Cycle News

VOL. 54 ISSUE 23 JUNE 13, 2017 P125 ties were second-to-none. Everything from ga- rages, to scoring tower, to media center – it all was cutting edge. Unlike most superspeedways with infield road courses like Daytona, Fontana, Pikes Peak and others where the AMA raced, Indy's infield section actually had the look and feel of a purpose-made road course. Trees were abundant in the infield and beautifully manicured grass hillsides had been built up all around the infield section. Part of the track neighbored the gently rolling terrain of the Brick- yard Crossing Golf Course. During the test golfers stopped their matches to watch the Superbikes. "You forget you're inside a big speedway," said Haskovec. "It's amazing what they've done in that infield. It's like the most scenic road course in there." Part of the reason the infield section had a totally different look was the fact that it was situated inside a two-and-a-half-mile oval. "This place is huge," Zemke observed. The bikes got down into the 1:30s range. About 15-20 seconds off what the F1 cars were capable of on the same course. But the riders were cautioned to take it easy out of the last turn where a wall lined the outside of the oval course and the teams really did nothing in the way of fine-tuning. Both riders thought 1:20s would be very possible under actual race conditions. Zemke said the track really had two separate personalities. "The oval section is wide-open and the infield is very twisty," he said. "Even with just a fairly short run down the short-chute coming into Indy Car turn one of the oval, our bikes are poten- tially near top speed." According to Haskovec, the Austin Ducati team was running Elkhart Lake gearing and he was clicking into sixth gear just coming onto the front straightaway. The team promptly went back to the garage and put even taller gearing on the machine. Erion had the gearing about right on the big Honda CBR and Zemke was clicking into top gear about halfway down the front straight. Both riders were reaching the 180-185 mph range down the long front straight. Then there was the infield section that featured very twisty sections that saw the riders clicking all the way down to first and second gear much of the time. Zemke reported the racing surface to be very smooth with only a single small bump in the transition from the oval section to the infield in road course turn one. It was cool on the day the bikes tested and by the end of the second session both riders were pushing the front ends of their bikes through the turns. Zemke ran hot into corners a few times, but had plenty of run-off room and was able to get turned around and back underway with no problem. The 2003 test was very much a preliminary one just to get riders on the course to start giving input on what might need to be changed if mo- torcycle road races were to be held there. Much of the feedback given by Haskovec and Zemke was used in making modifications to the circuit for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in 2008. Haskovec and Zemke will always have the honor of being the first motorcycle racers to run at the fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway, since the Federation of American Motorcyclist (predecessor the AMA) National opened the track to motorsports back in 1909. The pair of Superbike racers were massively influential in showing that motorcycles could run safely on the track. Their contribution is little-known, but key nevertheless. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives OF THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOGP

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