Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

different pits. Nowadays, he can camp under the lime gree n Kawasaki awning. That part is easier. But having his so ns on differen t teams on different bikes and, to some extent, in different classes (as he did in 2002) makes it easier still. "Everybody wanted to compare one with the other one, and when they were on three differe nt teams, it made it a little harder for peo ple to compare t hem," Earl Hayden said. ':And I never compared them anyway. Wh ich one was best or whatever, you know what I mean?" Roger Lee is riding a three-race winning streak coming into the final showdown at VIR. It has by far been his best season ever; his previous season-best was fifth in 2002. The inconsistency and crashes that blotted his past few seaso ns are gone. When he broke through with his first Supersport win at Barber Motorsports Park, shadingTommy by .030 of a second, his joy was uncontainable. "I think that he got a lot of negative peo ple saying he's riding on the hee ls of his brothers, that he wou ldn't make it as a racer," Rose Hayden said. "He had a lot of we ight on his shoulders for a lot of reasons . To race like that and to be out there having fun with your brot her, and then too , I think beating your brother after all t hese years - I think that it was a lot of everything. He was on cloud nine." That was back in May.At VIR, Tommy has to fi nish third if Roger Lee takes the maximum points haul. With the Yamaha team having strengthened its hand by racing and testing at VIRtwo weeks before the race, it makes Tommy's job that much harder. It's also going to be a hard day for Earl. The original date of the VIR finale was the same weekend as the Japanese GP in Motegi. Earl was going to leave his passport in the drawer and stay in the south . Then the VIR race was prematurely rained out - that's the official reason, tho ugh many believe the pro blems were more contractual t han atmos pheric - and postponed until October 9-10. Earl had pro mised Nicky he'd accompany him from Q atar to Malaysia to Australia. The weekend of the VI R finale, Earl will be up at in the early hours of the mom ing watc hing the race on the Internet and wishing that cellular service in Alton, Virginia, were more tha n primitive. "He's just so bummed over this," Rose said of her husband. "To miss this for everythingthat Earl has gone throug h. He couldn't shift the things arou nd. Being gone fo r a month... The thing that kills him is the championship. He told me whe n they started battling, he said, 'I will be at this last race.''' Within an hour of the race being postponed, longtime Hayden familyfriend Doug Chandler called Tommy up. "Just to give him a hard time," Chandler said. "That's the hardest thing. It's unbelievable. Y can't explain. You're past the point ou of doing everyt hing yo u can do and all you want to do is get to that race and get it over with regardless of the outcom e - you've thought about it so much you just want to get it behind you. When t hey throw some- thing like that out there, it's like you're all ready to get it over w ith and now yo u've got to wait another two, three weeks. That's very, very frustrating." The Haydens often stay with t he Chandlers when they 're out west, and the same is true when the Chandler crew rolls through Kentucky. Doug has seen all of them grow into the mature professionals they are. "I think there 's a lot of riders - I'm one of them - if you don't feel the team's behind you, it's hard to get yourself motivated," Chandler said of Roger Lee's previo us tenure at Erio n Ho nda. "It's like, 'Why should I risk it if these guys rea lly aren' t behind me?' That has a little bit to do with it. But he's been trying so hard the last couple of years . He had some good races last year on Kevin's [Erion] bikes. It just didn't quite all come together. I think it's just the year behind him, and he's getting it figu red it out. He's probably got the most determination out of the three [brothers]. Nick had a lot of dete rmination, but Roger, being the youngest one - I t hink he's got a lot to prove. I think he's putt ing a lot in it and he' s gotten a pretty good taste of the success side of it. And it starts com ing easier for him. He's got good guys behind him now." Kawasaki team boss Mike Presto n noticed the change over the winter. Roger Lee began to take racing more seriously,eating right, training with his brothers, thinking about racing. He spen t part of the winter in Southern California with Nicky and Tommy, his fi rst extended period away from home. Nicky was only there for a co uple of weeks before he had to fly overseas to test. Rose wo uld call and ask, ':Are you all getting along?" and To mmy wou ld answer, "Y eah, we're doing fi ne." Then Rose would ask how Roger was doing. "He 'd say, 'Mo m, you'd be really proud of him; he's really focused.' And when he came home you could tell he was more focused and more determined than when he left," Rose said. "I think he's put a bit more into trying to get himself into better shape, because he was able to ride with Tommy and NiC and kind ky of know what the gap was," Chandler said. "I know that wo uld be a big part of it - just to kind of get closer that way just gives you so much more me ntally Knowingthat you now . are in almost as good a shape as they are. The difference being last year to this year, it's kind of a bit more self-confidence." Earl Hayden said he saw it at home . "The couple of years before , it was just like , it just wasn't happening, you know what I mean?" Much of the credit goes to Mike Preston and the Kawasaki team, Earl believes. When Eric Bostrom made the move to Ducati in mid-November, Roger Lee was promoted from the Attack Kawasaki sate llite team to the factory squad , his first time o n an ''/>\' team . Part of t he reasoning was his big-bike experience on the Erion Honda Formula