Nicky Hayden might not have been a frontrunner, but he still says he’s happy with his results in the Austin GP last weekend, and with good reason.
While Valentino Rossi is held up with respect for his amazing results after 300+ MotoGP appearances (he garnered third place on the weekend), Hayden’s been around a while as well. The Austin GP was his 200th appearance, and he still managed to put points on the board, with a 13th place finish.
Hayden started the race in 22nd, but managed to battle his way up the ranks until he ran into problems with tire wear on the last few laps, particularly on the front. Still, he beat a couple of MotoGP’s rising young guns (LCR Honda’s Jack Miller and Gresisni Aprilia’s Alvaro Bautista were 14th and 15th respectively) as well as his Aspar teammate, Eugene Laverty.
“I had a nice fight with a bunch of guys, which I won to take some points and that was a small victory in my 200th GP,” Hayden said. “Thirteenth place is not spectacular but I am happy because we have finished the weekend moving in the right direction and hopefully we can keep it going from here.”
Before the weekend, some race fans had suggested Hayden fill in on the Repsol Honda factory team for the injured Dani Pedrosa. That wasn’t ever going to happen, for many reasons, including sponsorship contracts. Honda factory test pilot Hiroshi Aoyama was the replacement rider, and he ended up in 11th.
I’ve been a fan of Hayden for a long time and think he should have moved to WSBK with Ducati and tried to get the triple crown that nobody has done before. AMA Superbike, Motogp and WSBK championships.