Hayden to Push to the Limit at Laguna Seca

Nicky Hayden

Hayden's recovery seems to go well this season, as the North American rider has been constantly improving his race finishes following his Japan crash earlier this year. Having made two consecutive Top 10 appearances in the last couple of races, but most importantly upping his pace in both qualifying and race, Hayden looks set to joining the “big league” at his home grand prix this weekend.

Being a former MotoGP champion himself, it must be hard for the "Kentucky Kid" to watch his teammate fight for the championship while benefiting from basically the same package race in and race out in 2009. However, embracing the challenge to get more acquainted to his new Ducati bike race after race has led Hayden to improving himself in the championship in recent weeks.

Coming to Laguna Seca, a circuit where he scored back-to-back wins in 2005 and 2006 respectively, Hayden doesn't hold any promises for his fans except for one: he'll race his Desmosesedici GP9 like hell to give them a show to remember. Especially since the MotoGP action at the famous North American circuit gets under way during the 4th of July weekend.

“This year we’re racing in America on the 4th of July weekend and it’s perfect. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the holiday than at the US GP! This will be the first time my American fans get to see me on a Ducati so that will be cool because there are a lot of Ducati fans in the states. No predictions or anything but we’ll go full gas and see what happens,” Hayden told the media ahead of this weekend's race, according to MotoGP's official site.

“I have a good team and a lot of people supporting me. We still have a lot of work to do but it has been nice to see a little progress over the last few weeks and at Laguna I really need to take another big step,” added the 2006 MotoGP champion.

Hayden is currently 13th overall in the riders' classification, having highlighted an 8th place during last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix.