SuperBike Magazine

Nobody gave Nicky Hayden a hope in hell of overturning an eight-point deficit in the final race of the 2007 season. The best anyone could say was, "Anything can happen" and, on lap four, it did. Rossi lost the front of his M1 and crashed out while Hayden was in second place behind Ducati wildcard Troy Bayliss. Rossi remounted and got going again, but he was out of the big points and Hayden was comfortable in second, settling for third and winning the title.
To be honest the race was rather dull, with Bayliss never headed, team-mate Loris Capirossi happy in second and Hayden not taking any chances. Behind Hayden there were three Hondas riding shotgun, so it was a tense procession more than anything else.
Hayden held his nerve, made no mistakes and won his title, while, in all the fuss, Troy Bayliss' amazing ride went almost unnoticed, out-qualifying and out-riding his team mate on his first race weekend on a new bike and a new tyre brand. Looks like Bayliss made some kind of point to Ducati's MotoGP team. The fact that new Ducati signing Casey Stoner crashed again made Bayliss' humiliation of the MotoGP team even more piquant. So, hats off to the boys from the new world – a Yank and an Aussie showing the Europeans how to do it. Ace.
After he had dried his eyes (fair play), Hayden said: At the end of an emotional day Nicky said. “When you dedicate your life to something and the dream comes true it feels so good. This is a proud day for me, the team and my family. I want to thank everybody back home and I hope they're partying back there in Owensboro. When I went down at the beginning of the Estoril race I thought the dream was over but I just didn't give up. Anything can happen in racing and you just keep fighting until the end. I just believe good things happen to good people and this is
a great day for me. I swear on the warm-up lap this morning I was riding round in front of a full house here and I had tears in my eyes because I knew this was the chance of a lifetime and I had to go for it. I've felt all year that this was my year – even at Estoril when Elias beat Rossi I believed it. I knew that, win or lose, I was going to sleep well tonight because I was gonna give it my all today.