Photo of the Week: Enemy at the Gates

Rewind back to the 2008, where the MotoGP pit walk was under full swing at the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP. Even without the riders present, the machines themselves drew plenty of attention from the fans, many of whom were probably experiencing their first GP weekend.

The Repsol Honda garage, then home to Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa, inevitably had a particularly large crowd of observers. It turns out that Honda’s stunning RCV attracted more than just the fans. A couple of Yamaha employees had made their way over as well, spending quite a bit of time standing outside the enemy’s gates.

I found the situation somewhat amusing, and couldn’t help but allow my mind to be flooded with impossibly silly conspiracy theories and “Spy vs Spy” scenarios. The body language of the Men in Blue probably told a more accurate story tho, with their feet remaining just outside the garage door barrier at all times and their arms respectfully folded, as if to clearly signal their intentions, or lack thereof.

For those couple of minutes they were simply two people admiring a beautiful and exotic motorcycle too, and not pondering how they were going to destroy it with one of their own by the end of the weekend…well okay they were probably thinking of that too.

Dan Lo is a motorsport photographer who covers AMA Superbike, World Superbike, and MotoGP. His online portfolio is at CornerSpeedPhoto.com and he can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. For this year, Dan is looking to expand his coverage to the Isle of Man TT via Kickstarter. If you like his work, please donate and help send Dan to this year’s TT.