Hayden Wins at Laguna Seca

The Valentino Rossi phenomenon filled the hills east of Monterey with record crowds this weekend, but most of the fans had to leave Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Sunday knowing that they saw the birth of America’s newest motorcycle superstar -- Nicky Hayden of Owensboro, Ky.

Riding flawlessly against the world’s greatest road racers, the 23-year-old middle brother of the racing Hayden family was never challenged as he won the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, the first MotoGP victory of his career. From the moment he got a hole shot off the starting line, Hayden’s Repsol Honda dominated as a wave of American flags cheered them around the 2.238-mile circuit.

Track officials announced an official crowd of 57,932 with a three-day total of 153,653.

“Seeing the fans waving flags, and knowing my family was here to see it, it was just an unbelievable feeling,” Hayden said. “Today, all week actually, was just awesome. I feel like I’ve reached a new level. This was my first MotoGP win, and all my life I have always found it easier to win after you get the first one.”

Hayden was fastest in four practice sessions before winning the pole and the race. It was the first American MotoGP win since Kenny Roberts Jr. won in Japan in 2000, a stretch of 72 races.

Rossi, one of the world’s most popular athletes and the overwhelming fan favorite here before the emergence of Hayden, finished an uncharacteristic third, also behind his Yamaha teammate, Colin Edwards of Conroe, Texas. It was the first time Rossi was neither first nor second in 12 races, dating to Qatar last year.

“I’m happy. I know I was not 100% with my bike, but really I had a lot of fun,” said Rossi, a four-time MotoGP champion whose five-race win streak ended. “I made some mistakes in settings, but I was able to follow Nicky and Colin and learn about Laguna. I didn’t attack Colin on the last lap, because it wouldn’t have been good to see two yellow Yamaha M1s in the dirt.

“I expected this to be the hardest race of the season, but I am happy to be the fastest European here and I fought with the Americans.”

An outspoken critic of Laguna Seca’s roller-coaster track, citing dangerous corners that prevented the four-stroke Grand Prix bikes from utilizing their power, Rossi acknowledged that his problem was thinking too much about safety.

“It is a slow track for these bikes,” Hayden said. “We only use fourth gear for a couple of seconds on the front straightaway, but that’s the way Laguna Seca is. I think it’s just a cool place to ride a motorcycle.”

Although the 11 corners slowed the winning speed to 94.955 mph, Hayden hit 160.704 mph on the straightaway radar gun.

Hayden’s first professional victory came at Laguna Seca in 1998 when he rode a Suzuki to victory in an AMA 750 supersport race. He also won an AMA superbike race in 2000, the last time he raced here.

Rossi’s third place enabled him to stretch his season lead to 69 points over fellow Italian Marco Melandri, who did not finish.

Edwards, a two-time world superbike champion before taking up Grand Prix, made the day’s biggest moves with two passes that took him from seventh after the first lap to second. After starting fifth, the veteran was pinched off the line and was seventh exiting the second turn.

“I flat out can’t start,” he said. “When I came out of the first turn I was sandwiched between [Max] Biaggi and I think it was Sete [Gibernau], so I had to push to try and catch up.”

After getting by Gibernau on the next lap, Edwards got Biaggi and John Hopkins two laps later and set out after Rossi.

“Once I got clear and saw Valentino in front of me, I knew I still had a little left. I caught him coming down the Corkscrew [on lap 16] and I was catching Nicky a little bit when I ran out of rubber. The last eight laps all I was doing was trying to keep the bike upright, just kind of hanging on.”

The two Californians, Hopkins of Ramona, and Kenny Roberts Jr., the 2000 world 500cc (now MotoGP) champion from Mountain View, finished eighth and 14th, respectively.

Three riders crashed, but none was injured. Brazilian veteran Alex Barros, who started on the front row with Hayden and Rossi, and Italian Roberto Rolfo went down before finishing the first lap. Carlos Checa of Spain slid into the gravel pits on the ninth lap while in seventh place.

Although Nicky gave the Hayden family something to celebrate, the fortunes were not as kind to brothers Tommy and Roger Lee in AMA support races.

Tommy, the oldest, was leading in the superstock race when he was bumped off the track by a lapped rider, giving the victory to Aaron Yates, of Milledgeville, Ga., riding a Suzuki. Roger Lee, the youngest, was passed on the final lap in the supersport race by Yamaha rider Jason Disalvo of Stafford, N.Y., and finished second.