I'm really starting to feel sorry for Roger Lee Hayden. Last year he and James Kerker had a coming together atop the hill at turn 4 which resulted in Roger Lee sliding under the airfence and breaking his leg pretty badly.
Fast forward to 2008 and we see Roger Lee involved in another incident. During practice Roger and Robertino Pietri of the Roadracingworld.com Suzuki team came together at the end of the backstretch and Roger Lee severely injured his left hand. Reports are that he may lose his little finger in a similar fashion as Troy Bayliss did last year at Donington.
All this bad luck at Barber is made worse by the fact that Roger was still smarting from his ZX10R throwing him off like a bronco in this year's Daytona superbike race. I wish Roger a speedy recovery. Country Boy is tough as nails, he'll be back.
Superbike race actionMichelle and I decided to camp at the track this year so we purchased a tent camping pass and setup shop on Thursday afternoon for the weekend. I'm really glad that we decided to camp as it made the whole weekend much more relaxing. The mornings were cool and the afternoons pleasant all weekend. In fact, except for some rain during the night on Friday, i'd say it was perfect weather for the races.
Some of our camping neighborsOne thing that was different about this year's AMA races was the presence of the Red Bull Rookies Cup. Their pit setup was quite impressive and they put on an excellent race on Sunday morning. I hope they keep doing this, it's good for the series.
As usual with the AMA lately, the support races provided the bulk of the excitement this weekend. John Haner and Aaron Yates had a great race in superstock with Yates eventually coming out on top. Supersport was an epic battle between Yamaha teammates Ben Bostrom and Josh Herrin with Josh taking a dramatic win with a last corner pass on Ben. (personal note.....Josh Herrin passed me close once in practice three years ago, he was 14 years old at the time and I had just turned 50)
This year even formula extreme proved to be exciting with Jake Zemke and teammate Josh Hayes banging bodywork until Josh tossed his bike going up the hill after the backstretch. It was good to see Zemke back on the box after he was discarded by Honda like an old t-shirt you don't want to wear anymore. Ironic, isn't it, Jake took a victory this weekend and Mighel wasn't even close all weekend. Maybe Honda is wondering if a Hodgeson, Zemke duo would have been the way to go.
In conclusion, here are my highlights of the weekend:
1. Red Bull Rookies Cup debut race....a complete success
2. Supersport...Josh Herrin proves he's the real deal
3. Supersport...Ben Bostrom continues a well deserved resergence to his career
4. Superstock...Haner proves it isn't going to be just a "Jordan" cup all year.
5. Superbike...Hodgeson, I just love this guy, a real "racer", handed Miguel his ass all weekend.
I didn't take many pictures this year but here are a few more:
