By Stephen Burns

The remnants of Hurricane Ike all but finished Casey Stoners hopes of retaining the Moto GP world title with a foreshortened race from the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For the first time in 100 years, Gasoline Alley echoed to the sound of two wheeled machinery and on a day of records Valentino Rossi took the record for the highest number of wins in motor cycling’s premier category taking his tally to sixty nine.

Despite starting from pole position Rossi made a poor getaway in the wet conditions, dropping down to fourth place. Stoner led Rossi for the first lap, as in the previous two rounds but on this occasion managed to keep the bike upright despite slipping down to fourth by the time the race was halted due to the deteriorating weather conditions.

Local Hero Nicky Hayden took the lead on the second lap and set a series of fastest laps before Rossi took the lead on the fourteenth lap, Hayden being on the less favoured Michelin tyres and held the position till the red flag was shown on the 21st lap.Some confusion arose after the red flag as Moto GP rules state that the remaining laps should be completed and the race decided on the aggregate times but the severity of the weather conditions meant that this was unfeasible and declared the positions after twenty laps as the final result.Despite early race promise Britain’s James Toseland made rapid progress towards the back of the field, despite having out qualified team mate Colin Edwards, to end the race 18th.