Published: July 05, 2008 11:13 pm            

Sunday Special: Lesser-known motorcycle racing on horizon for IMS

INDIANAPOLIS — When the Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced in 2007 that it would host a MotoGP Grand Prix in 2008, it was easy to gauge the reaction from all but moto-racing diehards.

MotoWhat?

Because Grand Prix-style motorcycle racing has been a niche sport in the United States, the education process for the IMS to draw fans to its Sept. 14 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix is daunting.

Even the media need to catch up.

The track hosted a MotoGP 101 press conference with 1993 world champion Kevin Schwantz, now a Red Bull rider coach, on Wednesday. Many of the questions weren’t so much 101 as they were grade school-like as far as understanding the basics of the sport. Media ignorance reflects the mystery that is MotoGP for much of the ticket-buying public at large.

Though its profile is low — most MotoGP races are carried on a tape-delayed basis on the pay cable Speed Network — MotoGP has marketability going for it beyond the curiosity factor.

Unlike Formula One, which has had just two American riders in the last 15 years, there are three Americans currently riding in the top tier of MotoGP, including 2006 world champion Nicky Hayden of Owensboro, Ky. (Colin Edwards and John Hopkins are the others). Italy is the only nation with more all-time MotoGP class wins than the United States.

“There’s three things we can use that are great things we can use to make it accessible,” IMS President and COO Joie Chitwood said. “There’s fantastic manufacturer support, the competition is second to none, and the fact that there’s successful Americans in the event will help us promote.”

The track is hoping that fans will recognize those factors to make the race of success, but there’s still a major education process to get that done.

How does it work?

If you’re thinking that MotoGP is the motorcycle-racing equivalent of Formula One, that’s a close approximation.

MotoGP bikes are not street legal, nor are they based on any street stock, they are purpose-built bikes made solely for the sake of racing. There are five engine manufacturers — Japanese makes Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda and Italian company Ducati. The bikes are shod by either Bridgestone or Michelin tires. Engines are four-strokes, a recent change to keep speeds in control, as through most of its history, Grand Prix motorcycles were two-strokes.

Like other world-class series, riders come from all over the world. Hayden and defending champion Casey Stoner of Australia are joined on the grid by five-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, a flamboyant rider nicknamed “The Doctor”.

Rossi is without question the face of MotoGP worldwide and is so respected for his racing talent that he was once considered a possibility to take Michael Schumacher’s seat on the Formula One Ferrari team when Schumacher announced his retirement in 2006.

IMS is one of 18 MotoGP circuits. The other 17 circuits are purpose-built road courses, which makes the IMS unique on the calendar. Street courses and ovals are not safe as MotoGP circuits need ample runoff area to ensure rider safety should an accident occur, which is why the IMS had to redesign its road course to accommodate the series as the walls posed a danger in its F1 configuration.

Some of the circuits overlap with current or former Formula One tracks (Spain’s Barcelona and Jerez, Portugal’s Estoril, Malaysia’s Sepang, China’s Shanghai, among others), but most MotoGP tracks are designed for motorcycle racing.

Race day

Unlike the other racing series that visit the IMS, a MotoGP race day consists of three main races. Featured are the three engine classes of MotoGP — 125cc, 250cc, and the main event, MotoGP, which features bikes with displacement of no more than 800cc.

The 125cc series is limited to riders 25-and-under. “Under” often being the operative word. A 15-year-old rider, Scott Redding of Great Britain, won the 125cc British Grand Prix on June 22, the youngest winner ever. The 250cc class is akin to the Indy Pro Series or the NASCAR Nationwide Series, it is the springboard to the elite MotoGP class.

A MotoGP race is a sprint race, there are no regular pit stops scheduled, and a typical race lasts about 45 minutes. There are 28 laps scheduled for the MotoGP class on the 2.6-mile Indianapolis GP course. Each of the riders in the MotoGP test session last week had best times in the 1 minute, 43 second range on the IMS circuit.

Because there are no pit stops, set-up and tire choice are crucial. Engineers obviously have the biggest role in set-up, but riders play the biggest role in tire choice, using test sessions to get a feel for the track. If the wrong tire choice is made, riders often pay dearly late in the race when a poor choice can drastically slow them down.

The 18 riders in the MotoGP class race line up in six rows of three bikes apiece for a standing start. The race goes on rain or shine. Points are awarded from first to 15th place.

