Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Hayden Storms Into the Top-10
Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden rode his way into the top-10 during the first of two AMA Daytona SportBike races at Heartland Park Topeka. After final qualifying was cancelled on Saturday morning, Hayden was forced to use his basic qualifying position of 14th. He used the 17-lap race to maneuver his Kawasaki Ninja® ZX-6R inside the top-10 to finish ninth. Teammate Jamie Hacking sat out of the race citing safety concerns with the track.
Hayden had his work cut out for him at the start of the race with a 14th place qualifying spot, but he never gave up. Even with the gap in front of him over five seconds, Hayden kept improving his pace and eventually caught the pack. He ended the day in ninth, with optimism for the second and final race of the weekend on Sunday.
Roger Hayden
“The race was pretty good considering my start wasn’t great,” said Hayden. “Once I started going, I could tell I was getting faster and faster. I caught the top-10 guys with a few laps left. To go from 14th to ninth isn’t bad, but we definitely want to do better than that. The bike was working better than it has all weekend and I hope we can go from there.”
Using the motivation he had on Saturday, Hayden plans to keep the same attitude and goal for Sunday’s race.
“We are improving the bike every time we go out on the track,” said Hayden. “We will try to make the bike even better and then hopefully move up more tomorrow.”