Nicky Hayden to race with pneumatic valve Honda

Nicky Hayden will debut Honda’s new pneumatic valve RC212V engine in this weekend’s British MotoGP.

The American’s forceful pleas demanding he run the revised V4 motor at Donington Park saw him overcome some resistance from a minority of HRC personnel to run the engine.

Hayden made his first appearance on the new motor in testing at Catalunya last week, which was the first time he had ridden the bike since a brief test appearance at Sepang in February.

Although there was no significant increase in top speed, Hayden still found improvements with the chassis on the pneumatic valve Honda RC212V.

He has two bikes with the new engine and one standard spring valve motor on the truck as a back up should he hit problems.

Honda engineers though are confident that an electrical glitch that struck factory rider Dani Pedrosa at the Catalunya test has been solved and bowed to Hayden’s demands.

Hayden, who has been linked with a big-money switch to Ducati for 2009, said: “I was pretty insistent that I had it. Honda is still not happy with the straight-line speed and the motor still has a few problems, but for me I think it is worth the risk.

“I’ve got nothing to lose and I feel like I’ve really got to try something. The bike is not easy to ride and in some places the power can still be quite aggressive, but I’ve always been a rider who likes to feel something when I open the throttle.

“I want something that goes when I open the throttle. I know we had some problems in Barcelona but they have done some work on the dyno in Japan and they are letting me run it.”

With Pedrosa just seven-points adrift of series leader Valentino Rossi going into this weekend’s Donington clash, the Spaniard has opted not to run the engine. He only completed a handful of laps on the pneumatic valve engine in Barcelona before he suffered an electrical failure.