Photo by Mark Wernham

Josh Hayes finished a spectacular seventh in his MotoGP debut at the season-ending Spanish Grand Prix. The 36-year-old American completed the 30-lap race just half a minute behind winner Casey Stoner and second-place Ben Spies. Stoner’s Repsol Honda teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, rounded out the podium.

A replacement for Tech 3 Yamaha regular Colin Edwards, injured two weeks ago at the Malaysian GP, Hayes showed steady progress throughout the weekend. He even topped the timing sheets in Sunday morning warm-up.

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Photo by Mark Wernham

Newly crowned 2011 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner stormed to his 12th pole position of the 18-race season today at the Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit near Valencia, Spain, equaling the premier-class record set by five-time 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan in 1997. At the other end of the grid, 4.181 seconds back in 16th position, two-time AMA Pro American SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes got his first taste of an 800cc Grand Prix prototype fitted with Brembo carbon-carbon front brakes and Bridgestone slicks.

“I’m not happy about P16,” admitted Hayes. “The team has reassured me that I’m doing better than they expected. They expected me to be 3 seconds slower than Katsuyuki Nakasuga [Yamaha test rider and stand-in for injured Jorge Lorenzo this weekend], not within a tenth of a second of him. That’s great, but I don’t like being last.”

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Photo by Mark Wernham

Two-time AMA Pro American SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes made his MotoGP debut in practice today at the Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo Circuit near Valencia, Spain. The 36-year-old Mississippi native posted the 15th- and 10th-quickest lap times—2.5 seconds slower than the top riders—in the two timed sessions, both of which were run in wet conditions, the second more so than the first. Newly crowned MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner recorded the quickest time of the day, a 1:45.513. His Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa, was second. Ducati’s Valentino Rossi rounded out the top three.

When I spoke with Hayes, he was watching a tennis tournament on television in the Tech 3 Yamaha hospitality. Hayes is an avid tennis player and a fan of the sport. “I wish I could play,” he said. “That might take my mind off things. I’ve been a wreck all day. I’ve never been more nervous in my entire life.”

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Two-time AMA Pro American SuperBike Champion Josh Hayes had mixed emotions after learning that he’d been selected to replace injured Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1 for the final MotoGP race of the season this weekend in Valencia, Spain.

For weeks, Hayes had known that he would test Edwards’ Yamaha on Tuesday, November 8, two days after the season-ending Spanish round. He was looking forward to it. According to Yamaha, the ride was a reward for Hayes’ back-to-back AMA titles. Moreover, it would be a real test, not just a few hot laps, with multiple sets of series-spec Bridgestone slicks at Hayes’ disposal. In addition, his wife, Melissa, who races a Yamaha YZF-R6 in the Daytona SportBike class, was told she would also be given an opportunity to swing a leather-clad leg over Edwards’ bike.

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Photo by Mark Wernham

Reactions were varied to the cancellation of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix. The riders knew immediately that Marco Simoncelli’s condition was grave; some even changed out of their leathers and into street clothes shortly after returning to the garages. Most of the record 67,112 spectators ringing the 3.447-mile Sepang International Circuit, however, were apparently unaware of the critical nature of the second-lap accident.

According to eyewitnesses, some fans were actually angry. They’d paid a premium for their tickets and felt shortchanged. They threw bottles of water and trash onto the racetrack, and in the accompany photo, track marshals can clearly be seen running for cover. By the time Simoncelli had been pronounced dead, most of the crowd had gone home.

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Photo by Tim White

After the MotoGP post-race press conference at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, third-place-finisher Ben Spies stuck around to answer a few more questions. Actually, Spies posed the first question.

“Am I mad about the start?”

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Photos by Chris Cantle

“I am very sad. We hope that this weekend [would] confirm the performance of the last two races in Laguna and Brno—because this morning was much better with the bike.

“But, unfortunately, this afternoon, I had a crash at the beginning where I damaged the good bike and, especially, two new tires. So, I have to go with other bike, which was a little bit different. Also, I have to use the harder tire, and I don’t feel confident. I lose the feeling with the bike, and at the end, we are very much behind.

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Photo by Tim White

Casey Stoner didn’t let changing track conditions or a layout for which he isn’t fond stop him from smashing the lap record in qualifying, winning Sunday’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix and extending his points lead on current world champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Some members of the local media nevertheless criticized the 25-year-old Australian for derogatory comments he made about the 2.621-mile roadcourse, most of which exists within the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s famous 2.5-mile oval.

