MotoGP Race Preview: TT Assen
June 28, 2012 | By Paul Kelly
INDIANAPOLIS, Thursday, June 28, 2012 – A preview of the TT Assen MotoGP World Championship event June 30:
Race: TT Assen
Date: Sunday, June 30
Round: Seventh of 18 races in 2012
Circuit: TT Circuit Assen, Assen, The Netherlands
Distance: 26 laps on 18-turn, 2.822-mile circuit
2011 Winner: Ben Spies, Yamaha
2012 Points Leader: Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha
U.S. Riders: Nicky Hayden, ninth, 49 points; Ben Spies, 11th, 35; Colin Edwards, 17th (tie), 4.
TV: MotoGP: 8 a.m. (ET) Saturday, June 30, SPEED. Moto2: 10 p.m. (ET), Saturday, June 30, SPEED. Moto3: Noon (ET) Tuesday, July 3, SPEED.
Web: www.motogp.com
Twitter: @MotoGP
LAST RACE
Jorge Lorenzo is just 10 points behind MotoGP perfection this year after winning the British Grand Prix on Sunday, June 17 at the Silverstone Circuit, his fourth victory of the season.
2010 World Champion Lorenzo has dropped just 10 points in six starts this season on his factory Yamaha M1, with four wins and two runner-up finishes. He extended his lead over reigning World Champion Casey Stoner to 25 points – a gap of exactly one race.
2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Lorenzo beat Stoner to the finish by 3.313 seconds. Stoner’s Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, finished third, 3.599 seconds behind Lorenzo.
WHO’S HOT
Jorge Lorenzo: 2010 World Champion Lorenzo has dropped just 10 points in six starts this season, with four victories and two second-place finishes on his factory Yamaha M1. He has expanded his lead in the World Championship to 25 points, 140-115, over defending World Champion Casey Stoner.
Cal Crutchlow: Crutchlow is blossoming in his second season in MotoGP with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team. He climbed to fourth in the standings – the top satellite team rider – after finishing sixth June 17 in his home British Grand Prix despite starting 20th and racing with a broken left ankle suffered in a crash during practice. Crutchlow is rumored to be mulling a two-year contract offer to move to the Ducati factory team next season.
WHO’S NOT
Casey Stoner: Reigning World Champion Stoner is second in the World Championship, but he is winless since announcing in mid-May that he will retire at the end of this season. Stoner won two of the first three races on his Honda and led title rival Jorge Lorenzo by one point when he announced his career was ending. Since then, he has finished third, fourth and second and seen Lorenzo take a 25-point lead in the championship with three consecutive victories.
Karel Abraham: Ducati satellite rider Abraham surprised many last season by finishing a solid 14th in the standings as a MotoGP rookie despite an undistinguished Moto2 career. But Czech rider Abraham is suffering through a miserable 2012 season, scoring just four points after six races, good for 17th in the standings. Abraham is the only prototype rider to trail a rider on production-based Claiming Rule Teams machinery in the standings this season. He missed the British Grand Prix on June 17 at Silverstone due to a fractured finger and plans to return at Assen.
NEWS and NUMBERS
This is the 82nd time that a Dutch TT event has been held. The first running of the Dutch TT was in 1925 and it has taken place every year since, with the exception of the years 1940 to 1945 because of World War II. The event became part of the world championship series in 1949 and is the only circuit to have been part of the series every year since…There have been a total of 247 Grand Prix races for solo motorcycles held at the Assen circuit where Honda has been the most successful manufacturer having scored a total of 55 GP victories at Assen across all of the different classes, followed by MV-Agusta with 36 victories and Yamaha with 35…Jorge Lorenzo’s current total of 140 points after the first six races of the year is exactly the same as he had at this stage of the season in 2012 – the year he won the MotoGP title…Four Dutch riders have won Grand Prix races at their home circuit; Paul Lodewijkx the 50cc race in 1968, Wil Hartog the 500cc race in 1977, Jack Middel¬burg the 500cc race in 1980 and Hans Spaan the 125cc race in 1989.
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2012 tickets: Tickets for the 2012 Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP event, scheduled for Aug. 17-19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, are on sale now at www.imstix.com, by calling (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700 or by visiting the IMS Ticket Office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday.
Tickets for groups of 20 or more also are on sale. Contact the IMS Group Sales Department at (866) 221-8775 for more information.
Information on camping at IMS during the Red Bull Indianapolis GP is available at www.imstix.com. Hotel package information can be found at visitindy.com/redbull.
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Media Contacts: J. Douglas Boles, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, (317) 492-6412 or (317) 750-9277, dboles@brickyard.com; Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, (315) 673-0184, pkelly@brickyard.com
Media Website: media.indianapolismotorspeedway.com