Tuesday Conversation: Tommy Hayden

September 1, 2009 by Jesse Cecil
Filed under Tuesday Conversation

Heading into the last round of the AMA Pro Road Racing American Superbike championship, two-time AMA Supersport champion Tommy Hayden is second in the standings, leading Josh Hayes by a paper-thin margin of four points. Easily one of the most consistent riders in the field, Tommy hopes to end a very solid season with a win next weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

RRX: How’s the family?
Tommy Hayden: Good! Everything is real good on the family side. We’re expecting a baby in seven weeks so it’s an exciting time, and we’re just getting ready for that.

Even though a win has been elusive, you’ve been riding really consistently. You’re second in the championship, have been in the top-nine all season, and been on the podium nine times. What’s your take on the season so far?
The season is going pretty well. Aside from not winning, everything has gone really well, I think. I definitely expected to try to get a win this year, and I have two more chances, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve been second six times or so, and it’s a little frustrating, but I know I’m right there knocking on the door. I’ll just keep riding hard and it can’t be too far away. I’m having a good time, and consistently I’ve been pretty fast every race. So we’ll just keep up the work and try to get one before the season is over. I’d definitely feel better about the year if I could at least get a win.

In a recent interview, Don Sakakura mentioned he thought the setup of an American Superbike was more conducive to making you feel comfortable. What in particular suits you better?
You know, I kind of struggled with the old superbike myself. It was always kind of a battle for me to get comfortable on it. Every now and then I did get comfortable, and I had an okay season last year with a bunch of podiums, but I wasn’t getting anywhere near the potential out of the bike that Mat [Mladin] and Ben [Spies] were. For me to put my finger on one particular thing, I can’t, it was just that overall I wasn’t able to ride that bike fast enough, for whatever reason. This year, since we switched to the new spec models, I’ve just felt more comfortable, and the bike was just naturally easier for me to ride. I’ve been closer to Mat, it seems like, just comparing to my own team. I’ve definitely been closer to the lead in the races. It just seems to suit my style a little better.

What’s your view on the new rules and organization of American road racing?
Yes, that’s a bit of a loaded question, I guess you could say. You know, there are some good ideas, some things that I agree with that look like they will benefit the sport in the future. At the same time, there are also several things that I don’t necessarily agree with; certain ways that things are getting handled and addressed. But I assume you would have that with anything where you have as many changes as we’ve had over the last year. I do feel like the second half of the season has gone a lot more smoothly than the first half, as far as working with the DMG, and the way issues are getting addressed. I do still feel like there are some things that could be better, but I think that we’re headed in a better direction than we were the first half of the season, and the racing has been great. There’s been a lot of close racing, a lot of good action, and I think that’s a bonus.

Toward the beginning of the year there was a lot of negativity cast over our series from what seemed like every possible angle. Slowly, it seems like we’re getting out of that a little, but there are still a lot of unhappy fans and riders. In the beginning there were people that were fighting against each other rather than working together, but I feel that everyone is working together more now, in the second half of the season. It does seem like it’s making a turn for the better, but we’re going to need to make it a quick one. With the economic situation, attendance doesn’t look great, and there’s a lot of uncertainty with teams and stuff. So, hopefully we can pull through and get things moving forward.

How do you feel about the safety issues regarding the new tracks and pace vehicles that have been raised by some of the other riders?
I feel that we could do a lot better with our track safety and approving new tracks. I’m not pointing the finger at anyone; I think the riders themselves could do a better job of working with everyone, emphasis on working with and not working against. We all want to race motorcycles—it’s what we all do for a living—and if we beat every track into the ground, we’re going to have nowhere to race, and that’s no good either.

Recently – in the last month or so – it seems like we’ve made some good steps forward, but the whole process is … there’s no good way to put it … it’s kind of a disaster, so to speak. In my opinion, there is no real rider safety committee. There are some riders who volunteer their time to offer suggestions, which I am more than happy to do, and I have in the past. I feel like we need a lot more of an organized committee, where we follow the same steps at every track, new or current. If everyone would get more organized and work together, we could get better results a lot faster, without all the negativity. My personal opinion is that there should be a committee that is voted on by all the competitors, and it can’t be twenty people that do that, because I’ve seen too many times in the meetings that there are just too many opinions. I think that there should be like five people [elected by the riders], and you basically live by their decisions and their opinions. They would be the ones that you offer your concerns and advice to, and they would then try to address the safety situations as best they can.

