Red Bull Riders Cup MotoGP Rookies Cup Riders vs. AMA Rookies Cup Riders Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana September 14, 2008 Provisional Results (All on KTM RC125 motorcycles and Dunlop tires) (Wet Conditions) 1. Sturla Fabgerhaug, Norway (MotoGP), 14 laps, 28:56.318 2. Mathew Scholtz, South Africa (MotoGP), -3.478 seconds 3. Matthew Hoyle, Great Britain (MotoGP), -11.298 4. Jakub Kornfeil, Czech Republic (MotoGP), -16.974 5. Luis Salom, Spain (MotoGP), -19.330 6. Florian Marino, France (MotoGP), -35.105 7. J.D. Beach, USA (MotoGP), -35.157 8. Jake Gagne, USA (AMA), -35.591 9. Benny Solis, USA (AMA), -35.926 10. Huntley Nash, USA (AMA), -36.205 11. Nelson Major, France (MotoGP), -36.230 12. Austin DeHaven, USA (AMA), -36.516 13. Markus Reiterberger, Germany (MotoGP), -43.993 14. Daniel Ruiz, Spain (MotoGP), -55.562 15. Tomas Puerta, Colombia (AMA), -60.737 16. Bryce Prince, USA (AMA), -60.822 17. Hayden Gillim, USA (AMA), -2 laps, DNF, crash 18. Leandro Mercado, Argentina (AMA), -5 laps, DNF, crash 19. Joey Pascarella, USA (AMA), -6 laps, DNF, crash 20. Emerson Connor, Canada (AMA), -10 laps, DNF, crash More, from a press release issued by Red Bull: MotoGP Rookies’ take home the Cup. The Red Bull Riders Cup was seized by the visiting MotoGP Rookies Team as they swept the leaderboard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In tricky damp to wet conditions 16 year old Norwegian Sturla Fagerhaug rode superbly to head home 16 year old South African Mathew Scholtz and 17 year old Briton Matthew Hoyle. The MotoGP Team won by 114 points to 26 as the first man home in the AMA U.S. Rookies Team was 8th place Jake Gagne, the 15 year old Californian. The result may have been very different had not 13 year old Hayden Gillim from Georgia crashed out while battling with Fagerhaug for the lead. “It was really difficult conditions,” said Fagerhaug. “We had rain tyres on because there was a bit of rain at the start but the track was dry in most places and in those conditions the tyres are soon sliding at every corner. It doesn’t feel good at all. Then, about half way through the race it rained and that was better actually, the tyres felt good and were working well.” It was the rain that caught Gillim out because in the dry he had stormed through from a poor start to take the lead in the most dramatic fashion, taking something like 8 bike lengths out of the leading MotoGP Rookies into the fast left hander off the front straight. “I’m a dirt tracker and I just switched into dirt mode and carried as much speed in there as I dared, it was moving around a bit but that’s OK,” said Gillim. “I saw what he did,” said Fagerhaug. “He was just crazy… pure luck,” he joked and truly the Europeans had no answer as Gillim opened up an almost three second lead in as many laps. Then the rain came and the lead was gone. “I could see that he slowed a lot,” said Fagerhaug. “I tried to keep my pace going and caught him quite fast.” Passed by Fagerhaug, Gillim was also under pressure from Scholtz. “I had a terrible start,” said the South African. “But then I managed to get through to race with the guys. I was right with Hayden and Sturla when Hayden crashed and I had to brake. So I lost a bit of time and then I just couldn’t make it up. It was pretty slippery and I so nearly crashed, I was on the grass once.” Hoyle’s third place was secure in the last third of the race and the Briton was forced to be sensible about the situation. “I made a good start, got the hole-shot but I wasn’t in a hurry. I wanted to see how much grip there was and it was OK when a couple of guys went past. Then, when I really wanted to go with them, I just made a couple of mistakes and they got a gap on me. I realised there was no-one behind and just had to bring it home.” Newly crowned MotoGP Cup winner 16 year old JD Beach from Washington State had a torrid week, struck low by illness his bike bogged on the line but then he did a brilliant job of fighting through the pack to grab 7th place just ahead of the first of the AMA U.S. riders thus putting the Red Bull Riders Cup firmly in his team’s hands. The Cup goes with the winning team to Europe and AMA U.S. Rookies will have another chance to claim it on October 25th at Valencia when the season closes with the final Grand Prix. More, from a press release issued by Indianapolis Motor Speedway: RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP PRESS CONFERENCE Red Bull Riders Cup Sturla Fagerhaug, Mathew Scholtz, Matthew Hoyle, Jacob Gagne,Hayden Gillim, Gustl Auinger, Kevin Schwantz — Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 MODERATOR: Welcome to the Red Bull Riders Cup press conference, everyone. We had a fantastic race out there today. The MotoGP Rookies Cup Team won. The final tally was 114 to 26 points, so they take the Cup home back to Europe. Let’s hear a round of applause. (Applause) In third place today, we had Matthew Hoyle. He had a good solid race through the tough weather conditions. Tell us about