TEROL TAKES 125cc WIN AT RED BULL INDY GP, 250cc RACE CANCELLED

Fagerhaug wins Red Bull Riders Cup race as European team dominates

INDIANAPOLIS, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008 – Nicolas Terol, a 19-year-old from Alcoy, Spain, took advantage of an early end to the 125cc World Championship race at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP to earn his first career victory in that class.

Rain showers persisted throughout the day, and following the 16-lap 125cc race, high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike, forcing race officials to also shorten the MotoGP World Championship race and cancel the 250cc class race.

Terol, on the No. 18 Jack & Jones WRB Aprilia/Dunlop, was leading fellow Spaniard and polesitter Pol Espargaro when light rain began to fall about halfway through what was to be a 23-lap race. On Lap 17, Espargaro, riding the No. 44 Belson Derbi, made an inside pass exiting Turn 16 to take the lead as heavy rain began to fall.

The race was red-flagged since the riders were on slick tires and Terol was declared winner because FIM rules state the running order at the time of a red flag is based on the last full lap for all riders, which was Lap 16.

“It’s been a really difficult weekend, new circuit, surface as well, problem with the rain as across lots of the sessions,” Terol said. “I had a problem this morning, my bike wouldn’t go over 13,000 revs, but the team seemed to have sorted that before the race. I’m just delighted.”

Stefan Bradl of Germany scored the final podium spot in 125cc by running aggressively in the final laps to take third on the No. 17 Grizzly Gas Kiefer Racing Aprilia.

Stevie Bonsey, the lone American competing in the 125cc World Championship this season, finished ninth on the No. 51 DeGraaf Grand Prix Aprilia. It was his first top-10 finish in six races and a welcome finish to the weekend.

“I’m happy with it for how much I’ve been struggling with it this weekend,” said Bonsey, 18, from Salinas, Calif. “I had a hard start this weekend, from missing flights to just rain, and this morning I had a real good warm-up, so I felt real confident in the dry. So I was just praying that it would stay dry.”

The 14-lap Red Bull Riders Cup race, which pitted the top-10 riders from the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup against 10 of their European counterparts in the MotoGP Rookies Cup, saw Norwegian rider Sturla Fagerhaug win by 3.478 seconds on the No. 33 Red Bull KTM.

Finishing second to Fagerhaug was Mathew Scholtz of South Africa, and Matthew Hoyle of Great Britain was third.

The top-finishing rider from the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup was No. 32 Jacob Gagne of Ramona, Calif., in eighth. Gagne won the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup race Saturday.

Polesitter Scholtz had a poor start but recovered to retake the lead on Lap 3. But he was passed by No. 69 Hayden Gillim of Owensboro, Ky., on Lap 5. Fagerhaug took the lead from Gillim on Lap 10 as rain showers covered the track.

Gillim passed Scholtz for second in Turn 6 on Lap 13 but crashed in Turn 9 on the same lap.

“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 many positions back because the track was almost dry and every corner the tires were sliding,” Fagerhaug said. “When it started to rain quite bad, I closed the gap to (Gillim) 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.”