Racetrack Insider - News and Views of the Motorsports Industry from Insiders Drew Patey and Buddy Judy

Lorenzo Takes MotoGP at Indy

Jorge Lorenzo dominated the Indianapolis MotoGP on a day when main rivals Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa both threw away their chances with crashes. The result means that the Yamaha rider has now has cut in half the disadvantage he had from championship leader and team-mate Rossi to 25 points. Lorenzo kept his head cool and first witnessed pole-sitter Pedrosa dropping his Honda from the lead on lap four of the 28-lap race. The former world champion Pedrosa managed to rejoin the track in last place and set off to salvage some points, which in the end he did by ending up tenth. That gave the lead to Rossi but Lorenzo overtook him on lap nine, just one lap before the Italian lost the front of his Yamaha M1 bike while entering turn 2. The seven-time champion Rossi, too, managed to rejoin, but the crash damaged his throttle and forced him to retire within two laps. From then on, Lorenzo had a comfortable lead of around 10 seconds over Alex de Angelis, which he maintained to the end of the race. The last podium place went to Nicky Hayden, who held off pressure from Honda's Andrea Dovizioso to score his best ever result for Ducati in front of his home crowd, Hayden is from Owensboro, KY. Keith Miller and the crew from the Greenwood branch were on hand this weekend entertaining a number of Safety-Kleen customers and watching an exciting event - good work guys.