Anthony West admits he was disappointed at being unable to capitalise on his reputation as a wet weather specialist, despite climbing from last on the grid to finish in 11th place at Indianapolis.

Starting in 19th position, the Kawasaki rider made a strong start and was soon running inside the top ten as the track began to establish a dry line mid-way through the race.

However, West's charge up the leaderboard was halted by the return of Hurricane Ike to the area, prompting a storm that began to blow leaves and debris across the circuit and forcing the race directors to call a stop to the race seven laps from home.

By that point, West had actually dropped a spot to 11th position behind Alex de Angelis, but it still marked a solid mid-field performance in a race that otherwise saw no retirements.

"I'm actually really disappointed because I was sure we could have achieved a much better result in the wet today,” he said. “The track was cleared of standing water before the beginning of the race, and because I was so far back I had to really push hard to make up positions in the opening few laps.

“We got up to 10th place and I really felt we were capable of catching the riders ahead, but as the weather deteriorated so did the grip level left in my tyre, as I'd worked it so hard in the beginning, and we couldn't push any harder towards the end.

“From dead last on the grid eleventh isn't so bad, and given the weather we were up against, at least we were able to fight for what nearly was a top ten place."

Team-mate John Hopkins, meanwhile, finished a solid 14th having started 16th after using his experience to maintain a good rhythm in the changeable conditions.

“Warm-up this morning was dry and then the weather deteriorated not long before the race. We got a really good start, and we ran a fairly hard compound rear tyre as we thought a dry line might appear before the end of the race.

“This took a while to get up to temperature, so I rode quite steadily in the opening laps and unfortunately lost a few places. We got into a good rhythm and our lap times were good, but then the weather rapidly got worse. The rain we could deal with, but the wind was unbelievable, which made it hard to get the bike to change direction.

“There was a lot of debris all over the track and then the race was red-flagged. Overall 14th is certainly not where we wanted to finish, but in the dry we definitely made some improvements during qualifying and I hope we can put these to good use next time out in Japan."