Lights, Cameras, More Lights, Action

As the season is about to kick off in the desert, let’s take a look at what makes this circuit special. Well, for starters, it’s in the oil-rich country of Qatar and Persian Gulf-adjacent. It’s the only circuit in the region that hosts both FIA and FIM licenses. But all eyes are on this race not only because it’s the opening of competition, but it’s also the first MotoGP competition to ever take place at night, which, of course, if you remotely follow the sport, you know. The track was built in 2004 in just under a year for $58 Million (USD).

Lighting this 16-turn, 3.375 mile track was actually a pretty impressive undertaking. It’s the largest permanent lighting project in the world. The company, Musco Lighting, is based out of Oskaloosa, Iowa of all places have provided custom illumination to everything from little league parks to the Statue of Liberty. To power this shadow-less system of lights requires some 5.4 million watts – the equivalent amount of energy to light a small city. Impressive. Though considering the source: neighboring Dubai is building friggin islands off its coastline so this is pretty minor in comparison. No riders have complained about the lights except Jorge Lorenzo, who said he felt lonely on the track.

But the track remains untested under race conditions, so we’ll see on Sunday how things pan out.

Here’s my trifecta prediction: Stoner first, Lorenzo second, Pedrosa third.