The overall feeling after Wednesday’s open test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was that the revamped road course is a winner. (Scroll down the page for in-car video of the test.)

“It’s fun to drive,” said Tony Kanaan.

“It’s bad ass,” said Graham Rahal.

“It’s fast and flowing,” said Ryan Briscoe.

“It’s pretty damn challenging,” said Justin Wilson.

“It’s what you want, long straightaways and big braking zones,” said Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Originally built to accommodate Formula 1, the 2.439-mile, 14-turn circuit was pretty boring and a little Mickey Mouse (thanks Jacques Villeneuve) when it hosted F1 from 2000 to 2007. So, with a little testing and some suggestions from Simon Pagenaud, Graham Rahal, Briscoe and Kanaan, IMS spent some money making the track racier for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 10.

“I feel proud and I’m pleased at what the Speedway did,” said Kanaan, the 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner. “We have two major places to pass now (Turn 1 and Turn 7) and the track is smooth and fast.’

Scott Dixon, the 2013 Verizon IndyCar champion, led the 24 drivers that spent five hours getting acquainted with going the “wrong way” at Indianapolis. On his final lap, Dixon turned a 1:09.596 in the Target Dallara-Chevrolet to edge Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Briscoe’s best of 1:09.655 in the NTT Data entry.

“I’ve obviously got a big smile on my face. The track was so much fun today,” said Dixon, “The thing they captured, it’s a demanding circuit. The cars all seem very close which is going to create some fantastic racing. These big straights, I think Brazil is probably the only other time we’ve had a straight similar length like this. You’re actually a lot lower here. The sections, especially seven, eight, nine, 10, keeps you on your toes.

“Yeah, really impressed with how everything’s gone. Even the curbing, they’ve done a fantastic job.”

Pagenaud led the Honda runners with a lap of 1:09.754 in the SPH Dallara as 19 drivers were within one second of each other.

Three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves was fourth fastest at 1:10.020, followed by Hunter-Reay’s best of 1:10.023 for Andretti Autosport and Castroneves’s Penske teammate Will Power. Juan Pablo Montoya, the 2000 Indy 500 winner who also competed in F1 at IMS, logged the eighth-best circuit in the third Penske entry while rookie Jack Hawksworth continued to impress with the 10th-fastest time in Bryan Herta’s Honda-powered car. For the ful list of combined times, click here.

Rookie Mikhail Aleshin suffered some kind of mechanical trouble and only completed one out-lap before his day was finished. But running counter-clockwise to the oval still takes some adjustment, even for the veterans.

“Going down the front straightaway towards Turn 4 is pretty weird at first but then you get into a rhythm and forget you’ll be going the other way in a few days,” said Briscoe, referring of course to the 98th Indy 500 on May 25.