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He's 35 but in SBK he's the most famous rookie: Nicky Hayden, the American from Kentucky, is finding there are things to learn in every race in this category.
After the fantastic first podium in Holland, where he arrived third behind Rea and Davies, the Kentucky Kid has shown great improvement, in terms of both his knowledge of the Honda CBR1000 and how to tackle his rivals in the race.
Imola was a totally new track for him, and as Nicky himself put it: “You know, this track is really tough, but I like it”.
Team Ten Kate hoped that the characteristics of the track, difficult and selective, would have showcased Nicky's talents but it didn't quite go to plan.
“The problem wasn't not knowing the track. I'm not looking for excuses, we were struggling right from Friday, and didn't improve”.
The two Hondas of Hayden and Van Der Mark were hopping all over the place when it came to braking and didn't look too clean on corner exit either…: ”We had various issues in different sectors, from braking to power delivery. It was hard to ride smoothly because the bike wanted to do its own thing so as well as battling with a tough track, against strong rivals, we also had to cope with our problems. I'm not at all happy”.
But Nicky is an expert and knows to look ahead, in anticipation of the new bikes that are described by Honda as bombs to beat, Hayden prefers to thing about the work to complete this year and at the next round.
“I've raced a lot in Malaysia and know the track well. It doesn't have the dangerous characteristics that Imola has, and is longer, but I love riding there. They tell me it's just been resurfaced and I'm curious to test the Pirelli tyres in those conditions”.
You'll go to Sepang to…?
“I want to get back to being fast and competitive, I mainly want to have feeling with the bike. We need to keep improving, even if only a little at a time, but continuously. And I'm not satisfied, because at Imola we've taken a step backwards”.