A few years ago it seemed like we were getting a bit of a good direction, then during the crossover to the new organization it became less of a priority. Now it seems to be coming back around, we’re starting to make a little progress, and I think that we can do a lot better and that everyone would benefit.

Roger has had a pretty rough season. As his older brother, is that tough for you to watch?
Yeah, definitely. I know that he’s a lot better than the results that he’s been getting. He’s had a lot of bad luck and different things, so it’s frustrating because I know he’s capable of way more than that. Now that he’s starting to feel better and getting close to healthy, hopefully at the last race he can get back to where I think he should be running. Last week at VIR he led most of the race on Sunday, and showed a lot closer to what he’s capable of. Hopefully that will give him a little confidence and get him ready for the last one.

Have you ever thought about racing in World Superbike?
Obviously I’ve thought about it, but I’ve never given it a lot of serious thought. I don’t know why, but it’s never really appealed to me strongly. I think it’s a really great series that is super competitive, and I like watching it on TV. You know, I see what my brother Nick goes through with doing the Grand Prix circuit and everything that goes with it. Traveling the world is definitely a lot tougher than racing here. In our series, it’s a lot easier outside of the racing. Also, the racing itself [in World Superbike] is obviously very competitive. I’m not a hundred percent against it, but it’s not something I think about a whole lot, I can tell you that.

Would you be interested in a wildcard ride if that opportunity presented itself?
Definitely in a US round, on a track that we know. That would be fun to do, I think. It’s really difficult now with the new rules. It’s not like it used to be when you could kind of change fuels and that was about it, you were ready to go. You would almost have to do it outside of your current team, which sometimes presents a few problems. Yeah, I would definitely be interested in doing a U.S. round. It would be fun to get in there and see what you could do against those guys.

The idea of running WSB-spec motorcycles in our domestic series always seems to come up. We talked about track safety already; knowing what you do about our tracks, what do you think of that idea?
Well, obviously we’re talking about run-off room. The faster you go, the less room you have to run off-track. But last year we were basically running WSB-spec engines and bikes, so to speak. The rules were very similar, besides a few things. Even this year, at a lot of tracks, we’re not too far off [in lap times]. I mean, we’re hardly more than a second off of what we were doing last year. There are places that I’ve been faster this year than last.

No, I don’t really think the bikes are as much the problem as trying to get the tracks improved. No matter what rules package we have, we’re eventually going to catch up to those specs within a year or two at the most. I mean, the 600s are going around the track like superbikes did probably 3 or 4 years ago, so it’s going to be hard to control that.

With Mat Mladin retiring, you’ll be one of four or five riders battling for the championship next year. Where do you think you’ll be, and what kind of expectations do you have?
If I’m racing I expect to be where I’m at now, with Rockstar/Makita Suzuki. I have a contract for next year. There is a lot of uncertainty right now in the sport, and it’s not a great time for the manufacturers, they’re all in a bit of a struggle. But if we are racing next year, I will be racing for the same team and I’m looking forward to it.

You know Mat’s leaving, and that’s disappointing on a lot of angles. For one, he’s been a really good teammate, and I’ve learned a lot from him. It’s great to have a teammate of that caliber, especially when we’re testing and developing new stuff. He’s been a big part of getting the equipment to where it is now, on our side. So, he will definitely be missed in that area. And everyone knows that he’s kind of the benchmark of our series, and having him right there in the same tent is pretty wild.

At the same time, it’s going to give other people more opportunities with him not around. We’ll see, I’m looking forward to it. Obviously I have big shoes to fill with him gone and Ben leaving last year; now it’s my turn to step up and take over where they have been in the last several years; winning races and championships. I feel like we have the team to do it, obviously they’ve proven that for years. Next year it will be up to me to carry that tradition on.

Tuesday Conversation: Tommy Hayden

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