Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P141 points out job insecurity is standard for a racer. "I laugh about this because even when I've won championships, I've been paranoid about if I'm go- ing to have a job next year," Hayes said. "Until the paperwork was signed I've always been just, I've never felt at ease. I've even had contracts go bad, so even when I had a signed contract sometimes I would worry. "I had friends who would be so nonchalant about things, like, 'oh, it's going to work out, it's going to be fine.' I'm like, 'what are you talk- ing about it's going to be fine?' We're not entitled to race these peoples' motorcycles for them and get paid for it. Paranoia is probably the best way to explain it. And of course this stuff was no different." There was one difference, though, from the past, the rela- tionship he has with Yamaha's Factory Race Manager Keith McCarty. "For the first time in my life—I can tell you that my relationship with Keith McCarty—I have felt more comfortable and more confident than I ever have before," Hayes said. "I've done a good job for Yamaha, and as long as I continue to do the best job I can for them, they're going to take care of me. Somehow, some way, they're going to find a way. They will not let me down." It's been a happy home at Yamaha, the team where he's won all of his Superbike titles, where he's made his mark on the sport and also the team who gave him his dream job: a factory Superbike ride. "It ended up being a savior for me because I was in World Supersport just looking for a job, anything, desperate to ride anywhere and didn't know what was out there," Hayes said. "I had been begging Yamaha for years to just give me a shot, and for whatever reason I was never on their list. I remember getting the call from Gina [Nadeau, his manager] saying, 'Hey, we have an offer to ride Su- perbikes for Yamaha.' I was in Portugal and I said, 'Did you sign it yet?'" So Hayes landed his dream job, but it was far from a dream start. He struggled early on and the thought that he might be blowing his big opportu- nity was rather upsetting. He remembers sitting in the tractor trailer three races into the season racing in eighth place think- ing: "I can't believe I finally got my factory shot and this is going to be the end of my career, because I don't know what to do." But that moment brought him to a turning point. "That very weekend I kind of turned things around," Hayes said. "I started heading in a better direction and before the end of the year, we had won seven Superbike races. I went from just another guy who's been in the support classes for 10 years, to Mat Mladin's going home, 'Josh has won seven in a row.' People were telling me I was already the next Superbike Cham- pion and we still had to figure out what we were going to do with next year. It was pretty crazy to go from underdog to overdog so fast." Hayes' dominance in Superbikes in the DMG era would make it easy for some to forget his fight to the top. But what was shaping up to being la- beled a perpetual underdog status had to have some impact on him as a racer. "I think one of the big things is I'm not going to give anything away," Hayes explained. "I waited too long to get my one opportunity. Every single race I ride you're going to have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers if you want the race win." And the one time he didn't live up to that stan- dard still bothers him. "I remember one race in Mid-Ohio a couple years back and I let an opportunity to get on the podium get away from me," Hayes said. "I finished off the podium. I was haunted by the fact. I swore "EVERY DECISION I MAKE I PROBABLY LOOK AT IT AND GO, 'WOULD MY DAD BE PROUD OF HOW I HANDLED THIS SITUATION?' I THINK I'M PRETTY SAFE IF I ANSWER THAT QUESTION WITH A YES."

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