ELENA MYERS achieved her dream on Thursday when she completed a handful of laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on board the Suzuki GSV-R of Álvaro Bautista.
Myers completed five laps on the 800cc MotoGP bike around the Brickyard under the watchful eye and tutelage of Bautista and many other members of the paddock, hitting 306km/h (190mph) down the main straight and impressing the assembled audience with her smooth and confident riding style on the prototype racer.
said the 17-year-old, "I can't thank the guys at Suzuki MotoGP enough – they have been awesome! This makes me so hungry to come out here and try it someday for real on a race weekend - well I guess this is a race weekend, but I mean for real next time.
"I can't say enough about the bike either, it does everything 20 times better than I ever would have imagined - this has just been amazing, and I think I'll slowly realise what just happened over the next couple of days. The GSV-R just blew me away!”
The ride was more of an opportunity to let Elena experience riding a MotoGP bike than an actual test, as the GSV-R was equipped with steel discs over the standard carbon fibre.
Suzuki team boss, Paul Denning added: “It was great to see Elena out on a MotoGP bike and very cool that — as the Suzuki MotoGP team — we could help her fulfill one of her dreams. At 17-years-old, and judging by her performances in the AMA Pro SuperSport Chamionship, she has a significant amount of ability that is only going to develop as she gains experience. She treated the run today with great intelligence and maturity, but nonetheless it was impressive to see that she wasn’t afraid of either the speed of the power!
