Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128143
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At Sears Point, he was tentative. There'd been no
testing after Daytona. But he makes no' excuses for
the outcome. "That day, just didn't get it done," he
says.
The team had chosen not to test at Road Atlanta,
and it showed. In the half wet, half dry conditions of
the first day, he took fourth.
"The next day is really when the thing started to
come apart for us," he says.
Trying to make up for a bad start, he went into a
corner too hot and the front slipped away. "It was
just kind of a dumb move, really, to crash there,"
he admits.
But he won't blame the front end of the RC-51
for the gaffe. "It was my own fault. I was just in
hot."
Leaving Georgia, Hayden knew there would likely not be a title in 2001.
The team hadn't tested at Road America, a circuit where the Honda can stretch its legs. Hayden
won his first Superbike race there in 2000 in the
front end of the doubleheader, then backed it up in
the second race.. Saturday's first race in 2001 was
sabotaged when a bolt came out of his rear brake.
"My brother [Tommy] was behind me and going
down the straightaway it was funny, I was pumping
the brakes trying to get them to come back. And it
was just shooting fluid and he was laughing
because he could see me pumping them, and every
time he was trying to draft me he could see the
brake fluid come out," he says.
Hayden is one of the few riders who utilizes the
rear brake, mainly to settle the bi~e going into corners and to stop wheelspin. He ended up fifth on
Saturday. On Sunday, Hayden crashed during a
five-minute wet warm-up. Still shaken up when the
race started in the rain, Hayden opted to ride consistently, not to win, but to not crash. As the rain
fell harder, his approach paid off.
"It was the first time I ever really raced a superbike in the rain on the full-on rains, start to finish
rain," he said about his third-place finish.
Loudon was a struggle. The RC-51 doesn't work
that well at Loudon and the power advantage is
negated. Hayden was a distant, discouraging fourth.
By the tim'e he got to Mazda Raceway Laguna
Seca, he was in a funk.
"By then, my confidence was all shot and I was
kind of doubting myself," he says. "It's amazing
how quick it changes. You can be doing so good
and one or two bad races and you lose your confidence and start doubting the bike and the set-up,
yourself."
Hayden qualified on the front row and was running fifth early when he fell trail-braking into the
slow left-hand final turn 11. A "rookie mistake" he
calls it.
"That was it, the day was over," he says. "That
was definitely the low point of my year, and probably my career as a pro rider. I was so disappointed
and expected so much. I was really just frustrated
because I was just making mistakes.
"I just wanted to do good all year," he adds. "I
hadn't won a race, and just that feeling of running
around third and fourth was just eating at me. I
wanted to be winning. It just wasn't no fun running
third and fourth, hoping to qualify on the front row. I
definitely wasn't having a whole lot of fun."
From there, he went to Mid-Ohio where the season really turned around. The RC-51 came out of
the truck ready to run. Hayden was fastest in Friday's free practice and qualified third. In the first
race, he didn't start off well. After a few passes, he
was up to third, but the leaders were well away and
that was as far as he'd get.
"That night, J told the guys that if I got a good
start the next day, I was definitely going to put up a
lot bigger fight then," Hayden said. "From there, I
started.winning an