this conspiracy theory is plain nonsense. Always fun to speculate, but I can't believe anyone seriously thinks that any factory/team would ever want their bike to fail or purposefully endanger their rider.

Another thing however is preferring their rider to underperform after a given point in time.
To me it seems that Ben Spies and his crew have not fit in so well at Yamaha or, to be precise, with Lin Jarvis. Lin has obviously put the heat on Ben since the start of the season. This pressure has been counterproductive as Ben has underperformed and his continuous bad luck has probably cost him a lot of confidence.

I understand that Lin wanted to have 2 winning riders and expected that from Ben in his second year, but being up there with Lorenzo is a seriously tall order.

Since whatever point in time it was that Yamaha decided that reeling Valentino back was a good idea, Jarvis has only had to up the pressure on Ben to make the situation more critical. A little bit of bad luck and some scrappy mechanics is all that has been necessary to make it all fall apart.

What Jarvis and Yamaha have to give a serious hard think is whether this is the best way to run their outfit. The incapacity to generate an environment conducive to good results from one of their riders is to me a serious flaw.

They did manage to create the positive environment for Lorenzo for 3 years while at the same time obliging Rossi, so it seems to me there must be some personal animosity between Lin and the Spies camp that has soured the relationship and made Yamaha stop trying.

Sad for all sides in my opinion.

I'm vey happy to see that Casey is still hungry!
Never been a big fan of CS27 but I'm going that way now....bit late though!

Race was a time trial today and best time triallist win...
race was awful, boring....uffff!
Toby Moody found the right words: what a waste of prime time on TV!!!

I'm vey happy to see that Casey is still hungry!

race was awful, boring....uffff!

I'm vey happy to see that Casey is still hungry!

race was awful, boring....uffff!

It would of been more exciting to watch if the CRT bikes got more TV coverage, there was more overtaking going on further back. What's the point in 'making up the numbers' with CRT bikes if you don't show any of their racing on the TV. The two wildcard entries got only got shown once each I think, the stands at indy were about 80% empty.... so who is actually watching the CRT guys??!! How do their sponsors get value for money and encourage more investment?

I can't for the life of me figure out why they think the Pedrosa butt cam is good TV.


wobblin'...? not so much.

Lots of guyes here seems to think that there are someone sabotaging Spies. I have no doubt Jarvis was the one to demand 100% from spies before LC but sabotaging?
Any of you guys saw Pasinis 125 season a few years ago. 4-5 DNF's of the fist 6 races due to technical faults and as many pole positions.
I would find it more likely that Spies did his own sabotaging due to Yamaha's ill treatment. (But I don't believe that either)

Too suggest Ben's bike failure are a result of him crashing. How many crashed bikes have we seen in the last 20 years? How many broken swingarms can you recall? I can't remember any. I could go down a list of riders from Randy DePuinet to Lorenzo that have had multiple crashes in a season and not seen anywhere near the issues this one team has.

Lin Jarvis is the face of Yamaha management. Someone within that chain of command needs to put a stop to these dangerous string of events. If your work place had a rash of fires, falls or equipment breaking how well or motivated would you be?

When Lorenzo first got on the M1 he spent his first two seasons tossing the thing into the scenery every chance he got, but I can't ever recall a frame or swingarm failing him because of it.

There are crashes every weekend. All the top riders crash semi-regularly during practice and qualifying. So why is Ben breaking left and right? Conspiracy theories are fun and all that, but I am sure no one here believes them. This is the worst run of luck (what else can you call it?) by a premier class rider EVER.


Has anyone considered the fact that maybe Ben felt the engine starting to go and then "helped" it along to its spectacular demise on the front straight for maximum impact to Yamaha and the media?

Much like John Kocinski did to his RG250 when he was pissed off at Suzuki for failing to deliver on any of the power upgrades they kept promising him! He revved it into oblivion with equally spectacular results.

And then he got fired... or quit.

Ben's not a psychopath. I can't begin to imaging that he'd deliberately place the other riders at risk. Oiling T1 could easily get someone killed.

Even the Uberbrat waited until he was safely in pit lane before grenading the bike.

Set what most of the posts to this article agree about, that crashed bikes are more prone to break again, against Dorna's wish to limit riders to only one bike? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! This is just another example of the sorry state Grand Prix motorcycle racing has gotten itself into. Remember not too long ago when race fans all agreed that Motorcycle Grand Prix racing was much more exciting and interesting than Formula One? Boy, how times have changed. I missed MotoGP at Indy for the first time in three years; BUT I didn't really didn't miss it! And so many crashes this year, must be those super-safe tires I guess.

Now I've heard it all.

Yamaha will be looking at the engine data to see what happened to the engine, like oil pressure dropping etc. It would be bloody obvious if Ben intentionally did anything to the engine.

Yamaha to Ben at that point: "So why exactly did you downshift to first at 160 mph on the front straight?"

Not to mention, when you blow an engine, sometimes you oil your own rear tire, so to suggest that Ben would intentionally endanger himself after taking a beating in the QP crash is beyond ludicrous. Watch X- Files much?

