12:08 AM
"This one was earned." Roger Hayden's immediate reaction to his hard-fought, first-career AMA Pro Superbike podium was an accurate description in the manner intended, but it was also true in another sense as well. Hayden has covered a lot of ground during his professional racing career; he's taken an AMA Supersport title, scored an AMA Superstock victory and an AMA Pro Flat Track podium.
He also finished as the top American in the '07 Red Bull USGP, piloting Kawasaki's ZX-RR MotoGP racer to a top-ten result, to go along with wild card rides last season in MotoGP and Moto2 while working a full season as a World Superbike regular. But the primary focus of Hayden's career has been to succeed in AMA Superbike, and that's something he has never truly accomplished.
Until now. Prior to this season, Roger made a frank assessment of his Superbike efforts to date in arevealing interview published here at SPEED.com in which he admitted that he even considered hanging up his helmet at one point. However, he viewed the opportunity to team up with the National Guard Jordan Suzuki squad as a chance to hit the reset button on his career and finally prove his worth as a bona fide Superbike contender.
Hayden's renewed motivation was seriously put to the test over the opening half of the '11 season, however.
When Roger managed to finish, the actual placements were not all that bad, but the gap separating him to the front-runners seemed all but unassailable -- 10, 20, and sometimes more than 30 seconds at the checkered flag. Electrical gremlins and the intense pace of the class' three factory aces appeared to be slowly re-closing the door on Hayden's second (or perhaps third) chance at Superbike stardom.
Posted in: Kawasaki Team
4:17 AM 
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