Of the seven riders taking part in this week's Indianapolis test, Ben Spies is in a unique position - since the reigning double AMA Superbike champion will also be taking part in the inaugural
Red Bull Indianapolis
MotoGP on September 12-14.
Although 'no rider designated by a MotoGP team' is permitted to take part in this week's two-day tyre test, the new rule doesn't exclude wild-card riders.
As such Spies - who made his MotoGP debut replacing the injured
Loris Capirossi at
Donington Park and will ride a third Rizla Suzuki at the forthcoming Laguna Seca and Indianapolis rounds - is able to both test and race.
The Texan finished the first ever day of MotoGP action at Indy having set the second fastest lap time, just 0.05secs slower than Bridgestone/Ducati test rider Niccolo Canepa, after completing 100 Tuesday laps - more than any other rider.
"Yeah, it's good," said Spies of the new circuit. "I think there's a couple little things they can improve, but I also think the people at the track are definitely going to go for that and make it happen for the race and fix what's needed to be fixed to make it better. For the first time on the track, I think it's a pretty good starting point, and we'll throw some ideas at them and see if they can get it worked out for the race time, and I think everything will be good."
On Tuesday, Spies said his main priority remained feeling comfortable with the Bridgestone-shod 800cc V4, rather than learning the track layout.
"This is a new motorcycle for me so I'm just trying to do as many laps as I can, and that's about it," he said. "The track, after a few laps you learn it no matter what, so just trying to get more comfortable on the bike. In the end, we're getting faster and faster so it was a pretty good day."
Spies was thrown in the MotoGP deep end at Donington Park, where he faced a circuit he had never seen and a motorcycle he had never ridden in its latest incarnation.
Nevertheless, the #11 made no significant mistakes, qualified an excellent eighth in the rain and finished 14th in the dry race.
