2007 AMA Formula Xtreme Champion Josh Hayes underwent successful surgery September 22 to repair a badly broken bone in his left foot and is currently recuperating at his home in Gulfport, Mississippi. “I think everything went well,” Hayes said of the surgical procedure he underwent at the hands of Douglas Elleby, father of AMA racer Ryan Elleby. “He said it was a little worse off than he thought, once he got in there, but he said he put everything back together.” Hayes said Dr. Elleby originally thought he would screw the bone fragments back together, but once inside Hayes’ foot he found the fragments to be too small for that. Instead, he used only one screw and wrapped the rest of the bone fragments together in wire. “It was like putting Humpty Dumpty back together again,” joked Hayes, who is letting his broken right big toe heal naturally. “Now I just have to give it some time and let it heal. That’s the most important thing, keeping my weight off it. He put the fear into me. ‘Don’t put any weight on it or it’s not gonna heal the way you want it to.’ So I’m just relaxing.” Asked about recovery time, Hayes said, “Right now, we’re just winging it. He said three to four weeks before we put any weight on it. But the prognosis is good. It’ll be fine. It’s just a matter of giving it time to heal up. I imagine in eight weeks I’ll be back to my old tricks.” Asked about his 2008 plans, Hayes said the first thing on his agenda was to marry his fiancé, WERA and USGPRU racer Melissa Paris, later this month, then “more than likely I’ll be doing the same thing [racing AMA Supersport and Formula Xtreme with Erion Honda]. I haven’t signed anything yet, but just from the sound of it, it sounds like I’ll be with Kevin [Erion] and he’ll do the same program next year.”