Motorcycle Forum / General / Racing / September 2008

First impressions of Indy. First, it's wet. Not west coast style,
which would also mean it's cold, since it never rains in California...
in the summer..

Kind of surprised by the look of the place at first. when I saw one of
the grqandstands from the road I thought it was a high school football
fiwld or something, thenrealized I was looking at the back of the turn
four stands. after a minor fiasco getting my ticket (the worst will
call experience since Miller '06) my first look inside was from the
turn one stqands down the front straight. What it felt like was
walking into Fenway Park for the first time, almost a relic of another
age, when Detroit muscle was king, and not the monstrosity I expected
- Fontana is much more impressive in terms of sheer size, at least
from the outside, and of course much more contemporary.The whole thing
feels like a midwestwrn statw fair, right down to the corndog stands
on the street and the folks selling parking spots in their front yards.

Which makes MotoGP feel quote ot of place here, in this most European
of US rounds that includes the ring-dings (also kind of relics of
another age, I have to say).

Anyway, the front straight is long but not Miller long, and turn 1
seems a bit scary, fast and not that much runoff, it seems. But that's
kind of hard to tell at the reduced wet speeds this morning. The
nagery after that is pretty rinky-dink, and I haven't yet seen enough
of the infield to tell. But they were tip-toeing around this AM. Good
to see Spies up at the sharp end much of the session, that Donny wet
time must be coming in handy. Also enjoyed Nick in the press
conference yesterday, nice to see him out from under.

This afternoon will be infield exploration, first brat now in my belly
and 125s headed out. More later...