The Indianapolis Motor Speedway featured on the real life MotoGP calendar until 2015, and the track remains on the recent games including MotoGP 23 as a Historical bonus track.

Honestly, it’s not one of my favourite tracks – it just feels too awkward and lacks flow on a MotoGP bike. But for players who like a more technical challenge, it could be good fun as there’s some tricky corner sequences that need some real precise braking and leaning to nail perfectly.

Also bear in mind that for MotoGP the track goes the opposite way round to most other racing formulas, including F1 when they raced there. So what you might know as “turn 1” from other racing games is actually the last turn, and vice versa.

For a bike setup, you need something that’s stable under braking and leaning for sure. And then a ton of practice to get the technical corner sequences right. I didn’t find this one an easy track to learn, but I tried a couple of setups that had about the same pace.

Here’s a MotoGP class bike setup for Indianapolis for MotoGP 23:

• Suspension (Front Fork):
  • • Front pre-load – 4
    • Oil Quantity – 1
    • Front Spring Hardness – 2
    • Front Swingarm compression – 4
    • Front Swingarm extension – 5
• Rear Single Shock Absorber:
  • • Rear Pre-load – 2
    • Swingarm connector – 4
    • Rear spring hardness – 3
    • Single shock absorber compression – 4
    • Single shock absorber extension – 6
• Vehicle Geometry:
  • • Steering head inclination – 2
    • Trail – 5
    • Steering plate position – 4
    • Rear swingarm length – 4
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 6-5-5-5-5-4
    • Final ratio – 5
    • Slipper clutch – 7
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 355 mm
    • Rear disc – 220mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 5
    • Engine braking – 4
    • Anti-wheelie – 5
    • Power mapping – 2

This setup felt reasonably stable, but honestly I think it needs a lot of practice to get this circuit right, regardless of the setup used. Some players might want to use a lower TC value on their ECU – I keep it higher to get rid of annoying understeer on corner exit on this game.

Alternate MotoGP Class Setup For Indianapolis

I did also test one of my default/baseline setups (softer settings) on this track, and it also worked quite well and delivered comparable lap times to the first setup.

Here it is:

• Suspension (Front Fork):
  • • Front pre-load – 2
    • Oil Quantity – 3
    • Front Spring Hardness – 4
    • Front Swingarm compression – 3
    • Front Swingarm extension – 3
• Rear Single Shock Absorber:
  • • Rear Pre-load – 4
    • Swingarm connector – 3
    • Rear spring hardness – 2
    • Single shock absorber compression – 3
    • Single shock absorber extension – 3
• Vehicle Geometry:
  • • Steering head inclination – 4
    • Trail – 4
    • Steering plate position – 3
    • Rear swingarm length – 5
• Transmission:
  • • Gears (1-6) – 6-5-5-5-5-4
    • Final ratio – 5
    • Slipper clutch – 7
• Brakes:
  • • Front disc – 355 mm
    • Rear disc – 220mm
• ECU
  • • Traction control – 5
    • Engine braking – 4
    • Anti-wheelie – 5
    • Power mapping – 2

Moto2 and Moto3 Setups For Indianapolis

The Moto2 and Moto 3 bikes are MUCH easier to ride consistently around a track like this, as you’ve more time to prepare for and nail the successive corner sequences.

If you want setups for these classes, check out my generic setups for MotoGP 23, where I’ve also got starter configurations for these bikes that you can test against the game default to find improvements.

Tips For Riding Around Indianapolis

I find this track one of the trickier ones, especially on the MotoGP bikes. Everything’s moving so fast that you have to be very precise to get the corners right, and it’s very easy to react too late and miss corners.

Here’s a few tips for riding this circuit:

Braking – This track is definitely one where you need to use a lot of just the rear brake on it’s own to get tucked into corners. Don’t use the front brake at all while leaning or you’ll crash. There are some sections like turns 1-4, turns 6-9 and turn 15-16 where it’s really easy to apply the front brake by accident when cornering, but you’ll always crash on this game doing that.

Cornering – There’s a couple of section where it’s several corners all closely following each other where you’re basically leaning over right away in the other direction, or just the very slightest dab on the power before leaning over. On MotoGP bikes it’s about thinking ahead and reacting quickly enough to hit the successive apexes, almost getting ready to lean over the other way even before you’ve fully exited the previous corner. Turns 6-9 (left-right-left-right) and the turn 15-16 right-left chicane are two of these sections where you’re applying either no throttle or almost no throttle between corners to avoid over-running. You need to be restrained on the accelerator to put together a clean lap here.