Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Ends Season Inside Top-10September 6
Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s riders ended the season in high spirits with two out of three riders finishing inside the top-10 in the final AMA Daytona SportBike race of the season at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
Jamie Hacking challenged the front pack before settling for a top-five finish, a big improvement from Saturday’s race. Roger Hayden had a good jump at the start, but ran off in turn one. He put on an impressive charge to finish behind his teammate in sixth. Rookie Leandro Mercado pulled double duty on Sunday as he finished 11th in the Daytona SportBike and seventh in the SuperSport race.
Starting on the fourth row of the rolling start, Hayden immediately jumped through the pack to the front, but was unable to make the turn and ran off the track in turn one. He quickly rejoined the pack and put in a hard charge, edging out the competition at the finish line by .001 for sixth.
Roger Hayden
“At the start, I just got in turn one a little hot and ran off the track,” said Hayden. “I was pretty far back, around 20th. I just tried to work as hard as I could and I was able to get up to sixth there at the end. It’s pretty disappointing because I knew I had the pace to do better, but at the same time it’s pretty good to come from that far back and end up sixth. I would have liked to end on the podium, but at least I was able to finish where I did.”
Riders know how important it is to have a good team behind them and all were thankful for the hard work this season.
“I just wanted to say thanks to the team for everything this year,” said Hayden. “We’ve had an up and down year and they’ve really done a lot for me. Also Kawasaki stuck behind us all year and I’m really thankful for that.”
The round at New Jersey Motorsports Park marked the end of an up and down year for the Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki. In the AMA Daytona SportBike class, the team produced nine podiums and 14 top-five finishes. Mercado won two of the six AMA SuperSport races he competed in with one additional podium.
