Nicky Hayden had an infectious smile, a reflection of his charismatic demeanor on and off the track. He was that guy that you couldn’t help but like even if he did skilfully snatch your points in MotoGP. He was a champion in all aspects of life.
Hayden came from humble beginnings - and would never lose his roots. It would set the benchmark of how ‘The Kentucky Kid’ would approach the rest of his life. Modestly.
The 35-year-old died in Italy on 23 May 2017, five days after being hit by a car while training on his bicycle on the Rimmi Coast. A country that Hayden was all too fond of, having proposed to his girlfriend of six years, in Venice, just over a year ago.
Hayden was riding motorbikes before his feet could even touch the ground. Joining CMRA, one of America’s most active riding clubs, the youngster often raced much older competitors, and from the back line. Seeking assistance for someone to hold his bike upright at the start of a race as his feet did not meet the ground.
The entire Hayden family immersed themselves in the thrill of dirt bike racing. From Hayden’s father and mother to his four siblings, Kathleen, Jenny, Roger Lee and Tommy. The three Hayden brothers even pulled a rabbit out of a hat in 2002, when all three boys finished on the podium of the Springfield Grand National in Illinois - Nicky first, Tommy second, and Roger Lee third. A display of magic yet to be seen again.
He adopted his famed bike number 69 from his father, Earl, who liked that the number read the same way whether the bike was upright or not.
By age 17, Hayden was riding competitively. A string of impressive victories from 1999, including Hayden winning the 1999 600cc US Supersport championship and the 2002 1000cc AMA Superbike championship saw Repsol Honda’s MotoGP team snap up the then 21-year-old for the 2003 season.
No small feat - Hayden was now riding for Repsol Honda in MotoGP. His teammate, defending series champion, Valentino Rossi and his team, Repsol Honda, arguably the premier team in MotoGP racing at the time. The youngster had the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he faced it with nothing but a positive stride.
“My jump to MotoGP was huge. I went from AMA and I came from a big family, from Kentucky, a small town...I was just a kid who was really still a dirt tracker at heart. And if I’m completely honest, the step was bigger than I thought it was going to be,” Hayden describes in a past interview about his move to MotoGP.
“Not only did I have to learn a new bike, and the team, and the racing, but I had to learn the whole culture, the travel, and it was deep water and not easy in the beginning. But luckily I had a good bike - that really helps - and I was able to get good results and justify it... It was a steep learning curve, but I learned to swim just quick enough to stay on.”
Hayden was awarded with Rookie of the Year in 2003, beating out competitive riders like Troy Bayliss and Colin Edwards to get the award.
In 2005, Hayden won his first MotoGP on home turf at the US Grand Prix Laguna Seca, California, “Laguna 2005 was like a dream for me because everything worked perfect. In racing, it doesn’t always go like a dream,” Hayden described of the lead up to his first win.
But it was in 2006 that The Kentucky Kid would beat the odds to win the MotoGP championship, after Valentino Rossi who was leading the championship by eight points crashed on lap five of the last race of the season. Hayden crossed the finish line third that day knowing he was the new MotoGP champion, and in the process had ended Rossi’s five year championship streak.
Tommy Hayden remembers his brother at his happiest: “He dreamed as a kid of being a pro rider and not only achieved that but also managed to reach the pinnacle of his chosen sport in becoming world champion. We are all so proud of that.”
Hayden’s sliding and throttling abilities which had developed from years of riding on dirt tracks had proved he was a force to be reckoned with in MotoGP. However, new technical regulations soon transformed MotoGP engines from 990cc to 800cc and the change never quite worked for Hayden’s riding style. By 2008 Hayden moved to Ducati - the bike struggled amongst the Honda and Yamaha and it never quite worked for the American.
In 2015, Hayden decided to hang up the MotoGP gloves and moved to the World Superbike series. He was 13th in this season’s Superbike standings when he passed away.
Rossi speaks fondly of Hayden’s last lap of honour on the MotoGP track, where the American left a positive impression on a deplored Rossi:
“The most beautiful thing I have about him is when he gave his hand to me after the unlucky race of Valencia 2015, on the lap of honour. For him it was his farewell to MotoGP, I had just lost the world [title]. [The] supporting look inside his helmet is one of the few positive memories I have of that day.”
The next MotoGP race will be in Mugello, Italy, on June 4. His MotoGP brothers will ride with heavy hearts - but the memory of the man with the champion smile behind the visor will never be forgotten.
I leave you with Nicky Hayden’s jubilee of becoming World Champion in MotoGP in 2006:
“I would say that moment for me [the championship] was what I lived all my life for and not just me, it wasn’t like a goal I felt I won. I felt my family won it, like we won it together, because my parents, and my sisters, and my brothers, they sacrificed so much to give us this opportunity at a young age and I felt like we won it.”