AMA Superbike rider Roger Lee Hayden sat down with All About Bikes to talk about the upcoming racing season. Hayden raced in the World Superbike series in 2010, but is happy to be back racing on American shores this year.1.) How do you think you, and the rest of the AMA, will be affected by the two month break?
I don’t think it’s really going to affect anybody, just because everyone’s in the same situation. We all got to ride last week, so everybody should come into Infineon with all the rust off.
It is kind of a bummer, I will say. You get the season started and then you have this big break. But for me, I’m just ready to get going again and I’m excited to have these back to back races.
2.) What are your thoughts about Infineon? How will the Suzuki GSX-R1000 perform there?
The Suzuki is going to work well everywhere. It’s the winningest bike in AMA history. It won a bunch of races last year. But for me, Infineon hasn’t been my best track.
It’s not that I don’t like it, but maybe I just haven’t figured it out. The last couple of years I’ve gotten better there, so hopefully I’ll do better there this year. It isn’t that I don’t like it, or that I dread going there, but for some reason I haven’t done well there in the past.
3.) After a year of racing in the World Superbike series, you’re moving back to the AMA. What’s the biggest difference between racing on an international circuit, and racing back at home?
A lot of the teams in the World Superbike scaled back this year. The Althea Ducati team scaled back to one rider. The Suzuki team went back to one rider. There just aren’t that many seats over there.
So for me, I wanted to get back on competitive equipment. When the Michael Jordan team called and it just fit. It’s a solid program and the bike won some races last year. My careers been up and down the last couple of years and I just really wanted something solid.
Ever since the first test I knew it was the right decision.
4.) Growing up with your family, was there ever any doubt that you weren’t going to be a professional motorcycle racer?
When I was a kid, about 5 or 6, my sister fell off a horse and broke her wrist. At the time I wanted to be a horse jockey, but after she got hurt I decided that horse racing was too dangerous and decided to start riding bikes instead.
Ever since then, this has always been what I’ve wanted to do. It hasn’t always been easy, but racing bikes is what I love and I feel like I can be a really competitive rider this year.
5.) You’ve spent the last few years riding a Kawasaki. How has the transition to the Suzuki machine been?
I’ve been riding a Kawasaki for the last 7-years, but you know, the change has been really good. Last year I struggled in the World Superbike, we were a little bit underfunded and it kind of took the fun out of racing.
For me, I’m kind of used to running up front and now I’ve got that chance with the Michael Jordan team and the Suzuki. Sometime’s change is good and this was a good change for me. I like the team, they’ve really made me feel welcome and I feel like they are fully behind me and really behind me.
I’m also on the National Guard Bike, and that means a lot to me. I really respect the people that go out and serve out country and it means a lot to race for them.
But you know, the only thing that’s going to make it fun is if we can ride at the top. We’ve been working really hard, and I think we’ll be really competitive this year.
