Roger Lee Hayden Scores First Points in WSBK R2 at Monza

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Tommy Hayden on the #1 leads younger brother and team mate Roger Lee Hayden on the #95 Team Kawasaki ZX-6R-based entries during the running of the AMA 600 Supersport final at Road America in June of 2005. Tommy won the '05 AMA 600 Supersport Championship to repeat his '04 feat as well for Team Green. He beat little brother Roger in the championship by 19 points for the title, and the brothers finished 1-2 as shown at Elkhart Lake , and between them won 7 races for the '05 season and garnered 16 podiums between them. Roger delivered for Team Green by winning the '07 AMA 600 Supersport Championship after Tommy had moved over to the Team Yoshimura Suzuki team.
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Good news from the World Superbike scene this weekend as Roger Lee Hayden, the youngest of Earl's Racing Team out of OWB, scored his first career WSBK points at Monza in race 2 by scoring a 14th place finish for Team Pedercini Kawasaki on the #95 ZX-10R-based privateer superbike. Maybe having older brother Nicky in his camp for race day was like a lucky rabbit's foot for him, but whatever the case, Roger earned a well deserved points-scoring finish.
Having a pretty rough go of things in the European scene this year with a privateer team, Roger fought through the first lap melee that collected James Toseland, Rueben Xaus and Brit Johnny Rea, to garner his first points-paying position in WSBK this year, and finished less then 48 seconds from the front in the process.
Facing a very steep learning curve this year, this is great news for Roger Lee fans as well as Team Pedercini. Bravo to a great weekend for the team and especially to Roger from the U.S. fans as well as fan Stu's Shots for a great job. Hats off to Roger and we hope to see the curve get a little bit easier for him and the team as the year goes on.
Take a bow, man, you deserve it! Now go get 'em for the rest of the season!
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Here's the official stats of race 2 in Monza thanks to the Official World Superbike website:
http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/latest-results/3340-monza-superbike-race-2.html
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Another One Bites The Dust in AMA/DMG U.S. Road Racing As Kawasaki Pulls The Plug....

That sound you are hearing is pretty much like the one you hear after flushing your toilet,

as it was announced yesterday that Kawasaki would be pulling out all support, direct or otherwise, in AMA/DMG Road Racing in the U.S. Whether you attribute that to the

lackluster economy or the way the dominoes have been falling with the DMG-run AMA Pro Racing series is up to you. They did state in the official release that it was due to the poor economy, but one can't help but feel that the hot potatoe of AMA Road Racing as we have

seen it run by the Damaged Motorcycle Guys could or would have some major significance

to it as well. That is purely speculation and me just talking out loud.

The worst of it all is the fact that it leaves two more highly qualified riders without rides for

2010 season--Jamie Hacking and Roger Lee Hayden. And with the current situation here as

well as the global economy being major factors, and most teams having contracts and teams

in place for the upcoming season, that can't be good. For anyone, but especially now Jamie

Hacking and Roger Lee Hayden. You can read the official release here thanks to the super crew of people over at Dean Adams' http://www.superbikeplanet.com/. We appreciate their efforts!

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Dec/091218a.htm

If you take the time to list all of the great riders who have ridden for Kawasaki in the last 3

decades alone you would run out of ink. Well, almost. Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Scott

Russell, Fred Merkel, Doug Chandler, Eric Bostrom, Jamie Hacking, Tommy Hayden, Roger

Lee Hayden. And that's just for starters for the factory teams. The supported teams includeJamie Hacking and Roger Lee Hayden again, Josh Hayes, Jason Pridmore, Steve

Rapp, Chazz Davies, Ben Attard. And the championships and race wins with these very

informal let alone incomplete lists goes on even longer.

While you are bummin' like I am that the once strong U.S. road racing series is hitting some

very turbulent times--like you didn't think it could get any worse then the '09 season--at least

we can relish in the great memories that teams like the Muzzy Kawasaki effort, the official Team

Kawasaki and Kinko's Kawasaki and Attack Kawasaki have given us over the course of these

last three decades. And to help with those memories I grabbed a couple of shots from the dust

bins to throw in for today's story. Having been taking these pro road racing pictures now since the early '80s, I still have a boat load of scanning to do from the earlier years, so this is in no way indicative nor is it a slam against the rider pics I DIDN'T use on this post. These were handy and seemed good for today so please don't anyone get their panties in a bunch since I didn't have any actions shots of Scott 'The Screaming Chief' Russell or of Doug 'The Triple Threat' Chandler or of a lot of great riders who have thrown a leg over a factory or factory-supported Team Green bike. Again, these were handy and if you have been or will be in the future a follower of Stu's Shots you know I am likely to bring just about anything out at any given time--get your mind out of the gutter as I'm talking about my pics here! You pervs! So just so we are straight on that now, let's take a gander at today's offerings!

