ROSSI EARNS POLE FOR RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP; HAYDEN FOURTH

INDIANAPOLIS, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008 – Fiat Yamaha Team rider and five-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi won an intense multi-rider duel for the pole at the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 13 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Rossi, from Urbino, Italy, lapped the 2.621-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in 1 minute 40.776 seconds on the No. 46 Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha/Bridgestone with less than five minutes to go in the hour-long qualifying session.

“Is good riding MotoGP inside here and this is so important, but especially I am so happy for the work of today because we find a quite good setting with the race tires and we change a bit (of) the pressure for the qualify,” Rossi said. “I am fast, especially with the last two tires because at the beginning (of qualifying) I did some mistake but at the end, I try for the 40 and a (minute) 40.7 is a good pole position.”

Rossi’s time was just .084 of a second quicker than reigning MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner, who lapped the track at 1:40.860 on the No. 1 Ducati Team Ducati/Bridgestone and will start in the middle of the front row. Rossi’s pole position at Indianapolis broke Stoner’s streak of seven consecutive poles.

The 28-lap MotoGP race will start at 3 p.m. (ET) Sunday. It’s the first motorcycle race at IMS in 99 years, as the facility’s inaugural motor race was a motorcycle event in August 1909.

Starting next to Stoner on the outside of the first row Sunday is Rossi’s teammate, rookie Jorge Lorenzo, who turned a lap of 1:41.177 on the No. 48 Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha/Michelin. Rossi, American Nicky Hayden, Stoner and Lorenzo all posted their fastest lap of the one-hour qualifying session on their final attempt.

2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden had a third-place starting position until Lorenzo’s last-minute heroics. Hayden, from Owensboro, Ky., settled for fourth at 1:41.271 on the No. 69 Repsol Honda Team Honda/Michelin.

Saturday’s weather conditions were a complete opposite of the all-day rain that covered IMS for Friday practice, as the day started cloudy but dry and the sun eventually prevailed in the afternoon.

“We were pretty good in the dry,” Hayden said. “I really hope that we can be competitive tomorrow. I know it’s going to be tough, but the team’s doing a good job. Man, I got amazing support here from friends and family. I’ll just try real hard tomorrow to see what happens.”

American rider Ben Spies, from Longview, Texas, qualified an impressive fifth on the No. 11 Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki/Bridgestone at 1:41.464. Three-time AMA Superbike champion Spies is a wild-card rider starting only his third MotoGP event, all in 2008.

The other American MotoGP riders, veterans Colin Edwards and John Hopkins, qualified 11th and 16th, respectively. Edwards’ quickest time was 1:41.934 on the No. 5 Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha/Michelin and Hopkins posted 1:42.673 on the No. 21 Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki/Bridgestone.

The top straightaway speed recorded on the Speedway’s famous main straightaway was 194.4 mph, by Ducati Team rider Marco Melandri.

Pol Espargaro, the 17-year-old rider of the No. 44 Belson Derbi Team motorcycle, won pole for Sunday’s 125cc class race with a lap of 1:50.475, while 250cc World Championship points leader Marco Simoncelli took his fourth pole of the season with a lap of 1:45.186 on the No. 58 Metis Gilera.

The 16-lap Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup race featured an exciting duel to the end between 15-year-old Jacob Gagne of Ramona, Calif., and 13-year-old Hayden Gillim of Owensboro, Ky. Gillim took the lead on Lap 3 until Gagne overtook him on Lap 9, stretching his lead to more than a second on Lap 13. Gillim caught up with Gagne on Lap 15, only to have Gagne retake the lead on the final lap and win by .204 of a second.

Public gates open at 7 a.m. (ET) on Race Day, Sunday, Sept. 14, and track activity begins at 8:40 a.m. with the 125cc class warm-up session, followed by the 250cc and MotoGP class warm-up sessions at 9:10 and 9:40 a.m., respectively.

The first race of the day is the 16-lap Red Bull Riders Cup race at 10:25 a.m., followed by the 125cc class race at noon and the 250cc riders at 1:15 p.m.

The grid presentation for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP begins at 2:15 p.m. and the 28-lap MotoGP race gets underway at 3 p.m. The race will be broadcast live on NBC.

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Red Bull Indianapolis GP tickets: Tickets are on sale for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 14, 2008.

Three-day tickets can be purchased either online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com at any time; on the phone by calling (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area or (317) 492-6700 locally between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday; or visiting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ticket Office on the first floor of the IMS Administration Building at 4790 W. 16th St. in Indianapolis from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.