Motorcycles and news

The Kentuckian lived up to the tremendous hype early on, storming to victories in the season’s first two races at Daytona International Speedway and Barber Motorsports Park. However, Hayden was injured in the Barber Superbike race and was forced to watch rival Jamie Hacking step his game up and take the series’ next seven races along with the championship while Hayden mended.

Hayden was able to inject a few final considerations of ‘what might have been’ on Sunday at Mid-Ohio by finishing the year the way he started it, on top of the box.

Early in the race he found himself in a dogfight with the surging Team M4 EMGO Suzuki duo of Michael Barnes and Geoff May. Barnes actually swung past Hayden and opened up a considerable advantage between laps 3 and 8.
The Kawasaki star clawed his way back to the front on lap 9, however, and created some separation of his own en route to his third win of ‘06.

“Today was a pretty tough race,” Hayden remarked. “I got a pretty good start and then ‘Barney’ came by and really caught me off guard. He put in some good laps and really checked out. I picked up the pace a little bit and was barely catching him and then it seemed like two laps I made it all up somehow. It was definitely a tough race and then towards the end I had a little bit of a gap and just wanted to hold it there. We got into some lappers and it stayed the same. I didn’t want to push too hard because I thought I had the Superbike race to do too but I’m not allowed to ride (Hayden wasn’t entered into the finale with a provisional because he wasn’t in the top ten in points this year or last year). It’s good to end the year with a win. It’s been a long year for me. I was looking forward to the offseason so it’s a good way to go out.

While he’s eligible to take part in the Superbike consolation race later today, Hayden will sit it out and call it a season. “I’m going to go back to Kentucky and watch the (Chicago) Bears play.”

Barnes held off teammate May to take the runner-up spot as the two claimed their third straight double podium finish for Team M4 EMGO Suzuki. They also locked up second and third in the title chase for the team with May holding onto second and Barnes’ stellar run on Sunday bumping him up to third from fifth.

Afterwards May said, “The goal is to finish first and for me, coming into my second year riding 600s, that was a big task. We wanted to win some races and be in the hunt for the championship. Coming in second is pretty good. If you can’t win the championship, second is pretty dang good. We’re happy, the crew is happy, and it’s pretty motivating for next year coming out in second. We’ll just go forward from here.”

Barnes only learned that he had moved up to third in the points chase in the post-race press conference. Upon hearing the news he commented, “That’s great. I’m ecstatic about that. It’s a pretty good accomplishment after not having been able to race Daytona with my injury. I got a little hurt before Roger did this year, but we both had some fighting back to do. I’m real pleased. That means both Geoff and I are top three and that’s great for the team.

“I’m wanting us to work real hard this winter and win some races. This is getting frustrating getting so close.”

Newly crowned Supersport champ Jamie Hacking was forced to start from the third row after the grid was set based on Friday morning’s practice times. He fought his way up to fourth in the end, coming out on top of a multi-rider scrap that also included British 250 Grand Prix star Chaz Davies, who impressed with a top five finish in one of his first ever rides on a four stroke aboard the Celtic Racing R6, Attack Kawasaki’s Ben Attard (sixth), and Graves Yamaha’s Michael Beck (seventh).

Hacking’s fourth-place result was the new double class king’s first finish outside of the top two in either Supersport or Superstock all season long.