In Superbike qualifying at Barber
Motorsports Park last Saturday, Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki's
Robertino Pietri was involved in a collision with Roger Hayden of the
factory Monster Energy Kawasaki team. Pietri, the 2006 FMV Venezuelan
National Superbike Champion and the 2006 FIM Latin American Superbike
Champion, collided with Hayden as the two were both working through
slower riders and both Pietri and Hayden crashed. Hayden suffered
significant injuries in the fall. Pietri suffered bruising and an arm
injury but was able to race in Superstock on Sunday.
"I was trying to pass a
slower rider that was between me and Roger, and I went in pretty deep
into the corner," said Pietri. "I was pretty sure I was going
to make the corner, I was quite strong there all weekend, but I never
thought I would close that quickly on Roger. I have a lot of respect for
him as a rider and he's on a factory bike and I just didn't believe I'd
close quite that fast.
"I lost him in my peripheral
vision and I hit his swingarm. There wasn't much I could do at that
point," said Pietri, who apologized repeatedly to Hayden on the
scene and also apologized later to Roger's father Earl Hayden and to
Kawasaki team manager Mike Preston.
"I'm completely sorry for
what happened. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for Roger and that's
the last thing I wanted to have happen. In 11 or 12 years of racing,
I've never had anything like that happen and I try to race in a
responsible manner. It was one of those racing situations, but I feel
really terrible about it. I hope Roger makes a swift recovery and he's
in my thoughts."
A published report stated that
Pietri, who has raced in World Superbike as a wild-card entry, was using
the Superbike qualifying session as additional practice for Superstock.
This was not the case and 'Tino planned to race both Superbike events at
Barber. He did not race on Saturday because the crash with Hayden
destroyed his primary racebike. He missed Sunday's Superbike race, due
to equipment issues caused by another, unrelated solo crash of his spare
bike on the last lap of the Superstock race, while he was contesting
fourth place.
"I wish the reporter had
asked me about that before assuming something," Pietri said.
"But he's one of those guys who always does that kind of thing. If
he doesn't like you or your team he just makes something up and puts it
in there without checking. We have guys like that in Venezuela and now
we have one here in the U.S. But that's not important now. What is
important is that Roger recover completely and comes back to the
racetrack. Again I say, I am very, very sorry this happened."