Well the newest race on the calendar didn't go entirely according to plan as Hurricane Ike made his presence very distinctly felt in Indianapolis. The shame is that everything else was brilliantly organised. The circuit is interesting and mainly grippy (though more on that in a bit), facilities are stupendous and the crowd were enthusiastic and good natured, if slightly damp. OK, wet through, then.

It didn't start well. Friday practice was held in monsoon conditions, though Anthony West used his allegedly webbed feet to excellent advantage, setting an unmatchable speed while Casey Stoner parked his Ducati in the gravel after what the organisers described as a mild highside. Which takes some imagination - having experienced them before there's no way I can conceive of a highside that's only mild. But hey, what do I know? Dani Pedrosa was one of the only people to improve through the day as he got used to new tyres, but still his performance wasn't about to trouble the leaders.

The weather being the tease it sometimes is, Saturday was ferociously hot. The calm before the storm, perhaps. But Valentino Rossi made the most of the dry circuit and his staggering ability to record a pole time that was completely unbeatable. Casey Stoner managed to recover some form, taking second on the grid but unable to touch The Doctor at his best.

Just to keep everyone on their toes, race day was appalling. Weather was so bad that the start was delayed for over half an hour while a weather window appeared, which it did, and the track management got the jey powered dryers out to clear some of the standing water. Fortunately, the majority of the circuit drains brilliantly and is incrediby grippy, even in the wet. But the first four corners have a new surface and aren't quite so good.

Nonetheless, when the race finally kicked off it was Casey Stoner who made a fantastic start, with Rossi getting rather swallowed up in the melee off the line. Nicky hayden, in what is effectively his home round, and Andrea Dovizioso, who needs no excuses at all, both went off the line like scalded cats and were soon scrapping at the front. Indeed, it wasn't long before Dovi took the lead from Stoner who was obviously struggling. By not long I mean about a third of a lap. And on lap two Hayden barged past both of them to take an extremely popular front slot and pull away. Dani Pedrosa made a strong start thouygh Jorge Lorenzo soon passed him, demoting the Honda rider to sixth. Ben Spies, wildcard rider on the Suzuki, also got off the line very well, while James Toseland got himself up to eighth for a while, which was a fine effort after qualifying tenth.

Rossi and Lorenzo were both closing tight on Stoner, and when the Ducati rider ran wide and had to roll off, Rossi also lost some momentum and Lorenzo nipped past both of them in a classic move. Of course, the inevitable happened just a few turns later, at the end of the straight completing lap two, when Rossi neatly popped past Stoner and immediately set off after the spray-shrouded Yamaha of his team-mate Lorenzo. And the leading Hondas, of course. And again, it wasn't long before Rossi was up there with them, slicing past Lorenzo on the third lap and soon parking himself firmly on Dovizioso's tail.

Further back, Ben Spies was riding like a man posessed, passing Pedrosa to get himself up into a safe sixth and starting to hassle Stoner. Pretty impressive for a man on his second ever GP ride.

The weather wasn't improving at all, though parts of the track had stopped raining as Rossi slipped past Dovizioso and started taking huge chunks out of Hayden's lead. It's great seeing the Kentucky Kid at the front, and his riding style is a joy to watch, but it soon became appaernt that, although the Honda is blisteringly fast, it eats tyres. And as the rain started to come down again, Hayden had little or no answer for the looming presence of Valentino Rossi. Lap thirteen, after some hairy momnts for both of them, saw Rossi pass Hayden in a firm but clean move, and immediately open a yawning gap. Though Hayden kept on fighting until the end, there was an inevitability about the result that even his undoubted talents couldn't fix. On lap twenty the conditions had deteriorated enormously. There were pit awnings and public enclosures blowing over, the wind had changed direction by a full one-eighty and the air fences were getting blown away from the Armco. Add to that even mor erain and the red flags which appeared were the only viable option. So Valentino Rossi won the first ever MotoGP at Indianapolis by over six seconds from a worthy second placed Nicky Hayden, with Jorge Lorenzo a magnificent third.

Further back, Stoner won the scrap with Ben Spies, who astonishingly doesn't have a GP ride next year, and managed to retrieve thirteen points. Dovizioso finished a valiant fifth, while Spies took ten richly desreved points for sixth. Sylvain Guintoli was an absolute hero, finishing seventh on the Alice Ducati after a dreadful qualifying, while Dani Pedrosa took eighth in his first ever Bridgestone shod ride.

After a disastrous qualifying, Chris Vermeulen did well to barge throgh to ninth while Alex de Angelis rounded out the top ten.

James Toseland had a fistful of problems to deal with, finishing out of the points but at least remaining on the bike and uninjured. Indeed, nobody took a gravel bath this round, which is something of a miracle, considering the conditions.

So we've got a fortnight break before we're off to Motegi in Japan. It's not the most exciting circuit in the world, but it might give us some good racing. With an eighty seven point lead and just four rounds left, Rossi could make history there and take his fifth MotoGP title. Already he's the man with the most ever wins. But whatever happens, it'll be worth seeing...

SB

Indianapolis MotoGP Results

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2. Nicky Hayden (Honda)
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati)
5. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)
6. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
7. Sylvain Guintoli (Ducati)
8. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
9. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)
10. Alex de Angelis (Honda)

MotoGP standings (after fourteen rounds)

1. Valentino Rossi 287
2. Casey Stoner 200
3. Dani Pedrosa 193
4. Jorge Lorenzo 160
5. Andrea Dovizioso 129
6. Chris Vermeulen 117
7. Colin Edwards 109
8. Nicky Hayden 104
9. Shinya Nakano 87
10. Toni Elias 86