Rossi, Capirossi and KRJR give green light to Indy

Safety improvements at the world famous Indianapolis circuit have been endorsed by the three-rider MotoGP Safety Commission.

Safety plans for Indianapolis were presented to Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi and Kenny Roberts Junior in Shanghai earlier this month.

And 2000 world 500 champion Roberts Junior said: “From what we could tell in the drawings, the only part that looked iffy, until we started getting the scale drawings, was the last corner, which would be turn one of the Formula One track.

“You’re coming out at a pretty shallow angle to the wall.  From where we anticipate the slowest part of the corner being it’ll be about 60 metres from contact to the wall if you high-side.

“So any angle in which you’d contact it, you wouldn’t even want air bags there because it’s too sharp. It seems like on these 800s you’re going to be wanting too get the thing up and going.

“You’re not going to be making a big round corner out of it. Of course if that becomes an issue, we’ll have protection there. With the 800 it’s kind of hard to finish the corner off, lean it over and high-side it like you did in years past with 500s.

“Now the traction control kicks in and says, ‘oh you’re not allowed to do that and you don’t even know it.’

The 33-year-old said he will probably visit the circuit in the future, as Rossi and Capirossi did in Misano to ratify the return to San Marino for the first time since Wayne Rainey’s career ending crash in 1993.

FIM Grand Prix Safety Officer Claude Danis, who will visit the Indy 500 later this month, said: “I’m going to finalise details regarding the MotoGP. The riders are generally satisfied with the drawings I showed them, but there are some small details to be discussed.”

Indianapolis will join Laguna Seca on the 2008 calendar in a deal announced imminently.