Riders Cup Indianapolis - It's a team thing.
The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup Team arrived in Indianapolis on Tuesday evening ready to do battle with the Red Bull AMA U.S. Team for the Riders Cup on Sunday. With 10 riders in each team the two squads represent the best of the World's teenage racers and will be out to show which of the parallel Rookies Cups contains the best of the best.
With the MotoGP Cup having wrapped up at Brno in August it is 16 year old American JD Beach that heads the visiting team having clinched the Cup in the Czech Republic. He is well supported by his season long rival Luis Salom; the 17 year old Spaniard won 4 of this year's Cup races and ended the season just 4 points behind Beach.
Men on form are 16 year old Norwegian Sturla Fagerhaug, 3rd in the Cup and the winner of the final race plus South African Mathew Scholtz who won the Saturday race in Brno and turned 16 the day the team landed in the US. Equally likely to do well is 17 year old Briton Matthew Hoyle, he took a 3rd and a 2nd at Brno plus the lap record for the 2nd year running.
Having raced in Europe for 2 season's now and having at least seen the Indianapolis track Beach has a good idea of just how the circuit might best match the experience of the 2 teams. "It is a Grand Prix style track that was first built for Formula One and that is what we are used to racing on in Europe even if now it is being run backwards and a bit modified. I don't think it has any real surprises for our team and I think we'll have the usual guys running up front, Salom, Hoyle, Sturla and I think we'll be mixing it with the best of them, Hayden (Gillim) and Benny (Solis)."
It was Salom who summed up the feeling for the team as they enjoyed a day Go-Karting as the best way to shake off the jet-lag and get acclimatised on Wednesday. "Of course we all want to win the race ourselves but more than that we understand it is about the team and taking home the trophy. We are going to work together and I know from the hard races we have had this year we have great riders in our team. We know that coming here and racing against those guys at home will not be easy, we don't know much about them but by the time we get to Sunday we will. I think we can do it."
Missing from the MotoGP team is 14 year old Japanes Daijiro Hiura who is kept away by school commitments and replaced by Markus Reiterberger, the 14 year old German, who finished 11th in the MotoGP Cup.
The Riders Cup race will be run before the 125, 250 and MotoGP races on Sunday at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. The race is scored according to normal World Championship points and the team scoring the most points will then hold the newly cast Riders Cup until the rematch at Valencia on Saturday October 25th.
Just as determined to be the trophy holders are the AMA U.S. Rookies Team headed by their Cup leader 13 year old Californian Benny Solis and backed up by 13 year old Hayden Gillim from Kentucky and 16 year old Leandro Mercado from Argentina.
The US based Rookies have the advantage of having tried the track before as they had a wet test session at the Brickyard earlier in the year. The European team have some members in their second year as Rookies so that redresses the balance. Both squads will have the same track time over the weekend and while there is a round of the Red Bull AMA U.S. Cup on Saturday the MotoGP Rookies are included so with 31 starters it will be the biggest Rookies grid ever.
- Peter Clifford -
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