American racer Nicky Hayden leaving MotoGP for World Superbike.

Local Nicky Hayden fans can rejoice, because The Kentucky Kid will race at Laguna Seca next year.

The 34-year-old American road racer announced today he is ending his tenure in MotoGP at the end of this season and will race in World Superbike for Honda in 2016.

The Weekly interviewed Hayden in 2012 about being, at the time, one of three Americans in the top class alongside Colin Edwards and Ben Spies, both of whom have since retired from racing.

MotoGP last raced at Laguna Seca in 2013, the same year World Superbike started again since its absence after the 2004 season.

Hayden, who won the MotoGP World Championship on a Honda in 2006, had raced in MotoGP since 2003. He was the last American to win the title and his switch means no American will be racing in MotoGP next season. In 2002, Hayden became the young AMA Superbike champion at 21. Hayden’s 13 years in MotoGP saw him win three MotoGP races and 28 podiums. He started five races from the front spot and raced for both the Honda and Ducati factory teams.

View photos of World Superbike at Laguna Seca in 2015.

Ownership over Laguna Seca has also been in the news this year as the track’s current  operator is the nonprofit Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP) looks at its unsure future. SCRAMP built the racetrack, which sits inside the county park of Laguna Seca, in 1957 and has managed Laguna Seca since as a concessionaire.