Day 19

Indianapolis, IN

Indianapolis Speedway - Race Day

Race day! After going to get my Yamaha souvenir cap for my collection, I pretty much stayed in my seat which gave a great view of turns 10-16. Plenty of action in front of us, including Dani Pedrosa's spill.
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I chatted with this man, Jim Lloyd, about the Grand Nationals I had attended the night before. Turned out that he was the owner/sponsor of two of the bikes being raced... the Aprilia and the Ducati (which was being ridden by Larry Pegram). He gave me interesting insight into the sport as well as updating me on the status of the rider who had been injured in the final event (broken hip).

The firetruck was ready for the race. No one wants to think of accidents, but emergency contingencies are essential to a safe race. I greeted the guys and told them I hoped they had an uneventful day.

I'm glad I visited the Yamaha tent one last time because I had a chance to see Eric Bostrom (#32) who had been my first "favourite rider" when I first was introduced to professional racing and in particular, the AMA race circuit. Eric is no longer racing and he gave me an update on what he IS doing now. Evidently, the Boz Brothers line of clothing, hats, and other neat paraphenalia is more of a pet project. I hadn't realized until we talked about it but the (old) pictures you see of racers and bikes on the line are all pictures of family members such as his Dad and Uncle and also of their friends. From that, I learned that his #32 came from his Dad's number (#23).
Here's one of the hats... Left to Right: Dave Bostrom, Joe Leanord, Dick Mann, and Dick Dorstein. Look the names up... these men are very accomplished.

Eric's main focus has been in Brazil where he's been taking care of family interests in a new project down there. He's been spending a lot of time down there. During his last year of racing, he said that his focus was being divided and he thought it was time to give up racing for a while.
We also talked about the flat track races from the night before. He had more details about the rider who had been hurt. He said that the fellow had indeed been pitched over the wall with his bike and it was amazing that he hadn't been hurt worse. Evidently, if a light pole hadn't been in his way, he might have even escaped the broken hip. Eric thought the crash was the worst he's EVER seen.
I asked about race starts. He's ridden both flat track and superbike. He says the chaos at the start is common to both BUT... in flat track, everyone wants to be in exactly the SAME spot of dirt at the first turn whereas in superbike, there is more pavement to work with. The second difference is a little more subtle... in road racing, the handlebars are lower and your elbows are much more tucked in. Therefore you can "nudge" but not really interfere with other riders. In flat track, the handlebars are flat and your elbows are spread. Eric says you can end up hooking into another rider and the result is that both of you will end up going down.
Here is the actual TZ750 that Kenny Roberts rode in his exhibition laps the previous night at the Grand Nationals.

I'm not sure where it usually resides but it's a museum piece, for sure.

This is my new friend, Steve. Steve looked out for me. He knew I wanted to add to my collection of Yamaha visors from Moto GPs in the US and he made sure I knew when there were out so I could go get one!

Sitting behind me in Section H (I was J but it was the way seats are numbered at Indy) was Robyn and Travis from North Bay, Ontario. They were a nice young couple. Turned out Robyn and I had a bit in common. She had worked on a professional embroidery machine and now had one of her own similar to mine. She, too, likes to create.

