Roger Lee Hayden impressed as a MotoGP Wild Card image by Tim Huntington

Going into Laguna MotoGP, I was definitely nervous.

Riding my first MotoGP race, all the doubts go through your head before the race weekend starts. I'm wondering if I'm going to be on pace, or if I'm going to be in everybody's way. You name it, everything just popped into my head, things like maybe I would like the bike as much as I did at the test.

So I was nervous, but at the same time, I knew that I'd tested the bike and things had gone well. I couldn't wait until Friday morning came. Plus, I was excited to get racing on the 600. I told my crew Thursday night that the 600 race was just as important to me as MotoGP, because we worked hard the last couple of years, chasing down the title, and they'd worked their butts off putting me in a good position. I didn't want to just go in there and focus on something else off the beaten path, after everything they did for me.

Friday morning, when we first went out on the 600, it was slick. It seemed like it took a while for the track to come in. That was kind of a bummer. I was thinking, "Man, is it going to be like this all weekend?" But it finally came around, which was nice. After that, I had to run back to the motor home and change my leathers and go straight to the MotoGP bikes. I went over our little tire plan and stuff like that. They just told me that we were going to try to run one tire and try to get comfortable with the bike and the track. With the new tire rule in MotoGP, you just don't have a bucketful of tires to run through. It's a different learning experience. It was also nice, when we'd look at the data, how they could really help me out, show me the different styles.

The first morning, we just took things slow, got used to the tires and bike a little better, and just made a few small changes. Never anything too big. We played with the engine braking and the map a little. The red flag came out, which was kind of odd. You never really see any red flags in MotoGP. I was just used to always seeing them in AMA practice.

But anyway, I felt like I got a good start to the weekend. I think I was tenth the first practice, so I felt pretty good. Then the second practice, we were a bit more aggressive trying to change things. We put a little stiffer spring on the bike, and stuff like that. We took it more seriously, but kind of fell back. We went a little faster, but overall I was 15th instead of tenth like I was in the morning. But it was no big deal. My main goal was just to get faster each time I went out, and try not to get in anybody's way. You don't really want to hold anybody up, but I think I held Rossi up the first morning. I went out on new tires and didn't see him behind me, and then he came ripping past me as soon as I got out of a corner. He never said anything, so maybe I didn't hold him up too bad.

Then Friday afternoon we qualified on the 600. I went out with a soft tire, and I didn't go any faster than I did on a race tire. I was kind of upset with myself, because I was only two tenths off pole. I came in and there was only three minutes left on the clock. I told the boys, just throw any tire on and we could go faster. And I got pole with no time left on the clock. That was pretty nice. It's been since last year since I had a pole, so that felt pretty good.

After that, it was back to the Kawasaki truck to debrief for the 600, and then over to the MotoGP garage to try to get a little game plan going for the next day. I was definitely busy the first day, running back and forth. A little busier than I thought it would've been. Plus, the MotoGP stuff, those guys have to do so much press and PR stuff. It was just crazy. Constantly there was another interview lined up, German press or Spanish, it was always something.

Then Saturday morning on the MotoGP bike, the things that we changed seemed to be better. I was happy with that. I went quicker again. I think I was 11th, but I was a lot closer this time than I was any of the other times I went out.

Then in qualifying, I was inside the top ten until about the last 15 or 20 minutes. I didn't go any faster with the qualifying tire. Honestly, I don't think a lot of people did. I just didn't quite ride one lap as hard as I could. I just didn't feel comfortable enough yet to close my eyes and find that extra couple tenths that I needed. So it was kind of a bummer to be so much faster all through the weekend, and then be on the back of the grid in 16th. But it's just the way it goes sometimes. You've just got to get over it and move on. The only thing that really matters is the end result on Sunday.

After MotoGP qualifying, I got ready for the 600 race. I was really confident going into the race, because I was fast all weekend. My bike was working really well. I felt we had a good tire for the race. Everything seemed like it was coming together. I got a great start, but I went into Turn One and I just braked way too early, and three guys passed me.

I worked my way up toward the lead, and about the fifth or sixth lap I passed Josh Hayes. We kind of came together at the exit, and unfortunately he went down. Which is a bummer, because you win a race, and the only thing anybody wants to talk about is the bad moments of it. You hear some people call you a dirty rider. One of the guys on his team told me he heard I was going to take him out before the weekend even started, which was completely untrue. Five races to go, you don't think it calls for desperate measures yet, plus that's not the way I ride. I would never take somebody out on purpose. Especially, to me, somebody that's come through injuries in his career. That's just not the way I ride. I've only knocked one person down, I think, in my whole career. It's just a bummer the drama that it causes in racing sometimes. It was a bit of a racing accident, I think. I passed him going into the corner, and we raced the way around it, and the two lines came to one. Unfortunately, he crashed.

