Motourage

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd is delighted to announce that current Yamaha Tech 3 rider Ben Spies will move to the Factory Team for the 2011 MotoGP season.

Lin Jarvis, Ben Spies and Herve Poncharal at Indy

The 26-year-old American, who won the World Superbike Championship with Yamaha in 2009, is enjoying an impressive first season in MotoGP. He is currently the leading rookie and the top satellite rider, lying seventh in the championship.

“We’re delighted that Ben will join the Factory Team for next season,” said Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing. “Ben has shown great promise in his first ten MotoGP races. He has learnt rapidly and recorded strong results, including a well-deserved podium finish at Silverstone – impressive for someone in their first full season.

“We believe that Ben will be a future title contender and that he will be a good fit with our team. His mission next year will be to continue learning, consistently challenge for podium places and try to win some races. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Herve Poncharal and the Tech 3 Team for taking care of Ben this season and for giving him such good training for the years ahead. I hope that he will repay them by getting some more podium results in the second half of this season and helping them to secure top satellite team status at the end of this year.”

Spies added “My first year in MotoGP has been a great learning curve and for that I have to thank Herve Poncharal, all the team at Tech 3 and especially my American mechanics who have stuck by me throughout this great journey so far. Having previously been to only four of the ten tracks to date, I have to be pleased with where I am and with having achieved my first podium so soon. I’m especially pleased that Yamaha have recognized the potential in me and given me the opportunity to step up to the Factory Team so early in my GP career. I believe that by working closely with the Yamaha staff and my mechanics we will be able to help develop the M1 and make the next step of challenging for regular podiums, followed by future championships.”

This is a twitter-inspired blog post. The YouTube clip that started it all can be found HERE.  The link to that clip was originally tweeted by Alphonso and commented on by Bridget.  Bridget’s comment on Alphonso’s link was a simple “Just what I needed right now to get me through the rest of the day,” which was a stark contrast to one of the comments posted on YouTube: “would be boring to go like 1 mile to see 15 motorbikes for like 0.30 seconds.”  Those two philosophies pretty much sum up the difference between motorcycle racing fans and everyone else.

I’m a motorcycle racing fan.  I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a motorcycle racing fan. Like most people reading this blog, to me there’s nothing like the smell of an engine and the heat of the asphalt.  A paddock pass, an event program and a hot dog and I’m good to go.  It doesn’t matter if the sun’s heating everything up to plus-100-degree temperatures or a monsoon is threatening to flood the entire infield, nothing beats a day at the track – except a weekend at the track.  Friends who don’t get it have asked me, “How can you spend all that money, walk around all day in the heat, finally find a place to sit and then watch the bikes go past for one second.  Those people are the unlucky ones who’ve never experienced that one second.

It’s that one second that makes racing. To you and me, sitting in the grandstands, it’s the blink of an eye.  To the racer on the track, it’s a lifetime. Races are won and careers are ended in one second of speed. Records – and bones – are broken within that one second of speed.  Some of us are lucky enough to live that one second on the track, but regardless of whether we’re watching, pressed up against the fence, or piloting a 220bhp GP machine with our knees and elbows dragging the pavement, we’re all connected by that one second of speed.

Of course, there’s so much more to a race weekend.  It’s the entire experience that draws us to it, whether it’s an amateur event or MotoGP.  It’s the atmosphere: Friends, vendors, bikes. The sights, the smells, the sounds.  It’s practice, warm-ups and qualifying. But all of that is disguised anticipation. Anticipation of that one second.  The poor guy who has already decided that walking a mile to see 15 bikes go by would be boring doesn’t understand that most of us would walk much farther to watch far fewer bikes go by.  Those guys on the Isle of Man TT course at Keppel Gate near the 34^th didn’t take the party bus up there.  The hundreds of fans at the top of the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca didn’t catch a ride. They’re there for that one second, and they do whatever it takes to get there for that one second.

There’s a lot of talk on Twitter about this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP, and the discussions are evidence of how the desire for that one second has the ability to remove any trace of rational thought from a person’s mind.  There’s talk about missing work, missing bills. Putting in 16 hours of drive time between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening.  Sleeping in cars.  Normal people don’t think like this, do they? Cycle World’s Peter Egan once wrote “Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague desire for something salty,” and how right he is.

Whether you’re a racer or a fan – or both – common sense seems to go out the window when you’re in search of that one second of speed. In the grand scheme of the universe, one second is meaningless. It’s a microscopic moment lost somewhere in an eon. But, when you’re in search of speed, that one second is the most important moment in the world.  So, if you’re thinking about heading up to Indianapolis this weekend, ask yourself one simple question.  Are all the sacrifices necessary to get there this weekend worth one thing, that one second of speed?

For the second year, Indianapolis, Indiana will be the #2 U.S. stop on the MotoGP calendar, and, unlike their Laguna event, this time they’ll be bringing the two-strokes.

Here’s the tentative schedule for the 2009 Indianapolis Grand Prix:

Fri, Aug 28 PRACTICE DAY
125cc Free Practice 1 12:40-1:40 p.m.
MotoGP Free Practice 1 1:55-2:55 p.m.
250cc Free Practice 1 3:10-4:10 p.m.

 Sat, Aug 29 QUALIFYING DAY
125cc Free Practice 2 9-9:40 a.m.
MotoGP Free Practice 2 9:55-10:55 a.m.
250cc Free Practice 2 11:10 a.m.-12:10 p.m.
125cc Qualifying 1-1:40 p.m.
MotoGP Qualifying 1:55-2:55 p.m.
250cc Qualifying 3:10-3:55 p.m.

Sun, Aug 30 RACE DAY
125cc Warm Up 9:40-10 a.m.
250cc Warm Up 10:10-10:30 a.m.
MotoGP Warm Up 10:40-11 a.m.
125cc Race (23 laps) Noon
250cc Race (26 laps) 1:15 p.m.
MotoGP Race (28 laps) 3 p.m.