"My friends won't have any excuse to miss this one"

When the first Red Bull Indianapolis GP takes place on September 14 former World Champion Nicky Hayden won’t have far to travel to get to the circuit. Last weekend on an original 1909 Indian he christened the newly conceived track – where the last motorcycle race was held 99 years ago.

Nicky, what’s your first impression of Indianapolis?

I thought the facility would be big, but not as huge as this! The speedway itself, the stands, the golf course – everything is over-dimensional. Indianapolis is going to a great experience in the whole MotoGP – and we’re going to do everything we can to get more attention for motorcycle sport.

What are the particular characteristics of the course?

The long straight is amazingly fast, the first curve very technical, an ideal place to overtake. Here you have to use the slipstream well, particularly in the 125 and 250cc classes. Apart from that I particularly remember curve number five, which is almost as fast as the first one, and the last curve, the slowest one on the circuit.

You did your first round on an Indian, which was ridden in the last Indianapolis motorcycle race in 1909. Are you going to put your Honda aside and change to this one?

Let’s say ... I admire the guys who raced with this bike even more now. At 60 the vibrations were already so big that it felt like I was doing 160. In contrast the back brakes had the same effect as the ones I had on my kids’ bike when I was five.

You then also tried the circuit on a Honda CBR 1000. How fast did that go?

I didn’t pay much attention to that but I think it must have been about 240, 250 km/h. With the MotoGP bikes we get up to about 320 km/h on the straight.

The best thing about Indianapolis for you is the short traveling distance, isn’t it ...?

Yeah, the circuit is about three hours away from home. That’s almost too good to be true. My family and friends won’t have any excuse to miss to this race!