FIM officials and test riders happy with Indianapolis track

Following the two inaugural days of testing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) the FIM Safety Director Claude Danis has made some positive highly comments about the latest addition to the MotoGP calendar, which will host the first ever Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix this September.

The sixteen-cornered circuit was set up to testing specifications, but fine-tuning of various features will make the track race-ready for its first MotoGP event in just over two months´ time.

`The preparation of the track was very, very good,´ remarked Danis. `Everything was in place according to what we decided on my last inspection. Of course, there are some small adjustments to be done.´

Among those adjustments are the addition of artificial grass adjacent to turns one and sixteen, the installation of curbing, final sod work adjacent to the track, the addition of road course striping and the removal of some oval striping.

`I think the riders enjoyed the track,´ Danis added. `It is very challenging, and I think it will be very good for MotoGP.´

American Suzuki rider Ben Spies also was also happy with the circuit after clocking more than 200 laps during his two days of testing.

`In terms of run-off, every area is fine for me,´ Spies said. `The first turn, there´s plenty of run-off. In the corner, if you´re by yourself, I would say it´s impossible to get into anything because when you start to turn, there´s a huge run-off. There´s grass everywhere.´

`On the front straightaway, yeah, you´re between two walls, but with how everything is with the bikes, usually there´s not too much going on in a straight line. But run-off in turn one, once you´re actually in the turn, there´s plenty. So it´s fine.´