Roberts swims with sharks at Indy

By John Hopkins
with files from cdnsuperbike.com

Halifax racer Adam Roberts had a rough introduction to the 250cc World Championship in practice for the event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday.

The RAT Racing Yamaha rider was unable to get within the prescribed qualifying cut-off time during a wet hour-long practice session.

"On the first lap I quickly realized my gearing was much to short, but I stuck it out for a couple of laps before stopping to change sprockets," Roberts said. "The track is pretty difficult, with a mixture of asphalts, which means different grip levels. I put my head down and really worked on figuring the corners out, but struggled to put more than a couple of them together.

"I think we made out alright for first practice, even though we were a bit behind on lap times. I made some changes, and thought about some things and we’ll be ready to do battle tomorrow."

Roberts found out after the practice that he and fellow wild card entry Barrett Long of the US don't have access to the Dunlop tires being used by the majority of the field.

Fellow Canuck Ben Young also found himself with a lot of work to do on Saturday. The Veloce Aprilia rider was also outside of the cut-off time in the 125cc class on Friday.