Marc Marquez on pole for MotoGP at Indianapolis - MotorSportsTalk

Spain’s Marc Marquez has earned pole position for tomorrow’s MotoGP Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix with a track-record lap of 1 minute, 37.958 seconds around the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Marquez’s lap easily eclipsed the previous mark of 1 minute, 38.313 seconds, which was set by Dani Pedrosa last year.

Honda rider Marquez, who won last month at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, led every practice session of the weekend before besting fellow Spaniards Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha; 1 minute, 38.471 seconds) and defending Indy GP winner Pedrosa (Honda; 1 minute, 38.485 seconds) for the top spot on the grid in qualifying.

Nicky Hayden landed sixth on the grid to lead the Ducati camp and the American contingent of riders. The other Americans, Colin Edwards and wild card entrant Blake Young, will start 12th and 24th, respectively.

One rider that will not be on the grid at Indy will be Ben Spies, who was set to race for the first time since April at Circuit of the Americas but crashed this morning in practice. He suffered a dislocated left shoulder in the incident and will be unable to compete on Sunday.

Last October, Spies underwent season-ending surgery on his right shoulder after injuring it in a crash at the Malaysian round. The effects of that injury had kept him out from Jerez in May all the way up to this weekend at Indy.

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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