Kawasaki factory rider Roger Hayden will be out several weeks following surgery to repair his broken and dislocated lower right leg, an injury suffered in a scary, high-speed crash during the AMA Superbike race April 23 at Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Alabama. Hayden was racing with Aaron Yates for fourth place on lap 21 of 28, when he passed lapped rider James Kerker going up the hill from turn two to turn three, a very fast, blind, cresting kink. “We were going up the hill there,” Hayden told Roadracingworld.com in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I passed the guy (Kerker) on the inside. After I passed him at the top of the hill, I felt him get into me, like he turned into my back tire, and we both went down.” At the speed they were going, both bikes and riders were into the Airfence-fronted Armco barrier within the blink of an eye. SPEED Channel’s cameras missed the crash, and eyewitness accounts from cornerworkers were spotty, at best. “When I looked down,” continued Hayden, “I knew my foot was broke because it was facing the wrong direction. I knew it was messed up, that’s why I was sitting on that tire wall with my head down. My foot, I think, slid underneath the Airfence, like baseball sliding in. “I broke my tib (tibia) and fib (fibula). I looked at the X-rays today and I counted eight screws and a plate on one break and two screws on the other. It was dislocated, too, so there’s some ligament damage. “For where I wrecked and the way it all went down, it sucks but I can’t be bummed out too bad. I went in head-first, and both bikes followed me in there. The Airfence did me really good, because if there wasn’t an Airfence there I would’ve been just like Vincent (Haskovec). That’s exactly the way I went in there.” Hayden, the current AMA Supersport Championship leader, said he was scheduled for a check-up on Friday, when he hoped to get a better idea of how long he will be out of action. He expects, however, to be riding again by the Road America event, the first weekend in June.