AMA SBK Champ Josh Hayes to replace injured Colin Edwards at Valencia MotoGP

[DogBoy]

Edwards announced yesterday that his injuries would keep him from riding at Valenica. Hayes gets to ride Edwards Tech3 bike for the weekend.

I'm bummed or Edwards but very happy to see Hayes getting the ride.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=46499

[motodog650]

I knew he was going to get to test the bike on Monday after the race. Hate the reason for the opportunity but glad to see Hayes get a go at it...

[squeezer]

Hate the reason for the opportunity but glad to see Hayes get a go at it...

Agreed. Very cool for Hayes -- finally, a shot at a MotoGP bike.  

[phoenix]

yep. shitty circumstances, but lets make lemonade out of those lemons.

[veefer800canuck]

Well, this should be innerestin!

Duhamel didn't go well on the Honda at Laguna when he had his wild card ride.
An 800cc motogp bike is a different beast indeed.

But josh is a gutsy competitor and has a lot of raw talent.
Let's hope he makes good on his limited practice time.

[tomek]

Let`s just hope he`ll do better then Duhamel or Bostrom .

[veefer800canuck]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Benny B and the LCR team ride.

[mugwump58]

Channel Troy Bayliss, remember?

[nater]

Oh yeah, I forgot about Benny B and the LCR team ride.

Yeah.  That went well.  

[scottzilla]

Good for Hayes.  I predict a 14th place finish.

[veefer800canuck]

Yeah.  That went well.  

Some days, ya should just stay in bed.  

[DogBoy]

Roger Lee Hayden has ridden MotoGP bikes twice in the 800 era. He finished ahead of MotoGP regulars each time. The deck may be stacked against Hayes (new bike, new tires, new track) but he's consistently finished ahead of Roger Lee on 600s and Superbikes. I don't know what DuHamel's problem was and we know Ben Bostrom can be a genius one weekend and leave you scratching your head the next. I wouldn't use either DuHamel or Bostrom as the yard stick for Hayes perfomance.

[phoenix]

Bostrom pulled out of the race at Laguna because they had not figured out how to be competitive in his short time with the GP bike, and he didn't want to end up on a stretcher when he had his AMA race a few hours later.

Hayes has no other commitments to focus on for now, so I expect him to at least complete the race.

[st2sam]

Thanks for the good news dogboy!  
I like josh, never has bad words for his competitors, seems to give 110% everyrace.
I think he will do fairly well and keep the rubber side down.
Best of luck Josh!

[Blunder]

Channel Troy Bayliss, remember?

Bayliss is a different sort. He'd experienced GP bikes before and been to Valencia numerous times. I think he also may have had an axe to grind.

[mugwump58]

Yup I know, but it was still wonderful to watch.

[DredheadV2.0]

Roger Lee Hayden has ridden MotoGP bikes twice in the 800 era. He finished ahead of MotoGP regulars each time. The deck may be stacked against Hayes (new bike, new tires, new track) but he's consistently finished ahead of Roger Lee on 600s and Superbikes.

Good point.

[motociclista]

I like Josh Hayes a lot, I'm glad he's getting the opportunity and I hope he pulls off a miracle.

But despite his talents, I think he is likely to do rather poorly. Why? Hayes is known for preferring to ride with extremely minimal or no electronic aids. Racing and winning that way requires not only great talent, but also great familiarity with the machine. So he not only has to get used to a new track, an unfamiliar and harder to ride bike, new levels of pressure, he also has to figure out how to do it on a motorcycle with unfamiliar and very sophisticated electronic traction control. All with very minimal practice time.

I hope he pulls off a miracle.

[Tyrroneous]

I hope he can do well...and by well I mean not getting lapped since he's got the deck stacked against him for this race.  I like Josh, he's talented, personable and he's from Mississippi.  

[heinee]

So if he beats his teammate for the weekend, would it be considered a success?  

I would think Crutchlow would go into the off season like    

[veefer800canuck]

I remember duhamel had the gresini team turn off some of the electronic aids for him.
Auto blip on downshifts was one for sure.

I remember him braking for turn two at laguna and hearing him rowing down thru the gears blipping the throttle manually. Sounded cool, but also a lot slower than the front runners.