Behind the Barriers - Saturday in Indianapolis

MotoGP's first trip to the Midwest may leave many spectators wondering what products and services are offered by the sport's sponsors.

Repsol -- Oil company from Spain

Alice -- Italian telecommunication company

Wudy -- Processed meats, pork and sausage from Italy

Rizla -- French company that produces cigarette rolling papers

Scot -- Italian construction company

Motul -- Oil company from France

Mapfre -- Insurance company from Spain

Morellato -- Italian watches and jewelry

Pramac -- manufactures power generation equipment

Kopron -- Italian company providing logistical solutions and building supplies

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Interested spectators watching MotoGP qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway included country music star Keith Urban, actor David Allen Grier and IndyCar Series drivers past and present including Danica Patrick, Lyn St. James, Max Papis, 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Rice, E.J. Viso and the most recent Indy Lights Series winner Arie Luyendyk, Jr.

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Danica's father, T.J. Patrick was all smiles after his two-seat motorcycle ride aboard a Ducati with Randy Mamola at the controls. Patrick said it was all he could do to hold on as Mamola brought the bike to a stop with a nose wheelie. Pit lane wags suggested the ride approached 180 mph on the long front straight at Indianapolis.

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Alpinestars announced today an agreement with Dorna to enter into a partnership to create a new technical and casual clothing collection branded MotoGP. The MotoGP collection will consist of a limited edition range of leather riding jackets and other apparel. The line is expected to be released in early 2009.

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Major League Baseball fans are often maligned for tracking obscure statistics on their favorite players. At the end of each day, MotoGP releases a document titled, "Falls per circuit." Falls for the grand prix are listed chronologically by class with the rider's name, the total number of falls for the season, time and location of fall and notes regarding condition of rider. The weather conditions are listed for each session. By class there were 19 falls in 125 cc, 21 in 250 cc and 5 in MotoGP. There were a total of 18 falls on Friday when all sessions were run under wet conditions and 27 on Saturday when the track was dry.