Hayden looks to pad lead in tight race

Nicky Hayden will look to widen the distance with his MotoGP rivals at the Czech GP this weekend as the tour returns from its mid-season break.

For the last five seasons, late August has been reserved for the coronation of Valentino Rossi.

Rossi, though, has had his share of troubles this year on his once reliable Yamaha, and Hayden, Honda team-mate Dan Pedrosa and Marco Melandri on his Fortuna Honda have all sped past him in the standings with six races to go.

Hayden, known as the "Kentucky Kid", leads the MotoGP class with 194 points, 34 ahead of Pedrosa and 44 ahead of Melandri.

Rossi won the German GP in mid-July, but failed to finish the next race, the US Grand Prix, which Hayden won to go 51 points clear of his Italian rival.

"I'm having an awesome time this year," Hayden said.

"Normally, it's pretty well wrapped up (the championship) by now, but not this year. And the racing has been great for the fans; there have been some real dogfights out there."

Rossi faces a rare must-win position heading into the race on the 5.4-km Masaryk Ring, a track on which he has won five races, including last year's down-to-the-wire battle against compatriot Loris Capirossi.

Even history appears to be against the title holder.

Only one rider has ever trailed by more at this point of the season and gone on to win the title: Wayne Rainey in 1992, who trailed Mick Doohan by a whopping 65 points at the time.

This just may be the challenge Rossi needs after bike and tyre problems marred many of his 2006 races.

"This year I've had a lot of bad luck, and Laguna (the US Grand Prix) could not have been worse. But now we have had 20 days of holiday to relax and forget about what happened there," Rossi said.

"My strategy will be to enjoy myself in the races to come, trying to win as much as possible. And then, well, who knows what might happen."