Indianapolis to host MotoGP race

The famous Indianapolis Speedway will host a round of the MotoGP world championship in 2008.
Motorcycle racing will return to the famous "Brickyard" for the first time in nearly a century.

The US will host two rounds of the 2008 championship, with the Indianapolis race on 14 September following the US GP at Laguna Seca in California.

The MotoGP circuit will be a new 16-turn 4.1km road course, with riders racing in an anti-clockwise direction.

Indianapolis has hosted the US Formula One Grand Prix since 2000, but last week Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that there would not be a 2008 race at the track.

MotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden, who is from Kentucky, said: I'm really excited about this race. Coming to such an historic track like Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be really special to me. It's like my home race."

Indianapolis is building a new track for the MotoGP event
His fellow American rider Colin Edwards added: "MotoGP is really starting to take off over there [in the US], and now with two races we'll get a lot more exposure.

"I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's the Brickyard, and it's got racing history for as far back as you can remember. It has so many famous car races there that it's definitely time we got two wheels on the track."

The new MotoGP track follows the Formula One track until Turn 8, after it dispenses with the double hairpin at turns 9 and 10 in favour of a more open S-bend.

It then rejoins the F1 circuit through turns 11 and 12, which bring it back on to the banked oval.

But instead of continuing through the banked turn of the oval, the MotoGP track turns right off it through a series of tight corners before rejoining the Speedway's main straight.