MotoGP arrived at Laguna Seca for the World Championship’s first 2008 visit to the United States, with some typically beautiful Californian weather greeting the premier class riders and teams to the Pacific coast on Thursday. Injured rider Dani Pedrosa has made the journey from Europe despite hand and ankle blows sustained in the crash which saw him surrender the World Championship lead at the Sachsenring – and the Repsol Honda star today confirmed he will test his condition in free practice on Friday. Pedrosa is keen to maintain his title challenge after losing first place in the standings to Valentino Rossi in Germany, with race winner and World Champion Casey Stoner closing in on the leading pair in the tightest championship at this stage of the season for ten years; the top three currently separated by just 20 points after ten races. Indeed the pre-Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix press conference was attended by two of that trio, with Rossi and Stoner joined by an American threesome in the form of Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards, 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden and current AMA U.S. champion Ben Spies, who will make another guest appearance for Suzuki at round eleven. Fiat Yamaha´s five-time premier class World Champion Rossi commented, ‘My best result here was third on the podium in 2005, I had bad luck in 2006 and last year I had quite a bad race, so my target is to try and improve at Laguna because it is a great track with a lot of tricky points.’ Race winner in 2005 and 2006, Hayden meanwhile added, ‘The Laguna track is really special to me. I love this place, I love this atmosphere and everything about Laguna. To me it is about as good as it gets! So hopefully I can come out strong tomorrow morning, put a couple of good days together and get in a position to get us a good result on Sunday.’ It was a special day for Edwards too, as his contract renewal with Yamaha to continue in MotoGP in 2009 was announced ahead of his home race. Proceedings at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on the eve of the eleventh race weekend of the year also included a Riders for Health Live Auction attended by Guest of Honor and MotoGP Legend Wayne Rainey, alongside Randy Mamola, Edwards, Spies, James Toseland, Marco Melandri, Randy de Puniet, Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli. Earlier in the afternoon two additional MotoGP Legends were present in the paddock, as Kenny Roberts Sr. and Eddie Lawson joined 2007 inductee Rainey in becoming Legends of Laguna Seca in a presentation hosted by track authorities.