PICTURES: Kevin Schwantz. Indy. 500.
The words 'Indy' and '500' might normally bring to mind the world famous car race, but on Sunday they referred to Kevin Schwantz being reunited with the Suzuki RGV on which he won the 1993 500cc World Championship.
Schwantz - who took four of his 25 race wins during his title-winning season - took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for some high-speed demo laps with the V4 two-stroke just before the start of the MotoGP main event.
The words 'Indy' and '500' might normally bring to mind the world famous car race, but on Sunday they referred to Kevin Schwantz being reunited with the Suzuki RGV on which he won the 1993 500cc World Championship.
Schwantz - who took four of his 25 race wins during his title-winning season - took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for some high-speed demo laps with the V4 two-stroke just before the start of the MotoGP main event.
The demonstration marked the first time Schwantz had ridden the bike since 1995, the year he retired, but he was determined to do the bike justice. In a word, it was 'awesome'.
"Any time you get to get up on something that is that fast, even though the new modern stuff is a little more refined, to get on something that has got that raw power and that light weight with the acceleration and the stopping, everything about it was awesome," smiled Schwantz.
"This bike was the championship-winning bike in 1993, so it's been in mothballs since. This is the first public outing on any track of any significance, for sure. I was piling down the straightaway and doing things that fast. It was awesome," he repeated.
See below for more pictures of Schwantz with his Suzuki, and chatting with former arch-rival Wayne Rainey.
On Saturday, Schwantz took part in a demonstration of the new-for-2010 Moto2 machines, which will replace the 250cc class.
The only American rider with more 500cc/MotoGP race wins than Schwantz is Eddie Lawson, with 31.
