UPDATE: An MRI has confirmed the ligament damage to Stoner’s ankle, but has also determined that his foot and leg is not fractured. He will undergo further tests before he is to be declared fit, or unfit, to race.

With only eight minutes on the clock for MotoGP’s qualifying session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Casey Stoner found himself on the wrong side of a nasty high-side crash, which ultimately sent the Repsol Honda rider into Indy’s medical center. Stretchered off the red-flagged track, Stoner has a suspected torn ligament in his right foot, which will surely dash his hopes for competing at the Indianapolis GP.

MotoGP has a love-hate relationship with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway: most of the paddock love the place, the rest hate it. The way those feelings are divided is what is really interesting, though: the admirers of the track include most of the media, the teams and many, many fans. Those that hate the track are a small but well-defined group: anyone either wielding a camera or a racing a motorcycle have very few kind words for IMS.

So why the schism? It really depends on what you are doing at the track: the circuit has some of the best facilities of any circuit the MotoGP circus goes to all year, making the life of the media, the teams and the fans exceptionally easy. The photographers, on the other hand, hate the track because of the fences. As a circuit that mainly hosts car races, there are high chain-link fences all around the circuit, to prevent debris from wrecked four-wheelers from flying into the spectators.

At a few selected spots on the circuit, there are openings in the fences for photographers to poke their lenses through, giving them an unobstructed view of the circuit. There are lots of photographers and relatively few camera holes, leaving gaggles of photographers gathered around the available shooting spots like narwhals around a breathing hole in the arctic icesheet.

The folks at GP Tech are no strangers to running wild card entries at Indy, as the American motorcycle parts seller fielded one-off wild card rides in the Moto2 Championship at both the 2010 and 2011 Indianapolis GP’s. Using FTR-built bikes, GP Tech raced with Jason DiSalvo in 2010, were the American rider finished a very respectable 9th place, while in 2011 Jake Gagne rode to a forgettable 31st spot.

Stepping up to the big-boy leagues, GP Tech has been granted a wild card entry for the 2012 Indianapolis GP, and will run a Suzuki GSX-R1000 motor in a billet aluminum frame that is being prepared by BCL Motorsports. GP Tech has also tapped Vesrah Suzuki/MCJ Motorsports to help with the project, which should give us some clues as to whom the unnamed rider will be for the Grand Prix race.

MotoGP racing action comes to us this weekend from the World Championship’s last stop in the United States for the season: Indianapolis. Though conditions were a little bit cooler at Indy than they were earlier in the racing weekend, riders still had to test the limits of their tires to go the full 28 lap race distance. With only 64,151 fans in attendance for the race, the stands at The Brickyard were a bit more sparse than in the past (there were 30,340 attendees on Friday and 40,275 Saturday for a total of 134,766 in attendance for the event).

Despite the turnout, all 17 MotoGP riders showed up for the Indy GP, as the MotoGP Championship was far from its conclusion this season. Looking to further secure his lead in the points, Casey Stoner started today’s race on pole, followed by Ben Spies and Dani Pedrosa. With the Yamaha poised to disrupt the flow of the factory Hondas, most fans’ eyes were on the Texan as he attempted to mount a race victory in front of his home crowd. As conditions ripened for a record setting race lap, you’ll have to read after the jump to see who set it.

AMA Daytona Sportbike / American Superbike racer J.D. Beach has snagged himself a Moto2 ride at the Indianapolis GP, riding with the Aeroport de Castello/Cartellon Mediterraneo Blumaq team. Beach will be on board the FTR M211 Moto2 bike, prepared by the company’s US Distributor GP Tech. Unlike last year where Roger Lee Hayden rode the Moriwaki MD600 Moto2 bike for American Honda’s entry, Beach will not be considered a wild card entry. Instead, the former AMA Pro SuperSport East Champion will be considered a substitute rider, filling-in presumably for Tommaso Lorenzetti.

Nicky Hayden was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, checking out the newly repaved infield section on the historic American track. Testing the track on a Ducati Superbike 1198SP, Hayden took a number of laps before giving the nod that he approved of the refurbishment (the FIM also gave their nod on Indy’s work on July 7th). The repaving of the infield portion of the circuit, Turn 5 through Turn 16, comes as a response from riders’ complaints from last year.

With several varieties of pavement, a bevy of bumps, and some poorly placed drainage components, the Indianapolis GP has been a low-point on the MotoGP calendar for most of the MotoGP paddock the past few years, despite being held at an otherwise top-rate and historic venue. With Dorna likely pressuring Indianapolis into making alterations, the track probably faced compulsion to make changes to its infield, especially with the Circuit of Americas track currently being built in Austin.

Talk in the MotoGP paddock is that the Austin GP is now being aimed as less of a replacement for the Indianapolis GP, and instead will be a third stop in America for MotoGP, as Dorna wants to expand the premier class’s presence in the USA. With the 2011 Indianapolis GP just two and a half weeks away, all the GP riders will soon get to see the improvements at Indy, until then they’ll just have to take Nicky Hayden’s word on it. A brief Q&A with the Kentucky Kid and video of his laps and thoughts are after the jump.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has announced that it has begun repaving the infield section of its road course, which should finally resolve surface conditions MotoGP riders have complained about while racing at the Indianapolis GP. Repaving Turn 5 thorough Turn 16, Indy will lay over 1.5 miles of asphalt, and if the weather permits, the work should be done by the end of this week.

According to the circuit it is grinding the current tarmac flat, and then laying fresh pavement over the resurfaced track. The new asphalt will match existing pavement on the remainder of the GP circuit, thus eliminating any sort of surface inconsistency issues.

While the Indianapolis GP has been renewed for another season, talk continues to swell regarding the Brickyard, and whether it will remain on the MotoGP calendar. While a notably historic track in the United States, and a venue capable of easily handling an event like GP racing, track conditions at Indianapolis weighed heavily on riders’ minds while contending with the midwest circuit this past season.

With members of the GP safety commission audibly displeased with the track’s layout and and changing tarmac patches, and a new GP-quality track in Austin, Texas currently being built, the writing appears to be on the wall for Indy. Playing host to Formula One US GP (which ironically used to be held at Indianapolis) from 2012 to 2021, the new track in Austin has however denied talks with MotoGP, and having the series race at its venue. But don’t believe everything you hear.