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Indianapolis GP Named Best Grand Prix by MotoGP

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At the conclusion of each GP season, an awards ceremony is held to celebrate the year’s champions, crowning the top riders in each category, the top manufacturers, and even the top venue for the season.

This year, the honors of the latter went to familiar locale, as the Red Bull Indianapolis GP round was named the “Best Grand Prix” of the 2014 season, making it the first North American round to receive such an honor.

Selection criteria for the award included consideration of the venue, promotion, and overall facility operations. For the 2014 race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway once again repaved its infield section, making alterations to several turns in order to facilitate passing and adding to the track’s overall consistency. In response to those efforts, the new configuration was widely praised by the GP competitors.

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MotoAmerica’s Provisional 2015 Racing Calendar Released

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There is positive momentum around America’s new MotoAmerica series, which will takeover duties from DMG and AMA Pro Road Racing, starting next season. We have already seen the series’ new class structure, which makes significant steps to parallel what’s going on in the World Superbike Championship.

Today, we see MotoAmerica’s efforts on its racing schedule, a hot-ticket item after DMG’s five, then six, race schedule this season. American fans should rejoice, as eight races are on the calendar, which reads like a greatest hits album of American race tracks.

Supporting both American grand prix at COTA and Indy, as well as the WSBK round at Laguna Seca, the provisional MotoAmerica calendar includes, Road Atlanta, VIR, Road America, Barber, and NJMP. West Coast racing fans are still S.O.L. though, with only one race west of The Rockies on the docket thus far.

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MotoGP

What’s Bigger: Indy Motor Speedway or Star Wars?

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Since we are a bunch of stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herders, it seems only appropriate that we conclude this already slightly absurd string of articles about the size of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the only way we really know how: using equally absurd Star Wars references.

So, in the narrow overlap that occurs in the Venn diagram of MotoGP factoids and outright nerdiness, we ask you to ponder which is bigger: the IMS oval or the Star Wars universe’s iconic spaceship, the Imperial Star Destroyer?Not the local bulk cruisers mind you, I’m talking about the big Corellian ships now.

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MotoGP

What’s Bigger: Indy Motor Speedway or The Vatican?

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Yesterday we wondered how many college football stadiums we could fit inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, and today we tackle a different kind of religion (tackle, get it!) in our quest to fathom how big the facilities are here at IMS. So with that in mind, what could be more appropriate than a small city…Vatican City.

The Vatican is is the smallest internationally recognized independent state, by both area (110 acres) and population (842). Can this small country fit inside The Racing Capital of the World? Continue forth to find out.

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MotoGP

What’s Bigger: Indy Motor Speedway or Big 10 Football?

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MotoGP’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix is this weekend, in case you were unaware. As such, Asphalt & Rubber is live from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week, the racing capital of the world.

While the GP riders may not be huge fans of the IMS infield circuit (we’ll see if that opinion changes, now that Indy has repaved and reworked several turns), everyone is in agreement that IMS itself is an impressive facility.

A massive racing complex, it is hard to explain how big the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is to someone who hasn’t been here…so we thought we would try a new approach over the next few days. First up, Big 10 football. The Hoosier State is known best perhaps for basketball, as a member of the Big 10 Conference, the University of Indiana et al have some mammoth buildings are their disposal.

It’s too easy to realize that Indianapolis Motor Speedway is bigger than say Memorial Stadium, but how many Big 10 football fields do you think can fit in the IMS oval? Make your mind up now…no cheating.

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MotoGP

A Day-By-Day Guide to the Events at the Indianapolis GP

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With MotoGP about to get back on track after the short summer break, bike fans will start to gather at Indianapolis. Although the action revolves around the three Grand Prix classes on track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there is plenty more to be doing in and around the track and downtown Indianapolis.

The highlights on Friday are the Riders for Health auction, where memorabilia and work by some of the top MotoGP photographers go on sale, to support MotoGP’s adopted charity, and the Indy Mile, at the State Fairground.

Saturday’s highlights include the Cycle World Q&A session, where you get to put your questions to the US magazine’s staff writers, including motorcycle genius Kevin Cameron, and a farewell Q&A session with Colin Edwards at his final home Grand Prix. The weekend naturally culminates with the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sunday.

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Marc Marquez: “It Was a Great Surprise”

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Thanks to the good folks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Asphalt & Rubber recently got a chance to participate in a teleconference with an up-and-coming racer by the name of Marc Marquez. For those of you who haven’t heard about this talented Honda rider, he just won a little Spanish racing series called MotoGP — and apparently is the youngest rider ever to do so.

Taking questions from American journalists, the young Marquez shared with us his insights about winning the championship in his rookie season, riding on the factory-spec Honda RC213V, competing against riders like Jorge Lorenzo, and during the season when he thought he could actually be the MotoGP World Champion.

As always, Marc was his usual enthusiastic self, and we think it comes through in the transcript for the teleconference.

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MotoGP

Here’s the New Configuration of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Infield Track for MotoGP

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For 2014, Indianapolis Motor Speedway has reconfigured its infield track for its hosting of the Indianapolis GP for the MotoGP Championship — this much you should already know. I won’t rehash details, but the three-bullet primer to the changes afoot is that the track is slightly longer, has improved passing zones in three reworked areas (highlighted in yellow), and will be made of one consistent asphalt layer.

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MotoGP Returns to Indianapolis for 2014 & Maybe More

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Despite the posturing ahead of this year’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, which seemed to suggest that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would exercise an option to forgo hosting the 2014 MotoGP Championship, Dorna and IMS have come to an accord on keeping the Indianapolis GP for next season, with a date in mid-August still to be announced.

Keeping three American races on the calendar for at least the immediate future, IMS also announced that it was working with MotoGP on a “long-term future” to keep the premier class coming back to Indianapolis, which bodes well for the US keeping its dominant role in hosting the MotoGP Championship.

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Marc Marquez: “I’m Surprised, If I’m Honest”

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This morning, Asphalt & Rubber and other members of the English-speaking press were treated to a teleconference with Marc Marquez, which was hosted by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Currently leading the MotoGP Championship by 16 points, Marquez down-played his chances for carrying that lead to the end of the season, with the same boyish enthusiasm that he has shown throughout the season.

Talking about his success at The Brickyard in the Moto2 class, Marquez could be a dark horse for the upcoming Indianapolis GP, which has been dominated by the Repsol Honda machines the past three years; and if there is one thing that is certain about the young Spaniard, you can’t count him out on race day.

With IMS providing us with a transcript of the teleconference, you can read Marquez’s response to a wide range of subjects, all after the jump.

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