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Photo by Tim White

Arguably the most important subject discussed during Thursday’s pre-Red Bull Indianapolis GP press conference at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was the costly recent resurfacing of a significant portion—Turns 5 through 16—of the 2.621-mile infield roadcourse.

Last year, current MotoGP points-leader Casey Stoner, among others, was openly critical of the bump-riddled track. This year, he is cautiously optimistic. “It’s going to be interesting to see what [this new surface is] like, how much grip we have and how the weather works out this weekend.

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Photo by Tim White

Last July, heading into Round 7 of the 2010 AMA Pro Road Racing series at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Graves Yamaha factory rider Josh Hayes already had four race wins under his belt and would claim three more en route to winning his first American SuperBike title. This time around, Hayes has two victories to his credit and trails Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young by 11 points.

What’s changed? I asked. “The Yamaha YZF-R1 is in its third year of a four-year [cycle] and development isn’t happening as fast,” he replied. “After Daytona, when the bikes were at ‘home,’ the guys worked really hard and improved our machines. But for the last several weeks, the bikes have been on the road. At the same time, Suzuki has stayed one step ahead of us.”

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American MotoGP stars Colin Edwards and Ben Spies are on a roll. After a bumpy start to the 2011 season, particularly for the 27-year-old Spies, the former Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammates have now turned in a trio of podium finishes, including an all-laps-led victory for Spies this past June at TT Assen in the Netherlands.

While the 37-year-old Edwards stayed with the French-based, Herve Poncheral-led Tech 3 team this season, Spies took over the factory Yamaha slot that opened up when nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi left for Ducati. Spies has since been confirmed to remain with the squad for 2012, as well.

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Lost in all of the hoopla surrounding Ben Spies’ maiden MotoGP victory in front of a packed house at the Assen Circuit in Holland this past weekend is the fact that the factory Yamaha rider came dangerously close to starting the race from dead last.

Like many of his peers, Spies began Saturday’s pre-race sighting lap on rain tires and with a wet-weather chassis setup. Rather than take his place on the front row of the grid for the warm-up lap and eventual start of the race, Spies returned to pit lane and jumped on his back-up YZR-M1, which had been hastily converted by his crew to a dry setup and fitted with soft-compound Bridgestone slicks to compensate for the quickly changing track conditions.

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Photo by Tim White, TSWPhoto

Former national champion Jake Zemke is the latest in a long line of top riders to leave the AMA Pro Road Racing series. Third overall in American SuperBike in 2010 with Jordan Suzuki and polesitter for this year’s Daytona 200 on a Project 1 Atlanta Yamaha YZF-R6, Zemke has inked a deal to race a WFR Honda CBR1000RR in the Pirelli-spec British Superbike Championship in the Evo class—equivalent to now-defunct AMA Superstock—beginning with the fifth round of the series, June 17-19, at the 1.3-mile-long Knockhill Racing Circuit in Scotland.

A highly competitive seat on one of the three WFR machines became available when current Evo-class points-leader Alex Lowes replaced injured Stuart Easton on the MSS Colchester Kawasaki Superbike squad. Former AMA, MotoGP and World Superbike racer John Hopkins is competing in the series on a Samsung Crescent Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000. Hopkins has won one race and is currently second overall in points behind former SBK pilot Shane Byrne.

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Photo by DMT Imaging

On the RSV4: “The Aprilia is quite fast, especially in top gear. Engineers like to see numbers—power, power, power. But if you don’t have a nice curve, it is more difficult to ride.

On power delivery: “Compared with other machines [in World Superbike], our engine is more peaky. That’s where the rider makes the difference. Some cannot ride a peaky engine. Ducati has the most-easy power.

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Six so far, more to come? Blake Young is tied with his Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden in career AMA Pro American SuperBike victories. Photo by DMT Imaging

I bought JD Beach a big, juicy steak at a nice restaurant in Salt Lake City on Monday night. I figured he could use some cheering up after crashing out of fourth place with just three laps remaining in the AMA Pro American SuperBike race at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

Between bites, the 19-year-old Team Cycle World Attack Performance Kawasaki rider thought back on the day’s events. “I wish I would have finished the race,” he lamented, staring blindly at the chunk of meat sizzling on his plate.

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