The 125 race was very good. Results were as follows:
1st - Pol ESPARGARO - Derbi - SPA
2nd - Bradley SMITH - Aprilia - GBR
3rd - Simone CORSI - Aprilia - ITA
The 250 race was quite exciting. Results:
1st - Marco SIMONCELLI - Gilera - ITA
2nd - Hiroshi AOYAMA - Honda - JPN
3rd - Alvaro BAUTISTA - Aprilia - SPA
The Moto GP race was a bit of the disappointment because MY favourite went down as well as another top rider, Dani Pedrosa. Here are the results:
1 - Jorge LORENZO - Yamaha - SPA
2 - Alex DE ANGELIS - Honda - RSM
3 - Nicky HAYDEN - Ducati - USA
This is a picture of Dani Pedrosa, trying to get back on his bike and rejoin the race. When Rossi went down, his throttle was damaged and he didn't finish the race. I didn't take photos of the races but I did take videos. Check them out.
Next Day
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	Race day! After going to get my Yamaha souvenir cap for my collection, I pretty much stayed in my seat which gave a great view of turns 10-16. Plenty of action in front of us, including Dani Pedrosa's spill. Return to Main Page
	I chatted with this man, Jim Lloyd, about the Grand Nationals I had attended the night before. Turned out that he was the owner/sponsor of two of the bikes being raced... the Aprilia and the Ducati (which was being ridden by Larry Pegram). He gave me interesting insight into the sport as well as updating me on the status of the rider who had been injured in the final event (broken hip).
	The firetruck was ready for the race. No one wants to think of accidents, but emergency contingencies are essential to a safe race. I greeted the guys and told them I hoped they had an uneventful day.
	I'm glad I visited the Yamaha tent one last time because I had a chance to see Eric Bostrom (#32) who had been my first "favourite rider" when I first was introduced to professional racing and in particular, the AMA race circuit. Eric is no longer racing and he gave me an update on what he IS doing now. Evidently, the Boz Brothers line of clothing, hats, and other neat paraphenalia is more of a pet project. I hadn't realized until we talked about it but the (old) pictures you see of racers and bikes on the line are all pictures of family members such as his Dad and Uncle and also of their friends. From that, I learned that his #32 came from his Dad's number (#23). Here's one of the hats... Left to Right: Dave Bostrom, Joe Leanord, Dick Mann, and Dick Dorstein. Look the names up... these men are very accomplished.
	Eric's main focus has been in Brazil where he's been taking care of family interests in a new project down there. He's been spending a lot of time down there. During his last year of racing, he said that his focus was being divided and he thought it was time to give up racing for a while. We also talked about the flat track races from the night before. He had more details about the rider who had been hurt. He said that the fellow had indeed been pitched over the wall with his bike and it was amazing that he hadn't been hurt worse. Evidently, if a light pole hadn't been in his way, he might have even escaped the broken hip. Eric thought the crash was the worst he's EVER seen. I asked about race starts. He's ridden both flat track and superbike. He says the chaos at the start is common to both BUT... in flat track, everyone wants to be in exactly the SAME spot of dirt at the first turn whereas in superbike, there is more pavement to work with. The second difference is a little more subtle... in road racing, the handlebars are lower and your elbows are much more tucked in. Therefore you can "nudge" but not really interfere with other riders. In flat track, the handlebars are flat and your elbows are spread. Eric says you can end up hooking into another rider and the result is that both of you will end up going down.
	Here is the actual TZ750 that Kenny Roberts rode in his exhibition laps the previous night at the Grand Nationals.
	I'm not sure where it usually resides but it's a museum piece, for sure.
	This is my new friend, Steve. Steve looked out for me. He knew I wanted to add to my collection of Yamaha visors from Moto GPs in the US and he made sure I knew when there were out so I could go get one!
	Sitting behind me in Section H (I was J but it was the way seats are numbered at Indy) was Robyn and Travis from North Bay, Ontario. They were a nice young couple. Turned out Robyn and I had a bit in common. She had worked on a professional embroidery machine and now had one of her own similar to mine. She, too, likes to create.
	The 125 race was very good. Results were as follows: 1st - Pol ESPARGARO - Derbi - SPA 2nd - Bradley SMITH - Aprilia - GBR 3rd - Simone CORSI - Aprilia - ITA The 250 race was quite exciting. Results: 1st - Marco SIMONCELLI - Gilera - ITA 2nd - Hiroshi AOYAMA - Honda - JPN 3rd - Alvaro BAUTISTA - Aprilia - SPA The Moto GP race was a bit of the disappointment because MY favourite went down as well as another top rider, Dani Pedrosa. Here are the results: 1 - Jorge LORENZO - Yamaha - SPA 2 - Alex DE ANGELIS - Honda - RSM 3 - Nicky HAYDEN - Ducati - USA This is a picture of Dani Pedrosa, trying to get back on his bike and rejoin the race. When Rossi went down, his throttle was damaged and he didn't finish the race. I didn't take photos of the races but I did take videos. Check them out. Next Day Return to Main Page