True but deceptive... Hayden won but it wasn't based solely on luck...
it was actually the first year Rossi and Burgess did not come up with
an improved M1... they fought overheating and break downs and the
first signs of the feud with Michelin... on the other hand Nicky
thrilled the crowds to the end by over coming all sorts of
obstacles... developing a new RC211V to suit his style... being taken
out by his team mate to win the last of the 990cc championships...
Rossi was still strong with 5 wins and 3 seconds but suffered 3 DNFs
and thus the only way for a rider to win was to be more consistent
with 2 wins and 3 seconds and only 1 DNF... no rider on the grid in
2006 could have beat Rossi for wins...
Rossi's DNFs were not due to self infected crashes and You purposely failed to count that in the first race (jerez) Rossi was taken out by Elias. Rossi was fortunate to get on the bike and finish a "wonderful" 14th. Furthermore, Rossi suffered massive chattering when Michelin introduced a new front tire at the start of the season leading to massive front chattering (akin to riding without a balanced front tire), whereas rossi tested SEVEN frames!
Furthermore, ironically at Estoril Elias was given a special tire to try, and with it he was able to beat Rossi by .002 of a second - which cost Rossi the championship. In addition, in Assen varios riders were limping around (and capi in the hospital) due to the crash fest induced by Sete taking out most of the grid the prior race. In addition Rossi injured his hand during qualifying and thus paving the way for Hayden to actually battle for the race (outside LS) with... CE !! Who while leading along with Hayden into the gravel trap, crashes out like a novice on the gas- while Hayden motored by at moped speed. In that sense, CE gave Hayden the championship as well.
Overall, Hayden clearly had a string of lucky strikes - something the Dennis Noyes himself noted in writing an article about Hayden's 9 lives (paraphrased title), and went into quite some detail of the luckfest (my wording).
Indeed, there are times a racer has a lucky strike, sometimes vital to win a title, but when luck plays an enormous part, the chances he has to win again are very slim and more often than not does a very poor title defense (as I predicted Hayden would do). Those who lose due to string of problems often "bounce back" and are "back in the game" and may regain the title and at worse, be fighting for the title. Therefore , IF INDEED, Hayden did not win by luck as you or other's contend, then Hayden would be AT WORSE a contender as Rossi, Pedrosa, Stoner or Lorenzo are, and at best regain the title. However, it should be obvious that Hayden is hardly close as in Hayden's own words (stitched into his leathers): "Numbers don't L1e" .....
Suffice to say, that Doohan in retrospect, mentioned that he felt he needed to win the title again to prove to himself it wasn't a fluke - and considering that Doohan's first title was hardly a luck fest or controversial WC - it was stone solid - something that can not be said about Hayden (obviously).
In fact, Stoner was said to have an enormous advantage in tire and bike in 2007, which may be true. However, despite haven lost the advantage Stoner was still "in the game", and then went to Honda and won again the title first time out. With this in mind, it should be more than clear by now that Hayden's "Numbers don't L1e" results speak for themselves, very much proving that Hayden's title was not due to a lucky incident or a misfortune of a competitor - But rather an unprecedented string of lucky strikes and fortune never to be repeated by Hayden or anybody in moto history. The fact remains that once Hayden lost his track knowledge advantage at LS, he has not been on the podium and only has been close due to attrition. He also has no other wins to show except for the assen fluke. He not only has the least amount of wins in the Top GP clase, but also the "Champ" with the least career wins in history - of any class !!
This is not to rag on Hayden, but the fact is, if Hayden had simply been a GP title contender then few - if any - would be discussing this.
arty