your event. MATTHEW HOYLE: Yeah, I got away good on the start, got the hole shot. But on the first few laps, I just took it easy to get into the race to see what the conditions were like. But then I knew I had the pace to keep with the front guys, but a few mistakes let them just get away a little bit, and I lost the tow and just wasn’t able to catch them at the end. MODERATOR: You were able to get the podium spot, you kind of had a little bit of a gap on everyone, it seemed like you were able to consolidate your race. HOYLE: Yeah, at the end I knew I had the gap on the people behind, so there was no way I was going to catch the front guys, so I just held my pace and brought it home. MODERATOR: Thanks, Matthew. Matthew is from England, everyone. In second place we had Mathew Scholtz from South Africa. Was that a pretty good birthday present today to get the second-place finish in the race? MATHEW SCHOLTZ: Yeah, that’s the best one I have ever had. MODERATOR: You turned 16 yesterday, that’s correct? SCHOLTZ: Five days ago. MODERATOR: Oh, five days ago, OK. Tell us about the last part of the race when it started raining harder and it was three riders going for the lead there. SCHOLTZ: It was really hard because we were all like tightly bunched together. But then Hayden high-sided, and then I had to brake and instead I pulled quite a big gap. MODERATOR: Thanks a lot. Our winner today was Sturla Fagerhaug from Norway. Can you tell us about your win and how excited are you to take the victory? STURLA FAGERHAUG: I got a good start and stayed second for a lap or so, and then I got up to first and later on I dropped quite many positions back because it was, the track was almost dry and every corner the tires were sliding. It was so hard to keep up with Hayden when he got to first because he pulled quite a big gap. When it started to rain quite bad, I closed the gap to him in one lap or something and after when he crashed, Mathew dropped back, so then I got a gap. Then last lap was just to drive to the finish and take the checkered flag. MODERATOR: At one stage, it looked like Hayden was gone and you might have been relegated to second place, but you were able to catch up. What was going on with that? FAGERHAUG: After we got up to first, I think I was about third when he got up to first. Then later on, he pulled quite a big gap, and I was back in fifth for a while. Then I got back up to second, and then when it started to rain he slowed down and I tried to keep the pace up and close the gap to him quite fast. Then later I pulled a gap. So I’m very happy to take the second win for this year. MODERATOR: Congratulations, it was quite a race. Our top American finisher was Jake Gagne, who won yesterday’s event. How did this race go for you? JACOB GAGNE: I got off to a pretty bad start. I started fifth, and I got into the first corner about last. So I just tried to take it lap by lap and just try to get by as many people as I can. Then I saw a few, couple of Americans going down, so I just tried to keep it on two wheels and try to get as many points as we could for the team. MODERATOR: Thanks a lot, Jake. Hayden Gillim also ran strong in today’s race, led some of it and was looking at a podium finish before he had a crash. Can you tell us what happened, Hayden? HAYDEN GILLIM: I got off to a bad start. I was around 18th going into the first corner, and I tried to just make up the gap in as few laps as I could. I was going as fast as I could to try and get up into the lead and make a little bit of a gap. And I was catching them really fast, so I knew I could pull a little bit of a gap. Then once I got up into the lead, it started to rain, and I had a couple seconds on them. Then once it started to rain, Sturla and Mathew and Matt, they started to catch me and they got up to me and passed me. And I just followed them for a couple laps and learned some of their lines and learned where they were stronger and where I was stronger. Then I went up into second a couple laps before the end, then coming onto the back straight away, I just got on the gas a little bit too hard and a little bit too early, and I high-sided and wasn’t able to finish the race. MODERATOR: Thanks a lot, Hayden. The riders’ coach for the MotoGP Rookies Cup Team is Gustl Auinger. He is a former Grand Prix winner and has worked with the boys for two years. What are your thoughts on the race today and the Riders Cup? GUSTL AUINGER: For me, it was like incredible because the situation was new for my boys, my friends, for my kids and this challenge between Europe and USA. They didn’t know good enough each other. So everything seems very difficult, but they did a great job today, but even the Americans, as well. We are lucky we won, and it’s great and it’s fantastic, and I’m unbelievably happy about this. It was a fair race, it was a great race, it was a great challenge. And the conditions they had, it can’t be more difficult with wind and rain and wet tires and sometimes a dry track, sometimes a