Xtreme CBRs. "Mike Preston, I mean he really wants to win," Earl said. "Mike Preston wants to win a who le lot. And his word is I00 percent. When he tells you something, that's exactly the way it is. I really like tha t about him. I think Roger kind of likes it too. He's got peo ple around him like Dan Fahie and Kenny Hunter; they've been around my family for years, you know what I mean? They really care about him as a person, not only as a racer. That's kind of, I think, a lot of the reason that it's happe ning." The move to the A team put him on equal terms with Tommy. In his brief tenure as Kawasaki's road racing boss, Preston has been in a number of champions hip hunts, but never with teammates, and certainly not with brothers. "For sure we were looking at Tommy to be a top contender," Preston said. "He's definitely a little more veteran. But Roger, new and coming up, gett ing used to the team... We saw a lot of potent ial and that's why we brought him along. And I expected him to w in and I expec ted him to get some good finishes - but I didn't expect four wins this quicklyand I didn't know he was going to be bangingon the door fo r a championship. We expected a lot of o ut of him, but he's above and beyond that . I didn't think he'd be there. He would probably never admit it, but sure he'll tell you he's the best and he's going to be the World Champion , and I think he definitelycan be that too, but I don't think he'd ever admit it. He probably did a litt le better than he thought he could do being with a new team and new bikes." What makes the team work is that, at the end of the day, the brothers are still broth ers. "They're good kids," Preston said. "I don't know if every brother would be the same . It's worked out. I enjoy both of the guys. Rose and Earl should get lots of cred it. They raised some good young men. They respect each other, they respect others around them . You can't ask for more than that ." They travel together, they stay at the same hotel, and they usually eat dinner together. They might have disagree ments, but they get over them. They help each other prepare. The crews share information. "They know if, say, Roger can't win, they want Tommy to win," Preston said. "If Tommy can't win, they want Roger to win. They're all helping together. And that's partially due to the fact that the boys get along together." "Tommy stillgives him a lot of pointe rs eve n at the racetrack , still helps him a lot," Earl said. "Y would think a guy going for ou the championship wouldn't be doing that, you know what I mean?" The Kawasaki ZX-6R has been as much of a surp rise as the team 's domination. It's not as dominant as the new YamahaR- I was last year and doesn' t have the to p-end advantage, but the power is up and it handles well - always has. "We had to make it better to be com petitive," Preston said. "They revamped everything and did wha t they neede d to do." When the teams tes ted at Mazda www.cycieneW5.com Raceway Laguna Seca, Chandler came over from his home in nearby Salinas. "To mmy, he's trying to figure this thing out and make it better to where you can go faster with less effort," Chandler said. "Rog, he was just getting on the thing and going, which is good . Youcan get away with that . It kind of catches you out on occasion, w hich it kind of has, but not that bad." Tommy has always been the smoothest rider on the track, a trait he shares with Chandler. If there's a knock, it's been a lack of aggression, the abse nce of the killer instinct. Roger Lee came into his own this year. Last year he showed flashes of speed but fell a litt le too often and was let down on the mechanical side. 'And whenever there was talk of him going to Kawasaki, you could just see a difference in him," Rose said of Roger Lee. "By the end of the year last year, he was a little cranky. He took it so we ll. He never threw any fits." A year later and he's on the cusp of his first cham pionship, as is Tommy. Ready to race weeks ago, now they've had to wait. "Probably the hardest was the weekend between, when they didn't know what they were going to do ," Preston said. "How do you stay motivated when you don't know what your outcome is going to be? O nce they made the decision to run it, they were pumped ." Adds Rose, "Tommy has come so close to winning a championship before and he's on pins and needies, and then they postpone for that much longer. Rog, he's never really bee n in something like this. He just says everything's nerve -wracking. You get ready to go and there's no place to go - you've got to put it on hold again." The weekend has been shortened to two days. Tommy is five points out of first in the Repsol Superstock Championship, tied with Yamaha's Jamie Hacking and trailing Yamaha's Aaron Gobert. The Superstock race is Saturday, and Chandler doesn 't think it will affect Tommy's Sunday stra tegy. "I think he can give it a fair go," Chand ler said. Rose Hayden has a diff rent view. e "I wish it'd been the other way around ," she said. "I wish the 600 would have bee n first. Just to get it over with for Tommy. In the back of his mind, he's got to be thinking, 'I can't take any chances.''' Once the racing starts , Chandler predicts: "Tommy's going to just have to stay away from him [Roger]. That's the sensible thing to do , because it doesn't matter. Just stay behind him." The Superstock race begins at 4:35 p.m. EDT, 4:35 a.m. Sunday morning in Sepang, Malaysia - maybe a little too early for Nicky to be awake, but not for Earl. Sunday's Supersport race starts at I: 15 a.m. Monday morning in Malaysia. They'll bot h be up, on the computer, o n the cell phone , on the landline - on AOL Instant Messenger if they have to . And when it's over, they'll end up back unde r the same roof at the same dinner eN table, and it will start all over again. CYCLE NEWS • OaOBER 13, 2004 47

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