Rizla Suzuki boss Paul Denning made good on his promise because Elena Myers finally got her chance to ride the Suzuki GSV-R yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and making her, to our knowledge the second female racer ever to throw a leg over an 800cc MotoGP bike (we believe Letizia Marchetti was the first, riding the Ducati GP10 at Jerez for a TIM advert).
Ahead of the run, the 17-year old Myers received some advice from Alvaro Bautista on the quirks of his bike and then she proceeded to complete five laps on the prototype machine (sans carbon brakes) managing to clock 306km (190mph) on the main straight and according to some Italian journalists a best lap of 1.
59.
8.
“Wow! I can’t really say anything else; it was just such an incredible experience!” said the lucky teenager.
“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!” “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,” said Paul Denning.
“At 17-years-old, and judging by her performances in the AMA Pro SuperSport championship, 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 or the power!“Thanks to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for helping us to make this happen, the boys for preparing the bike and to Álvaro for letting Elena use it!”