But it was a great race. Josh Herrin, that kid really made me earn it. He pushed me to the very last corner. When he was leading, he wasn't making very many mistakes at all. He caught me off guard, really. Anyway, it was a good day for me. I maxed out on the points for the weekend, so that was a big plus.

I was kind of glad the 600 race was on Saturday, because that way I only had one thing to worry about come Sunday morning. -- just the one bike and the one team. I wasn't going to have to go back and forth and change leathers all the time.

The warmup went pretty good. We ran a tire that I ran the day before and went almost race distance. I was feeling pretty comfortable for the race. I felt like I could improve from where I qualified, which was my goal. It was kind of funny. I was sitting there on the grid. You've got to sit there for a long time, take your helmet off, put the hat on, all that stuff. I knew the start was different, so I kept telling myself, "when the red light goes off, take off." I don't know if I jinxed myself or went over the start too many times, but when that red light came on, I thought, "when this thing goes off, go!" and it went off, but I still hesitated. I waited for the guy beside me, because I was still unsure. I was like, "Man, this is terrible." I was going up the hill, and I think I was about last. I made a few good passes around the outside in Turn One, and I think I was 11th.

After that, I just felt like a pace I could do comfortably for 32 laps. I tried to do that the best I could. I saw some guys come back in front of me. Anthony West came past me. I tried to tag along with him, and then I chased down Nakano and passed him, I passed Checa early in the race. It seemed like the whole race, I was either trying to either catch somebody or fend somebody off. So it was a good race.

Alex Barros got me in the last corner. Actually, with two laps to go he passed me in the Corkscrew, and I got him back going down into Rainey. Sixth place was just right in front of me, and they just kept about two seconds in front of me, and I just kept trying to put my head down and catch those guys. I just couldn't get up to them.

But all in all, it was a good race. Thirty-two laps is a long time. A top ten finish was not too bad for your first MotoGP. I usually don't get too excited for a top ten, but I felt that one was pretty well earned.

That bike was fast. The way you ride one of those bikes is just totally different from what I'm used to. When we would overlay data between me and the other two Kawasaki guys, they'd get into a corner, and in the middle of the corner they'd just open the thing wide open. They kept telling me every time how much earlier they were getting on the gas than me, and just killing it. Where I'm used to riding a Superbike, where you're sliding, waiting for it to hook up, and the rear end's moving a little. On that thing, you get in there and it's just, you grab a handful and you go on with it. Like I said in one of the press conferences, if you get in a corner on a Superbike and grab a big handful of throttle, you've got to have a parachute for when you come down, because you're going to go flying.

The ZX-RR handled well. Over Turn One, you could keep it pretty much wide open. I was surprised at a few of those things. It still wheelied a little heading into the Corkscrew, which was different. It's just a lot more settled, but you can still feel how fast it is, because once you start getting into a straightaway, you're shifting gears as fast as you can. The bike's just moving.

The carbon brakes took more time to get used to. Those guys would trail brake a lot longer than I would, and I think that could be because they're more used to those carbon brakes. They're weaker, and you can maybe trail brake it longer than you can on a Superbike. There's still a lot, a lot to learn. Kawasaki did a great job getting that bike. I feel like it's one of the better ones. My trap speeds were always toward the front all weekend, so that's pretty nice.

When we adjusted the engine braking, it just made it more comfortable, more like what I was accustomed to. That's why we tried to change it around. Also, I learned about how if you don't have so much engine braking, it'll make it easier to go into corners because it wouldn't make the bike move around as much. That was nice. I still had to run more engine braking than West and DePuniet. They come from 250s, so they both don't run very much engine braking. It just made me feel a lot more comfortable. Since we didn't have that much time on the bike, we wanted to keep it more like what I was used to, but also keep the lap times good.

Kawasaki didn't put any pressure on me. They wanted me to have everything mellow. But sometimes I think people just say that. They're definitely showing some interest for me to ride their MotoGP bike, which was exciting. The support and interest they gave me this weekend were way above what I expected. When they said "wild card," I was picturing a bike in the corner, having one bike and just being in the corner. But I felt like I was really a part of the team. I had two bikes, my own pit box, I put my stickers and everything on it. They made me really feel like I was part of the team. They showed me a lot of support, and some interest. After the weekend, I already started bugging them about doing another wild card. Hopefully I can. That would be really nice. Also, I've got to thank Joe Rocket for making me an extra set of leathers in a short time, and Kawasaki USA for releasing me from Superbike for the weekend so I could try it out.

All of my mechanics were supportive. I know they had to be bored to death, since the 600 didn't get much track time. It was great. The whole team, the MotoGP side, just made me feel really welcome.

Now, on to Mid-Ohio, a track that's always been pretty good to me, and I like it. It's going to be hot. I'm used to the heat, being from Kentucky. Hopefully, we can go there and have another good weekend. At the test after Utah, things went pretty well there. Jamie was really riding well this weekend. He made a small mistake in the race, but I think it just shows that our Superbike is starting to come around. So I'm really looking forward to the weekend.