The USA's most recent MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden proudly undertook the first lap of the newly-configured road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Monday, the Kentucky-born Repsol Honda rider lapping the circuit on a 1909 Indian motorcycle.
 
On September 14th this year, two-wheeled racing returns to IMS for the first time since its original construction in 1909 when the recently re-modelled 2.620-mile motorcycle track at the famous American venue hosts the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix - a second US date to join July’s Laguna Seca visit on the 2008 MotoGP calendar.
 
Having toured the IMS Hall of Fame Museum on Sunday, 2006 MotoGP title winner Hayden lapped the new track on the vintage Indian bike and then on a modern Honda road bike, before commenting, “When the bike first fired up I wondered what I got myself into! Then when I was doing about 40mph down the straight it felt like a hundred. I really enjoyed the ride though, especially my old school helmet, that was my favourite part!"
Hayden continued, "It is a real honour to be the first rider to enjoy a lap of the new Indy track and I can't wait to get out there on a MotoGP bike in September. I expect most of my hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky to be there, they may have to close the town down that day.”
 
Hayden has previously delighted US crowds with his first ever MotoGP win on home soil at Laguna Seca in 2005, before repeating the victory in California the following season en route to clinching the World Championship.
 
The first ever Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix will be the 14th round of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship and will take place over the weekend of 12th-14th September.