Once the race begins, the rider becomes part of the aerodynamic package. The famous image of MotoGP-style racing is the rider leaning down to the nth degree of the racing surface while negotiating a turn. What is less known is that the rider is also part of the stopping power of the bike, with the body in an upright position creating drag to slow the bike down before going into a corner.

Both demonstrate how physical riding the bikes is. On a long straight, the bikes can reach speeds of over 200 miles per hour. The record is 213 miles per hour, set by Stoner in the Chinese Grand Prix on May 4, a circuit that has a long straight similar to Indianapolis.

“When the wind hits your chest at 200 miles per hour, it’s quite a feat to hang on. You have to stop the motorcycle, make some downshifts, and get the bike into turn 1 here at Indianapolis. The transition from side-to-side on a motorcycle calls for your lower body to be strong. Physically getting on the brakes is probably two or three G-forces, maybe more, trying to get the bike stopped in a straight line to a really slow portion of the race track. It’s very physical,” Schwantz said.

Like any other form of racing, accidents are inevitable, though they don’t often occur via contact. The majority of accidents occur when a rider misjudges a corner or leans too far into a turn, leading to a so-called low-side accident. In this case, riders are trained to slide on their backs and are protected from injury by their crash suit and large run-off areas to avoid contact with any wall-like surfaces.

The risk of injury is much worse for high-side accidents when a rider goes over the top of his bike. These accidents are more rare than the low-sides.

Challenges

In 1909, the IMS was designed for motorcycles, but the standards of safety are obviously light years away from traditional oval track racing. IMS has revamped its road course to make it up to spec for MotoGP.

To incorporate the front straightaway at Indy, the wall is going to come into play on one of the turns, which will be a change for the riders. The circuit has been designed so the Turn 16 re-entry to the straightaway is low speed and the exit apexes as far away from the outside of the front straightaway wall as possible. It has been approved by MotoGP’s sanctioning body, the FIM.

The only other MotoGP that has a wall at the apex of a turn that comes as close to the racing line is Turn 1 at Brno, site of the Czech Grand Prix. The wall got Suzuki test rider Ben Spies’ attention.

“Every area is fine for me, but the last wall is really close,” said Spies, a Longview, Texas rider and former AMA Superbike champion, who made his MotoGP debut at the British GP in June as a fill-in for injured rider Loris Capirossi. “It’s going to be different for the European guys being next to a wall. I think the only way you’re going to get into it is if you have a mechanical problem or you get into it with another rider. We should be OK with it, though I could see an issue if it rains.”

Spies gave the overall feel of the track a passing grade. He turned 224 laps during last week’s test session.

“I really wasn’t too happy about how the track was [with grip] and some spots, but it gets better every time out. There’s a couple of little changes once we come back here, but it’s really just reference points. It’s hard when there’s only six bikes to lay down rubber, but I’m comfortable and having fun out there,” Spies said.

On the ticket-selling front, there’s more than just educating area fans about the sport.

Just as in the early days of the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix, the Red Bull Indianapolis GP is in September competing with the NFL. Unlike 2000 to 2003, when F1 raced in September, the Indianapolis Colts are more of a potential drain on ticket sales than they were in the early part of the decade. The Colts play at Minnesota during the MotoGP event on Sept. 14.

Also unlike F1, MotoGP is going to be much more dependent on local ticket sales. F1 at Indianapolis drew many foreign fans to Indianapolis, which isn’t as likely for MotoGP.

Chitwood is confident the track can overcome the challenges. To further that cause, many of the seats at the track are being sold at a $75 general admission rate, which gives a ticket buyer access to all three days of the race weekend.

Chitwood is counting on the cache of the product to make motorcycles a long-term success at Indy.

“The concept of running motorcycles at over 200 miles per hour is so unique. I think the desire to want to see and hear that is so unique. Even if fans never understand the nuances that’s OK too, hopefully the appeal is so unique that will suck them in too,” Chitwood said. “Yet, we don’t want to take for granted that people know who we are or that they know motorcycle racing. We want to provide opportunities for the casual fan to say, ‘That’s intriguing, I might want to try that out.’ It’s challenging because there’s an assumption everyone knows who we are, and I don’t think that’s the way to think. [MotoGP] is a chance to bring in new customers and new fans. We don’t want to leave any stones unturned to make that happen.”

        

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