Roger Lee Hayden, younger brother of Ducati’s Nicky Hayden, made his LCR Honda MotoGP debut at his home Grand Prix at Laguna Seca this weekend, taking to the track replacing Randy De Puniet who is currently out with a broken leg, sustained at the German GP.
Having qualified in seventeenth, the race was more about getting used to the bike as he usually races in the World Superbike Championship.
From the start, he put in a great effort which would pay dividends, with Hayden scoring five championship points for LCR Honda. “This was a very good race for me!” admitted Hayden.
“After the start I got boxed in at the first corner and after that it took me a few laps to find my pace. The rest of the guys had taken a few seconds on me but I started to pull them back in and I did my fastest lap of the whole week end in doing so.”
And Roger Lee was not going to let this opportunity go to waste, and pushed hard to improve his position. “I charged hard and caught De Angelis with 2 laps to go I passed him and took 11th place. At the start of the week I really did not think I could have taken 11th place.”
Hayden was thankful for the opportunity, and would love to come back to the series. Speaking after the race, “I really really want to thank LCR Team for this fantastic opportunity. Everybody in the Team has bent over backwards to help me in every way. The guys worked really hard on the bike and made it very comfortable for me to ride.”
“They put absolutely no pressure on me this week end for a result but this is the American GP and all my friends, family and fans are here so I wanted to give them all a good result. I would love a chance to ride for this Team again as they are a fantastic bunch of guys and the machine they gave me was perfect”.
