MARCH 31, 2004

Indianapolis to be resurfaced

The Indianapolis Motor Speeedway is to resurface the oval later this year. The work will take around two months to complete and will use 36,500 tons of asphalt. The infield section of traffic used by the Formula 1 cars will be not resurfaced but as the F1 cars run for part of the lap on the oval it will be significant for the Grand Prix teams when they go back to Indianapolis in 2006. The current surface is only nine years old but there are cracks which have been caused by the harsh winter weather and this has affected the drainage. As Indy Racing League cars do not race in the wet, the decision to resurface must have something to do with the demands of F1. IRL says that the decision to resurface was not at the request of any of the series which race at the speedway. The track has been repaved three times since it became fully asphalted in 1961.