Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Hayden Redeems Saturday Race with Top-Five on Sunday

Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden made up for his result during Saturday’s AMA Daytona SportBike race as he challenged for the lead and eventually finished fifth on Sunday at Virginia International Raceway. Teammate Jamie Hacking got pushed back at the start and eventually finished ninth. Leandro Mercado returned to racing at VIR, but crashed out early during the AMA SuperSport race, walking away uninjured.

After an unsatisfying finish on Saturday, Hayden was ready to come out fighting on Sunday. On the rolling start, Hayden moved up to third place and eventually into the lead a few laps later. A constant battle waged back and forth for the lead over the next dozen laps, but in the end he finished fifth.

“It’s disappointing to lead the race that long and finish fifth,” said Hayden. “It is nice to come back and do better and show that I can run up front, but I didn’t have any tire left. It was spinning and I wasn’t able to push it at the finish.”

With only one round left in the season, the boys have two races left to make their mark on the field. Already both Hacking and Hayden have had success on the podium, but are searching for their first win.

“I hope we learned a few things about the bike so we can come out at the last race and get a win,” said Hayden. “We had a good test there (New Jersey) a couple of weeks ago and Jamie (Hacking) and I have both shown that we have the speed for the front. It would be great to go out with a win.”