For most racers it would be the moment they’ve always dreamed of, an invitation to race a MotoGP bike in a World Championship Grand Prix. But two-time AMA Pro Superbike Champion Josh Hayes wishes his opportunity to race the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 in the MotoGP season finale this coming weekend at Valencia never happened. At least not the way it did. It all started a few weeks ago when Hayes’ supporters arranged it so he could test Colin Edwards’ MotoGP bike at Valencia in the days following the final Grand Prix of the 2011 season. “Yamaha and [Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. Racing Division Manager] Keith McCarty, the guys at GYTR [Genuine Yamaha Technology Racing], the folks at Y.E.S. [Yamaha Extended Service], my sponsors and even Monster, they all got together to see about making it happen to do something nice for me, which was to test the machine,” Hayes told Roadracingworld.com in a telephone interview Tuesday. Then the tragic accident that took the life of Marco Simoncelli and injured Edwards October 23 at Sepang, in Malaysia, changed Hayes’ test into an invitation to race at Valencia as a replacement rider. “When Colin got injured it was a pretty simple exercise of just moving all of my travel arrangements up to get to Spain a little earlier and getting some leathers made up to look right on the bike,” said Hayes, who rides for the Monster Energy Graves Yamaha team in the AMA Pro Superbike Series. But instead of contemplating a career move into full-time MotoGP racing or grabbing International headlines with remarkable results at Valencia, Hayes is keeping everything firmly in perspective–including the events that made the opportunity to do the race possible. “I would have been perfectly happy just to test on the bike and I’m excited to be able to race it,” said Hayes, “but I would give it all back to have Marco and Colin there and able to race this weekend. It’s under the kind of circumstances that I do not like, but I’m going to go out there and do a decent job for the team and Yamaha.” Pressed to identify his goals for the weekend, Hayes said, “I’ve looked at what the wild cards and stand-in riders have done in MotoGP this year, and I think it’s pretty clear that these machines are very difficult to ride. I have a feeling that the three-and-a-half hours of track time I’ll get with the bike before the race is not going to seem like very much. “I think it’s kind of difficult for me to have any expectations. I would like to do better than the average bear. I have pretty high expectations inside, but I don’t know how to relate that to lap times or positions, things like that. I’m sure it will be a good experience, and I hope to bring some of that experience away with me to use at some point while I’m racing Superbikes in the U.S.” Hayes said he will also stay on and test the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 following the Grand Prix weekend. Then he’ll hand the machine over to his wife, AMA Pro Daytona SportBike racer Melissa Paris, who will also get to test the 800cc machine.