How many riders can be counted on to win a championship? Hayes is one. image by phil fuson

Erion Honda's Josh Hayes won his second straight Formula Xtreme title at Road Atlanta. In FX, Erion and Hayes have been the class of the field this year as Josh won his third AMA championship.

2007 has seen Hayes solidify his racing reputation with a two-pronged championship attack in Supersport and Formula Xtreme. Along with the FX crown, the 32-year old from Gulfport, Mississippi has won more Supersport races than any rider in the class.

As good as the year has been, the defining moment for Hayes was a crash at Laguna Seca in the Supersport race when he tangled with rival Roger Hayden. As the two rode side-by-side into the same corner, neither rider would back off, relenting to take the fight later into the race. Hayes, then the points leader, was the one who found himself in the dirt as the racers bumped when the paved real estate ran out.

The frustration for Hayes was more than just an "agony of defeat" moment, a spot in time where one's pride is hurt when realizing all the hard work is probably gone down the tubes.

The bonus money from a Supersport championship the manufacturers covet so much would have made a big difference in Josh's life, perhaps more so than some of the guys he is racing against. Hayes has never had the full-on factory ride. And he's is getting married this fall.

Instead of packing it in, Hayes went out and won the next two Supersport races, including the Road Atlanta slugfest an hour and a half after this interview was conducted on Sunday at Road Atlanta and less than 24 hours after he'd clinched his title defense. He's still alive in Supersport, and while the chances are slim he can vault both Jamie Hacking and Roger Hayden in the points, the odds are better than they were after the last Monterey race.

Hayes has established himself as rider who can not only win races, but challenge for championships. There aren't many of those around.

Q: You've won your second straight FX championship. How does it feel to have that behind you?

A: Compared to last year, it's a little anticlimactic. Last year, we had our back against the wall, so we really had to go for broke. Yesterday, I really didn't think about the championship part. In my mind, it was sewn up before I got here.

Q: You had such a big lead.

A: I had a huge lead, and for it to even be an issue, Steve [Rapp] had to get pole, win the race, and at that point, I had to finish the race. So I never really even -- I just told myself a long time ago I wasn't going to approach this with anything less than what I'd done all weekend. So that's what we did, and in the race, I felt comfortable with the pace I was riding. I wasn't doing anything silly. I knew I could do those laps and do that same thing every lap, and never put a wheel wrong. I was watching, and I had +0 on the split for most of the race. I could hear him a little bit back behind me. I was pretty comfortable riding around with a +0, because I knew I was strong in the right places on the racetrack, and as long as I did that consistently, it was going to be really hard for those guys to do anything. I was a little bummed after the red flag, because we had started out right, and I kind of wanted to keep that going. And again, I know at the end of the race is when my bike's still working good, and I can do consistent laps all the way to the checkered, and everybody else seems to drop off a little bit. So I was hoping that wouldn't hurt us with the guys being able to put on a little bit softer rubber, and run a shorter race. I think we were one of the only guys that didn't change a tire.

Josh Hayes gives the fans a burnout at Road Atlanta. image by riles and nelson

Q: You just stuck with what you had. It takes a confident rider to do that. You knew the tire was pretty good.

A: Yeah. I knew I could do race distance pretty easy on it.

Q: Last year you and the team accomplished a great feat, beating the factory Yamahas. This year, to me, was more about proving you could do it again.

A: Yeah. In '03 we did it when we raced against factory Kawasaki. They were on the 636, but they had a pretty huge effort out there to beat us. Then last year, not only did I have to do that, but I had to come from behind there at the end of the year and do my best work when my back was against the wall. This year basically went to plan. Our idea was that it's hard to find competition like Eric Bostrom on the factory machine like he was, and we felt that we should be able to show up, and if we could do that last year, then we could show up and just beat everybody this year if we didn't make mistakes.

Q: That's pretty much what happened.

A: That's what we tried to do. We had a mishap at Daytona, and I really feel like I kind of gave Miller away. If you look, I didn't go within seven-tenths of a second (per lap) of what I went last year. I found myself riding a little careful, because I had points leads in two classes and I was kind of feeling a bit of pressure there being on top in two classes. After Laguna, it kind of freed me up, and I've just kind of been going "I'm going for it" ever since.

Q: So that moment at Laguna, the crash. Was that the best thing or the worst thing that happened to you this year? Like many things in life, it seems to have two sides to it, maybe.

A: Oh... As far as the worst thing, it's such a hard thing to say. It definitely was an eye-opener, it woke me up a bit. And that's a good thing. You look at so many other aspects of the business, and it was for sure the worst thing. You look at the points, which cost us all a lot of money, and standing up at the end as the champ. It's something I worked very hard for, and I thought, "Man, if I could put two of these together, it'd be a great season, and it would just be another thing in my pocket to prove that I deserve a Superbike ride," or whatever it is I want to do in motorcycle racing. How hard I worked ... It's a sign of how hard you work. But right now, this could all change this afternoon, but we've won more races than anybody in Supersport, and even if I can't do it by the points structure that's laid out, hopefully I've proven that I was still very capable in Supersport and could've been Supersport champion had things gone a little bit differently. (Note: Hayes won the Supersport race later that day.)

