IN
THE
WIND
P26
ROGER RETURNS TO ROOTS
T
he Hayden clan—
Tommy, Nicky and
Roger Hayden—cut their
racing teeth in dirt track
before going on to win
road-racing champion-
ships at the National
and World level. Even
though they have a track
at home in Owensboro,
Kentucky to train on, it's
been a little more than a
decade since the young-
est Hayden brother,
Roger, has strapped on
the steel shoe.
"It was 2003, in Octo-
ber," Hayden said. "The
Del Mar short track was
the last time I actually
wore a steel shoe and
did some real flat track."
Hayden and fellow Owens-
boro road racers Jake Lewis
and Nick McFadden have got-
ten back into dirt track, as well,
racing flat track on back-to-back
weekends—DuQuoin, Illinois,
and then Decatur, Alabama, last
weekend.
"It was a lot of fun," Hayden
said. "No pressure and just
show up. It was just a really fun
weekend, and I guess we got bit
by the bug because we found a
race this weekend in Decatur,
Alabama, that we're going to on
Saturday night. I guess I'm going
to find some dirt tracks to hit this
winter."
So is it back to throwing dirt
track bikes in a box van and hit-
ting the road?
"Yeah, basically," Hayden
said. "Just a truck and a trailer
and, you know, doing our thing.
I know we're having a lot of fun
with it. Plus I think it's going to
help my road racing, too, to keep
riding this time of year going and
doing races, and practicing for
them."
Hayden, with the help and
support of Suzuki and Yoshimu-
ra, put his dirt tracker together
a couple weeks before the Du-
Quoin short track. And he was
not only grateful for the help of
putting the bike together, but
also the thumbs-up to go racing.
"It just feels good, because
Yoshimura and Suzuki were so
cool with me doing it," Hayden
said. "And I'm glad because it
lets me have some fun this off
season and to try and stay sharp
racing."
So, Hayden has dirt track fe-
ver again. This fever seems to be
spreading, as dirt track popular-
ity overseas has been spreading
with big events like next week-
end's Superprestigio in Barce-
lona, Spain. The second running
of the event has a who's who of
racer entries: Marc Marquez,
A little over a decade later, Roger
Hayden strapped on the steel shoe
again at the DuQuoin Indoor Short
Track race.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KEVIN
CHOATE