wet track. So normally just real professional riders can work with these conditions, but the kids did it great. MODERATOR: Congratulations, once again. AUINGER: Thank you. MODERATOR: The riders coach for the Red Bull AMA Rookies Cup team is Kevin Schwantz. Can you give us some comments on your thoughts on how things went? KEVIN SCHWANTZ: They obviously didn’t go as we had expected. To have been here and tested, I thought maybe we had a slight advantage, but obviously the MotoGP Rookies Cup kids are quite experienced in riding in less-than-ideal conditions. Today we made a few costly mistakes. Some of our better kids didn’t get great starts, had to push to get through the pack really quick; may have used up their tires. It’s all part of racing. I’d like to think that maybe they have a year’s more experience under their belt in the MotoGP Rookies Cup and, you know, if we were to have this event another year from now, we’d have a different result. But hats off to all the MotoGP kids. I think all of you did a great job, especially those of you that were on the podium and won. Congratulations. You know, our kids shouldn’t hang their heads low. Some of the best 125 riders in the world were here today, and we learned a lesson and we’ve got to go back and do a little homework and hopefully be able to go to Valencia a little better prepared. MODERATOR: Thanks a lot, Kevin. Sturla, as the winner of this race, what are your thoughts on the rematch in Valencia in October? FAGERHAUG: Well, in Valencia, I think we can have a good race again. The European riders have tested there earlier this year and me and the other guys who raced last year had races and tested there last year. So we have more experience on that track. But we, the European riders did good here, so I think the Americans will probably be faster, too. But especially the Spaniards from the European team should be faster because they’ve been there quite a many times. We’ll see. MODERATOR: I’d like to open it up to questions. Anyone have any questions? Q: For anyone, what were you guys thinking sort of the start of the race when you had to change the tires? Were you expecting that you were going to be able to run a dry race or did you think it was going to rain? FAGERHAUG: Can I answer? I thought it was going to be fully wet when it started to rain. But like for the first half of the race before we got the rain, it was almost a completely dry track and it was pretty hard to ride that with the rain tires because they’re so soft and were sliding every corner. Later on when it got fully wet again, it was like then it was quite good, though. Because then we had good grip because the track was just wet enough and not water on top of the surface and the tires were still all right. MODERATOR: Anyone else? GILLIM: We were looking forward to the rain. Some of us were looking forward to the rain because we had qualified in the rain and we were all very good in the rain. Once it stopped raining, we had the rain tires on and the track was nearly dry, we had had a little time in the dry on rain tires at one of our earlier races, so we knew what it would be like on the rain tires. And we got off to a good start and we were all up toward the front, then it started to rain and the Europeans have raced a few times in the rain, so they had just a little more experience than we did. We just tried our best and were lucky enough to have a couple in the top 10. MODERATOR: Any more questions? Q: Yeah, Hayden, your pass in Turn 1 was pretty awesome. You like pulled an instant gap and was just — PETER CLIFFORD: One-tenth of a second in one corner. Q: How did you manage that or was that planned or did you scare yourself going in a little deep? GILLIM: Every lap I would catch people going in there. With being a flat-tracker, we are used to long left-handers. So I kind of we want to flat-track and went as fast as I could around there. The bike was moving around just a little bit, but I just tried to keep it on two wheels and tried to push as hard as I could to get a little bit of a gap. FAGERHAUG: I saw what happened there, he just went crazy through that corner. (Laughter) It’s all luck. (Laughter) MODERATOR: For the European riders, could you please comment on your experience here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the U.S.? SCHOLTZ: I have really liked it, and I think this has been one of the best tracks for me this year. FAGERHAUG: Well, I like the whole experience going over here without my parents first, which were like — (Laughter) — but no, to see that I can work well-being in a team and after qualifying badly. I went better and better every session and ending up first in the race. So for me it’s been great. HOYLE: Coming to America is just one thing that I have always wanted to do, but to be able to come here and race here, as well, it was fantastic and the track was really good. Maybe a little slippery. Next year the conditions will be a little better. I’m just glad I got the chance to come here.