Hayes at his customary position out front. image by riles and nelson

Q: Since then, you've gone all out in this class. This weekend, you've really done well. Other weekends, you've really impressed. It seems like there's a little bit of a burden that might have been lifted off your shoulders -- that you might like riding all out more than you do trying to conserve, although you can do well either approach well.

A: Life's simple that way. And it's really hard to differentiate between two different motorcycles. "Okay, I've got to ride this one hard, but that one I don't." I think it's no different than when you go ride at the motocross track. Any time I've had injuries, it never tended to happen whenever I was really riding hard and my focus was strong. It was when you go, "Well, I'm going to do one or two more laps," and you just kind of take it easy and go through this because it's fun, and you relax your hands on the grips, and all of a sudden the handlebars are ripped out of your hands and you go flying over the bars. It's one of those deals where I actually feel better and safer [riding at 100%]. And on top of that, it's no different to me. It's training, it's learning to ride at a high level and being comfortable riding at an extremely high level. The more you do that, the better you get at it. I think that's why you see Ben and Mat really standing up top, because those guys -- you see it in practice, too. Those guys go out and they put everything out there in the first lap. They're really doing the work.

Q: You've been loyal to Honda, and you really came through for them in these classes that they've trusted you with. What do you want next?

A: For sure, I would love to be on a Superbike. I feel like I've grown as a rider, still, in the last couple of years. My team has done a lot to help me out. I learned a lot when I was at the Attack team, and I brought some of that here, and we've been able to be really successful with what all of us could bring to the table. I want nothing more than to be on factory equipment, and I really want a shot at Ben Spies and Mat Mladin before they decide to go. I don't think that I can show up and win the first race and run away with the season. What they've built is going to be hard to knock down, but I think the challenge of it is the exciting part of it. I want a legitimate shot at developing a motorcycle that I can try to go out there and race those guys with. That's what this is all about, is racing and being faced with big challenges and seeing what you can do.

Q: There's some talk that you might be riding a Superbike at the last round at Laguna.

Josh has seven FX wins to his credit this year. image by tim huntington

A: At this point right now, I'm really not sure what's going to happen. We have discussed it. The bike that I tested at Miller and Ohio, the R&D bike, I believe it's the one that Neil rode. There's been some discussion about me riding it. They asked me if I wanted to do it, and I don't really know. We're going to have to see what happens in the next week right now. If I have a Honda Superbike ride here soon that I can race next year, I really don't see the need in going out and riding the current motorcycle. My crew's done such a good job and so much hard work away from their family and friends, making sure my motorcycles are ready to go, that I think it would be fun to go and try to win Laguna on the FX bike, and just go for another win and reward my guys for all the hard work they've done for the year. I think that would be fun, just as much fun as riding the Superbike.

Q: Especially if they're going to have a new bike next year.

A: Yeah. And again, I don't know that I could take a bike that's basically developed around Jake and Miguel, and go out and ride it better than those guys. This is a two-day event. I'll be on the motorcycle four times. It really doesn't give me very much time to make myself at home on the thing where I think I can be competitive with the two guys that are standing above everybody in the series.

Q: How has your riding style changed over the years? When you first came up, you were fast, but it seems like you've refined things.

A: I've really been a student of trying to learn how to use my body better on a motorcycle. I watch guys like Ben and Mat, Eric Bostrom. Anthony Gobert I thought was great. Those guys really knew how to work on top of a motorcycle, and if a motorcycle wasn't working perfectly, they could help it along. And so I've tried to work on that a lot, being active and aggressive, getting my head into the game. Sometimes when you can't get everything you're looking for, trying to know when it's time to race and when it's time to download. I try to make things simple for the crew, and simple for myself, and spend more time riding than just changing things, searching for something all the time. We've been able to come up with some really good baselines and do that. So I spend most of my time -- a lot of my time -- working on my riding, and trusting my crew with the data, and try to pick out the important things to work on.

Q: You've won on two different generations of bikes, too.

A: Yeah. We were very lucky that Honda's new 600 was everything the old bike was, and then a little bit. It was just better. The chassis was, for sure, a pretty big improvement, I think, with them shortening up the motorcycle and making it a little lighter. The thing turns better than any motorcycle I've ever ridden, and I've really enjoyed it. I wish I had some of that last year when I was racing against those other boys. So things have been great. We've been really fast at a lot of racetracks. I've been a little inconsistent, and every bit of that's just been in my head. But even when I didn't feel like I was getting the best out of myself, I was still competitive. I think that's part of growing, is your bad days just aren't as bad as they used to be. A bad day used to be you're two seconds off the pace, and a good day was you're right on pace. Where now, a bad day, I'm still capable of racing with the top guys out there. And that's what you try to do in this sport, I guess, or any sport.