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INTERVIEW AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPION JOSH HAYES P142 I'd never let that happen again. "I just waited too long—not waited—I wanted the opportunities, but it didn't come around. So now I feel like I'm not giving anything away." LATE START Hailing from Gulfport, Mississippi—not exactly known as a hotbed for producing motorcycle rac- ers—Hayes was not the moto kid that has become the norm these days. He got a late start at age 18. Racing wasn't something he was raised on. He didn't even watch motorcycle racing until he got into riding. If you would've asked a young Josh Hayes what he wanted to be when he grew up he would've said a fighter pilot. Unfortunately, his eyesight would crush that dream. He basically fell into motorcycle racing. Hayes got hooked on racing and did well enough in his early endeavors to get some support from his manager Nadeau, friend Rick Morgan and club racer Grant Lopez. That led to landing a spot on Ulrich's club race squad that graduated him to AMA when the team moved there. "It just kind of took off from there," Hayes said. "It was never a decision that I made that I'm going to be a professional motorcycle racer. It was more, 'wow, I can't believe I made it this far; I wonder if I can do better,' and just kept trying. It was a lot of being in the right place at the right time. A lot of taking advantage of opportunities. When an op- portunity came my way I didn't just take advantage of it, I took full advantage of it. I did my job well and that would create more opportunity for me." With the current state of club racing, though, Hayes doesn't see how that path to Superbike champion is possible. "There is no way a rider can come up the way that I did now," Hayes said. "Me, Steve Rapp, there's a handful of us that are just a lost breed. In this financial climate, club racing's not the same. When I was club racing it was 80 or 90 trucks, pickup trucks with a motorcycle in the back and there was one or two guys that had motorhomes. "Now I go to a WERA race and there's 10 mo- torhomes with middle-aged men who can afford to go racing, and hardly any trucks with motorcycles in the backs of them. Everybody's got tire warm- ers, everybody's got race fuel, everybody's got built engines and fancy suspension and electronic lap timers. The climate's changed a lot. Even the days of a guy like Robby Jenson making a living on contingency money, those days are gone." ACCELERATED LEARNING COURSE Unless it's just entirely a God given talent, which very select few can claim, to be a great champion, you have to be a great student. And Hayes made up for his late start by being not only a great stu- dent but a fast learner. And he's had a lot of great teachers: Mat Mladin, "IT WAS PRETTY CRAZY TO GO FROM UNDERDOG TO OVERDOG SO FAST."

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