Haydon gets second Proton KR call-up.

Having made what was intended to be a 'one-off' MotoGP appearance for Proton Team KR in last Saturday's Qatar Grand Prix, James Haydon will now return for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

The event is the home race for Team KR's principal sponsors, Proton Cars, and they had hoped Kurtis Roberts would be fit to ride alongside Nobuatsu Aoki, but the American is still recuperating from injuries sustained at the Czech Republic GP in August.

Kurtis's misfortune thus gives Haydon - who was on his way back to Britain - another chance, and the 2004 BSB race winner will head to Sepang aiming to build on his impressive Qatar performance, which culminated in a 12th place points finish.

"I'm sorry for Kurtis, but you can imagine how chuffed I am to have a second chance on the bike," admitted James. "As I said last week, it's a beautiful piece of kit... the fastest bike I've ever ridden, and also the most professional team. They made the bike better all the time. It still didn't feel totally like my bike after three days, but with another race we can get it closer and closer."

The younger of the Roberts brothers was injured in a practice crash at Brno, sustaining wrist and elbow injuries. Subsequently the wrist required surgery, leading to the delay in his return.

"At a push, he could probably ride, but we all thought it better that he should recover fully. We'll monitor his condition closely over the coming days, and get him back on board when he's fully fit," said team principal Kenny Roberts.

"James had actually gone back to Britain after Qatar, but he's turning round and coming out east again," he revealed. "He meshed really well with the team and tried really hard last weekend, so we're lucky he's able to come back again, and maybe take it all a stage further."

Prior to Qatar, the experienced Haydon last raced in premier-class GPs eight years ago, when the machines were 500cc two-strokes. Since then he has competed in World and British Superbike racing, finishing eighth in this year's national championship in spite of not taking part in all rounds, and winning a race in the process.

However, he and Aoki - who crashed out at Qatar - will face a tough challenge given the characteristics of the Malaysian circuit:

"Sepang is not an easy track for us," confirmed team manager Chuck Aksland. "Though some of the lap is flowing, which suits our machine's good handling, the hairpin at the end of the lap means hard acceleration on the start-finish straight from low speed, which is the area where our machine is weakest."

"But we can hope for some help from our Dunlop tyres. They have done a lot of testing at the track with the Moriwaki team, and that should be a benefit," he added