Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden, the defending Champion and current AMA Supersport point leader, is preparing for what he feels may be a tough race weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, considering he will be riding with a less-than-two-week-old broken right hand. Hayden suffered the injury, a fracture of the third metacarpal, when he mis-judged a pass on a slower rider during the AMA Superstock race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca July 10, collided with the slower rider, ran off the track and crashed. Hayden accepted full blame for the incident and exonerated the slower rider of all fault to reporters. Determined not to forfeit his large Supersport Championship lead, Hayden gritted his teeth and raced to sixth place in the Supersport final later that same day, but doing so actually worsened his fracture, causing the broken bones to displace, according to Hayden. On July 11, Hayden had surgery at the hands of Dr. Arthur Ting to stabilize the fracture and immediately began physical therapy. “I’ve been doing physical therapy from right after the surgery to pretty much the moment I got in the car today to drive up here,” Hayden told Roadracingworld.com Thursday. As he spoke, Hayden’s crew was busy making small but significant modifications to the hand grips and brake levers of his factory Kawasaki racebikes to accommodate the lack of strength and dexterity in his right hand. Overall, Hayden feels that racing at Mid-Ohio will be tougher than doing the Supersport race at Laguna Seca. “I was already up to speed and had my rhythm going at Laguna. Plus, I knew I only had to ride the one time with it,” said Hayden. “Here, I’m going to have to ride with it all weekend.”