Nicky Hayden: official Ducati MotoGP rider

In a press release from today, the Ducati Marlboro MotoGP team announced the latest news about Nicky Hayden: the 27-year-old Kentucky kid will join the Ducati factory team in 2009 like we all expected already.
Nicky and Casey will ride the new Desmosedici GP9 soon, a test session is planned on the 27th October, just before the Valencia grand Prix.

The press release says: “We are really happy to have Nicky join us,” declared Claudio Domenicali, Ducati corse CEO and Ducati Motor Holding Product Director.
“We are certain that his never-say-die attitude, riding style and character will be great addition to our team in 2009.

I would like to thank HRC for allowing Nicky to start testing our bike immediately after the Valencia Grand Prix.
I would also like to thank Marco Melandri for his professionalism during a difficult year, which was below all our expectations.

Unfortunately his feeling with the Desmosedici was never good enough to allow him to ride as well as he can.
We wish him all the best for the future.
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