INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY DIDN’T WASTE any time filling the hole in the schedule left by the departing prima donna’s of Formula 1.  Track president Joie Chitwood announced yesterday that the international motorcycle circuit MotoGP will be racing on the road course on Sept. 14, 2008.

There will still need to be several millions of dollars of renovations to the road course to configure it to meet motorcycle safety standards and to make it amenable to counter-clockwise racing.  The F-1 races clockwise.

According to the Indianapolis Star, the road course will be converted from a 13-turn, 2.605-mile layout to 2.601 miles with 16 turns. It will use the front straightaway of the oval, where the motorcycles will reach speeds approaching 215 mph, and several stretches of the existing circuit. Many of the changes are dictated by safety because the bikes require large runoff areas. 

Indy joins Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at Monterey, Calif., in giving MotoGP two U.S. venues on its schedule, which this year lists 18 races at major road circuits around the world. Laguna Seca hosts its race this weekend.

This is really a big deal, and Firegeezer predicts that this will prove to be much more successful at the box office than F-1 was.

Read the full story HERE.

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