Indianapolis Motor Speedway has announced that it has begun repaving the infield section of its road course, which should finally resolve surface conditions MotoGP riders have complained about while racing at the Indianapolis GP. Repaving Turn 5 thorough Turn 16, Indy will lay over 1.5 miles of asphalt, and if the weather permits, the work should be done by the end of this week.
According to the circuit it is grinding the current tarmac flat, and then laying fresh pavement over the resurfaced track. The new asphalt will match existing pavement on the remainder of the GP circuit, thus eliminating any sort of surface inconsistency issues.
This is the first time that the IMS infield has been resurfaced since its construction in 2000, and comes so during a time where Indy was under growing pressure to upgrade its track surface. Though Indianapolis Motor Speedway has outstanding world class facilities (we can attest to the venues staff and facilities), it’s track surface has always been a bone of contention with riders (we can’t comment on this aspect). One of the most vocal critics of the track during the 2010 Indianapolis GP was Casey Stoner, who found himself caught out on a number of Indy’s bumps and humps.
“It just seems that it’s not a world class circuit,” lamented Stoner. “Maybe the shape of it and everything can be, but the surface definitely isn’t. If you go for a walk to the top of that last corner, it looks like we’re going through someone’s garage. There’s concrete there, it’s not tarmac. Then all of a sudden there’s tarmac and there’s a big seam there. It doesn’t feel like it’s a grand prix circuit at all.”
Defending his local track, Nicky Hayden offers some balance to the argument made by his teammate at the time. “Is that why he (Stoner) was going so slow today?” quipped Hayden to the assembled press. “I mean 70% of our tracks…we could re-surface them all. If they want to re-surface it great, but I didn’t think it was that bad.” Hayden did concede though that perhaps his flat-tracking background makes the rough and tumble circuit more suitable to his riding style.
With rumors of the Austin GP looming at the time (and now confirmed), the officials at Indy have conceded to Stoner’s point, and began undertaking plans to resurface the track earlier this year. With the Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP race set to go off on August 26th-28th, the new infield will be done with plenty of time for the second American stop on the MotoGP tour. Hopefully this will lay to rest any criticisms of the historic American venue, and riders can get down to some serious racing (and some track records we suspect).
Source: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Wasn’t it Nicky who almost broke his leg off when losing a knee slider ‘cos of the track?
Yup. His knee puck hit a drainage ditch, and ripped off. He was dragging skin for most of the race.
Hopefully they will find pavers that are the right width this time. I have gone to every Indy MotoGP and a little bird told me that the reason the infield is comprised of thin, 6 foot strips of pavement running parallel was that the paving company had the “large” paver committed elsewhere. They had to get the job done because of scheduling of F1 so they used a smaller paver that created the pattern.
Good thing it only takes a week to finish the job, this should give them plenty of time to repave it correctly again next week.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Begins Repaving Infield – http://aspha.lt/mj #motorcycle
Hopefully it’s not the same outfit that repaved the oval in ’06 that they had to grind smooth after (for Indy) which resulted in shredded tires for F1…
I wish that was happening at one of my tracks.
A material tranfer device (shuttle buggy) should be used between the paver and the trucks to increase the chances for a smooth ride. They are required in many states for interstate work for smoothness and should be utilized in this application!
Wow…and I thought PennDOT jobs had a lot of “supervisors”.
ah, lol, … haven’t heard a PennDot crack in a long time
PennDOT would use more orange cones.