By Matt Roberts BBC Sport at Indianapolis Motorspeedway

Nicky Hayden prepares to rally the troops to celebrate his third place

Nicky Hayden produced one of the best performances of his career to take a podium finish at his home race at Indy but he was struggling for people to celebrate with on Sunday night.

His brothers and friends were all in attendance but suffering the effects of a weekend of excess.

"I don't know what we'll do tonight - I'm not sure how much my buddies have got left in the tank!" he laughed after the race.

"I think they've seen the sun come up every day since Friday but hopefully they can suck it up for one more night and we can do something."

Jorge Lorenzo was very much the centre of attention at the kind of post-race knees up that we only seem to have at races outside Europe, just as he had been for much of the afternoon.

His Captain America helmet was hardly an attempt to deflect the limelight and on this occasion he backed it up with a performance worthy of the hype.

Having cut the gap to Valentino Rossi back to 25 points with five races remaining, Lorenzo's championship challenge is now mathematically back in his own hands: by winning every race he would win the title.

Some of the biggest names in motorsport were in attendance at the Brickyard, including Ricky Carmichael, Chad Reed, James 'Bubba' Stewart and Juan Pablo Montoya, but few can match the star quality of 'King' Kenny Roberts.

Jorge Lorenzo takes the chequered flag in style

Kenny was back at Indy Mile dirt-track event on Saturday night, where he wheeled out the TZ750 dirt-tracker he rode to the most famous victory in the sport's history back in 1975.

The hybrid machine, which featured the two-stroke engine of a road racer wedged inside a dirt-track frame, was thought to be unrideable due to its excessive horsepower but Kenny took the all-or-nothing gamble and came from behind to beat factory Harley-Davidson riders Korky Keener and Jay Springsteen on the last lap.

The very nature of dirt-track makes it more dangerous when the machines are ridden at anything less than 100%, so to see Kenny ride three 'demo' laps at virtually full throttle was an incredible sight.

"I said at the time they don't pay me enough to ride that thing… they still don't!" Kenny smiled afterwards.

Somebody clearly hadn't paid Valentino Rossi enough either because was suited, booted, and ready to ride the TZ750 himself but after seeing Kenny in action he changed his mind.

"He's not as stupid as he looks!" joked Kenny.

There was another legend in action on an iconic bike on Sunday morning, when Kevin Scwhantz completed a few demo laps before the MotoGP race on the Suzuki RGV500 that he rode to the title in 1993.

The bike hadn't been ridden since that year so it was a unique moment and to hear a 500cc two-stroke fired up for the first time at such a legendary circuit was special.

Schwantz also completed a couple of laps on one of the Moto2 prototypes that will replace the 250cc class next year and was impressed with how it felt.

"It's a new project, it needs a little bit of work with settings as far as suspension goes, but as far as how nicely the bike goes and the power it delivers I think it is an amazing package right now," he said.

"I'm convinced Moto2 is going to be great for the sport," he said.

Ongoing talks between MotoGP's governing body the FIM, series' rights holder Dorna Sports and the MSMA - the manufacturers association - are shaping up the future of the MotoGP class.

Valentino Rossi helps out one of the grid girls with her headgear

Dorna had made a proposal to combine stock 1000cc with the prototype 800cc engines in an attempt to reduce costs and bolster the entry list but this has been rejected and a new agreement with the manufacturers is under consideration.

The new proposal is to implement an engine lease structure for manufacturers to provide 800cc prototypes engines to teams, who would in turn develop their own chassis.

"We've been talking with the manufacturers to see how they can provide engines to the teams," explained FIM President Vito Ippolito.

"It would be an interesting way to expand the grid and to give a chance to new teams to join the series, as costs would be reduced."

Negotiations are reportedly going in the right direction but manufacturers do not expect to be offering prototype 800cc engines for lease until 2011.

"The MSMA still has to announce what would be the price of the lease and we're also waiting on an agreement with the manufacturers to commit to the championship for a precise period of time," said Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna CEO.

"Once those two elements are set, it would be a very positive development for the future of the MotoGP World Championship."

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