Top shot to start off this series is a shot of Doug Chandler's #10 ZXR750 Team Kawasaki Superbike in the paddock at Road America in 2000. Doug won Superbike Championships for

Rob Muzzy and Team Green in '90, '96 and '97.

Next up is Roger Lee Hayden on the #95 Team Kawasaki 600 Super Sport machine while qualifying for the Mid Ohio race in 2005. We then have a shot of Eric Bostrom on the Team Kawasaki #32 ZXR750 while qualifying for the superbike race at Mid Ohio in 2000. Fourth in our series today is Josh Hayes on the Attack Kawasaki ZX10 #41 during the second superbike race of the weekend at Mid Ohio in 2004. And our fifth and final shot today is of Jamie Hacking's

Team Monster Energy ZX-10R Superbike #2 in the Road America paddock in June of '08.

So as you are contemplating as I am that the World Superbike and MotoGP series are looking

even stronger for the 2010 season then they were in '09, let us all take the time to hope and

pray that not only the economy comes back around, but that sometime SOON so does the

AMA Road Racing series here in the good ole U.S. of A. And we can see all of the racers

deserving of a ride and fans deserving of a professionally run series that doesn't come off like

the dirty little red headed step child that it seems to have taken on the look of. But, that's just

me.

Thanks again for coming by and putting up with my rants and opinions and checking out Stu's

Shots. We appreciate you taking time out of your day to drop in and check us out. You rock!

Ben Spies On Top of The World at MMP WSBK While Winning SuperPole #7

For a guy that is supposed to be a 'rookie' in a new series for him, that in
most cases other then this w/e he hasn't even seen the majority of the tracks
he is riding on, Ben Spies is setting the world, let alone the World Superbike Series,
on fire.
Having broken a 17 year old record yesterday in winning 7 SuperPoles in a row, a previous
record held by another Texan and former AMA Superbike Champion as well, Ben stole the
record that was held by Doug Polen when he contested the World Superbike Series in the early
'90s, while winning the championship in '91 and '92 on the Fast by Ferracci Ducati. Yes, for a man that came into a new series this year, on a new team, and on a new and advanced Yamaha R1 motorcycle, Ben is doing his best to show everyone that he is no rookie, and be damned the
hype that you can't win or compete in WSBK on tracks you haven't seen or ridden on previously.
And just to add insult to injury to anyone else who had any doubts, he took this new record yesterday on a track that for once, he had ridden on, let alone seen. And did it while the clouds
were getting ready to open up and shower the track at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.
And to have broken a record that had stood for 17 years in the now 22 year old series is in itself
quite an accomplishment. Not bad for a 'rookie.'
Both races today at the beautiful MMP in Utah will be a challenge for all entered, and Ben will still have to come out ahead of rival Nitro Nori Haga in order to get back into the championship hunt after a couple of crashes and DNF's due to lack of fuel load and shifter-related problems--both of which occurred as he was either about to win or in the process of leading races. Nitro Nori did suffer a massive get-off yesterday during practice, so he is likely to be a rightfully-so sore today after pounding the MMP pavement from this big highside as made available by the wonderful folks at http://www.superbikeplanet.com/:

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/2009/wsbk/miller/haga/

Can you say 'ouch'?

Nonetheless, Nitro may be sore but Ben 'Elbowz' Spies, or The Texas Terror should you have it, will still have his hands full with a field of major stars. Both races will be run today @ 2 P.M. and 5:30 P.M. EDT, and both will be shown tape-delayed on SpeedTV today at 5-7 P.M. EDT as well. And if you are like me, you can follow them both on the net courtesy of the fine folks at the Official World Superbike site here via this link. The live timing is on the right side of the page and pretty easy to spot about 1/3 of the way down:

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/home.html

You can also check out Miller Motorsports Park's website here:

http://www.millermotorsportspark.com/

Finally, the shots above were taken at Road America of Ben leading a various cast of U.S.-based stars from the AMA Superbike Series in June '06 in what was race 2 on Sunday afternoon of the 'old' REAL Superbike Series. On the Team Honda CBR1000RR mounted #17 Miguel Duhamel and #98 Jake Zemke, #22 Tommy Hayden on the ZX-based Team Kawasaki, team mates on the Ducati-factory efforts #100 Neil Hodgson--also a former World Superbike Champion--as well as Ben Bostrom on the #155 and also not only a former multi-time winner on the WSBK scene, but the winner of the '98 AMA Superbike Series, the '08 AMA SuperSport Champion, and this years winner of the AMA Daytona 200. Also to be seen in pic #2 is perennial crowd/fan favorite Aaron 'Yikes' Yates on the Team Yoshimura GSXR-1000, at the time Ben Spies' team mate along with multi-time champ Mat Mladin.

Enjoy the races this weekend, and have a good week. Thanks for coming by to share in the fun
and the speed and the rush that is Stu's Shots R Us! God Bless!