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The USA's most recent MotoGP World Champion Nicky
Hayden proudly undertook the first lap of the newly-configured road course at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, the Kentucky-born Repsol Honda rider
lapping the circuit on a 1909 Indian motorcycle.
On September 14th this year, two-wheeled racing returns
to IMS for the first time since its original construction in 1909 when the
recently re-modelled 2.620-mile motorcycle track at the famous American venue
hosts the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix - a second US date to join July’s
Laguna Seca visit on the 2008 MotoGP calendar.
Having toured the IMS Hall of Fame Museum on Sunday,
2006 MotoGP title winner Hayden lapped the new track on the vintage Indian bike
and then on a modern Honda road bike, before commenting, “When the bike first
fired up I wondered what I got myself into! Then when I was doing about 40mph
down the straight it felt like a hundred. I really enjoyed the ride though,
especially my old school helmet, that was my favourite
part!"
Hayden continued, "It is a real honour to be the
first rider to enjoy a lap of the new Indy track and I can't wait to get out
there on a MotoGP bike in September. I expect most of my hometown of Owensboro,
Kentucky to be there, they may have to close the town down that
day.”
Hayden has previously delighted US crowds with his
first ever MotoGP win on home soil at Laguna Seca in 2005, before repeating the
victory in California the following season en route to clinching the World
Championship.
The first ever Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix will be
the 14th round of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship and will take place over
the weekend of 12th-14th September.
from InfoMotoGP
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