Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Ahead of this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, its pair of American wildcard riders were in action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for pre-race testing.

The test took place last Friday, with Blake Young and James Rispoli in attendance. Young returned to action for Attack Performance Racing, having previously written off his APR bike in a crash at Laguna Seca, whereas Rispoli was riding a Moto2™ Mistral 610 machine for GPTech.

“It’s pretty exciting to be home here in America and be able to ride on the world level like this - and being able to do it at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway makes it all the better,” begins Young, whose first outing of the 2013 season came at Round 2 in Texas. “My crew has done an amazing job of working together to rebuild the bike and put me on a world stage here.”

Rispoli will make his World Championship debut as a two-time AMA SuperSport champion.

“It’s going to be tough,” says the Daytona Beach rider. “We’re going to race against the best guys in the world and it’s a motorcycle I’ve never seen before. It’s also a track I’ve never seen, so thankfully we had the test so we can get further up to speed and see if we can get on the back of these guys. I think first free practice is going to be kind of like, ‘Oh, wow!’ but I’m going into it wanting to get on the back of them; let’s learn as much as we can and get the most experience that I can. I don’t really know what to expect with the first time racing at the highest level of our sport and I thank everyone at GPTech for getting me in front and showcasing my talent.”

Indianapolis will mark the third and final American race to be included in the 2013 MotoGP™ calendar, after those of Austin, Texas and Laguna Seca, California.