I know its ludicrous, but given the tenor of a lot of the other posts ya gotta wonder...?!?! ; )

I agree that BS wouldn't do that, but it's not more unlikely than Lin Jarvis sabotaging his bike.
Downshifting has no real revlimiter as the engine are dragged along by the backwheel and may very well pass the rev-limit. It's a well known way to blow an engine. That said, slipper clutch technology with pressure controlled by ECU it is possible that the ECU are able to limit revs even when downshifting. Generally speaking the slipper clutch are used to bring the revs up to match the lower gear so it's not a given thing.

would have cut spark and/or fuel, but the rear tire still drives the engine. Of course, these are pneumatic valves, so your point may be valid. On a streetbike engine, you coulld still bend valves etc because there is a direct mechanical connection between the rear wheel and the valve train. I suspect pneumatic valves would be cut off by the rev limiter, but I'm guessing here.

Pneumatic just refers to the method of actuation for returning the valves back to closed position. Pneumatic mechanism replaces the spring that's all.

There is still a direct mechanical link between the crankshaft and the valves via either all gears or a chain, and the chamshafts.

If you stopped the pneumatic actuation it would be the same as removing the spring in a normal non-pneumatic engine. In other words the valves would stay open and... kapow.

The RG250 did not have a rev limiter. Virtually every modern four stoke does (I am trying to think of one that does not). You cannot over rev them (unless you set the rev limit too high or it fails)

The Motogp bikes have slipper clutches so the riders can go back through the gears as quickly as they like and not lock the rear wheel well alone over rev the engine.

So Ben could not do ANYTHING to make the engine fail whilst riding.

The only things I can think of to destroy a MotoGP engine would be to be not riding it (sitting still) and revving the engine so that it would overheat (no air going through the radiator) or laying on its side (no oil going where it has to). The latter can damage the engine so that it fails later - such as the next day in a race...

The simple fact is, when a rider has a run of problems, we look for some systemic or organisational issue.
But when he has an occasional problem interspersed with success, we don't start casting suspicion. It's down to our own perceptions.
Let's look at the case (no pun intended) in point - Casey Stoner and the Ducati.
Wins interspersed with crashes. Nobody around the world, not the least Ducati, went looking for a solution to a problem, because for them there was no problem.
In truth, of course, the delicious skills of one C. Stoner masked the deficiencies in a race bike the was spiralling downwards in terms of performance. That's not to say that Stoner didn't know there was a problem - the commentary is plentiful in regard to his requests for them to fix the issues, but unfortunately the Ducati team were of the opinion (because they were posting semi-regular wins) that there was no problem.

I suspect the same is with Spies - the occasional reasonable result has masked some quality control/engineering issues in his team and finally he's having a run of outs that finally exposes some latent problems. No conspiracy, no Mulder exiting his room (apartment #42) with the meaning of life to hand. No Scully wandering around the pits with a smoking gun (or spanners). Look to his overworked mechanics and race engineers for your immediate answers.

But if you want to find the smoking gun, go back to DORNA. Dumb decisions made without apparently workshopping the possible outcomes.......
The "one bike rule". Did anyone at DORNA ever actually try to envisage all the possible scenarios from this decision and see where the risks were??? It would appear not, instead it would appear that, like so many sporting codes pitching at the TV markets, the decisions were made as knee-jerk reactions to a set of external stimuli.

In fact, it's more like "House" than "X-Files". In House the doctors react to a set of stimuli and start on a course of treatment that ends up having unexpected consequences, and nearly kills the patient.
DORNA = House's junior doctors
MotoGP = Patient
Blind Freddie could have foreseen that the one bike rule would put tremendous pressure on already overworked race teams. Fact is, riders damage bikes, race teams have to fix them and get them on track sometimes in incredibly short timeframes.
And we are somehow surprised that riders who crash a bit end up with other failures???

But more to the point - the one-bike rule puts riders at risk when bikes are reassembled under such pressures.
How the *&%$ did DORNA not see that as a potential risk? Or if they did, are we then saying they accepted the risk to rider safety?

Sorry, in my post above I mixed current state and future state.
Current state = more than one bike but teams often opt to repair the #1 race bike rather than swapping to the #2 chassis.
Future state = one bike and all risks attendant with that.....

Jingoistic: fanatical patriotism. And it's Texas, which appears to be its own country, I largely refer to. Edwards has an obsession with the military, and weapons. "support our troops" symbolism has gotten ridiculous. If he (edwards) donates the proceeds from his his military insignia helmets to the limbless soldiers, then I'd be impressed. Otherwise, it's all talk and marketing from a person who's only sacrifice is deciding whether to be a pro golfer or motorcycle racer. Slapping a flag sticker on my bike means nothing.

Spies may have a dry sense of humor, so dry I've never seen it. All I hear when he talks is the usual listing of sponsors, just like I hear from everyone coming out of an AMA background. If I hear any more "thanks to the monster team" pablum I'm going to puke.
You know what killed world motorcycle racing? Leased bikes, no prize money, and the requirement riders bring sponsorship.

Were they not being shown to Steve Rapp? I have much respect for Rapp, but the way he held up Lorenzo was inexcusable.
Congrats to Pedrosa for a well run race, and kudos to Casey Stoner for riding hard with injuries.