At the recent Ducati North America dealer show in Race Town USA (that means Indianapolis, Indiana), Ducati Chief Executive officer Gabriele Del Torchio and race team manager Livio Suppo walked out onto the stage, and once they found their assigned places upon it, brought another personality, this one named Nicky Hayden. A fighting runner-up finisher to Valentino Rossi at Sunday’s stormy United States Grand Prix at nearby Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Hayden sauntered out onto the stage, and even though he still has four races to run for the Repsol Honda team that he won the MotoGP World Championship for in 2006, Hayden’s presense at the meeting signaled, for all intents and purposes, the end of his 10- year relationship with Honda and the beginning of a new one with Ducati.

While the MotoGP paddock has been rife with rumors of Hayden switching from Honda to Ducati for a month now, reigning World Champion and Marlboro Ducati team leader Casey Stoner tossed a bit more grease on the fast spinning rumor mill a few hours after placing fourth in the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix.

“If Nicky were to join us, that would be fantastic,” Stoner commented, seemingly knowing a bit more than he was letting on. “I’ve always gotten along with Nicky and I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I think he’s had a lot of dirt over these years and people need to stop giving riders dirt and just give them respect for what they’re doing. They’re trying hard, riding our best, and today Nicky went out and proved why he was World Champion in 2006 and he rode bloody well.”

Nicky Hayden’s last ride wit the Repsol Honda team will come at the Gran Premio De La Comunitat Valenciana on Sunday, October 26, 2008. Literally, the day after, he’ll climb aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP09 and began bashing out countless test laps on the machine beginning what promises to be a long and laborious winter of testing. A World Champion himself, Hayden has also been teamed with a number of World Champions including Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi (2005). Interestingly, the word on the street is that both Hayden and Stoner are quite pleased to be teammates.

“I think there’s advantages to having a teammate you get on with,” Hayden told Cycle News. “It’d be unreal to go beat Casey [Stoner] on that bike, I realize that. I think on that team, the way things are in this paddock, especially you see at Indy, we came to a track and really only had one dry session, if you count out the first free practice and when you got to use qualifying tires. I think there’s times to be able to work together with a teammate and share information. So, I get on well with Casey. I like his style. Some people think…he’s a fiery little dude, man. I mean, I like that. He’s got a lot of passion for it. He’s not there to try to be a cool guy. He says what he feels and he’s there to do a job. He ain’t there to just try to fill the row and be cool.”

As history has now taught us, Hayden conceded that Ducati initially contacted him at the mid-season mark. Hayden was tendered other offers and opportunities, but would not budge on riding the factory Ducati on the Marlboro Ducati team. And so now it is. Next stop: Valencia, Spain.

Eric Johnson