Nicky Hayden
Nicholas Patrick Hayden, nicknamed "The Kentucky Kid", was an American professional motorcycle racer who won the MotoGP World Championship in 2006. Hayden began racing motorcycles at a young age. He began his road racing career in the CMRA before progressing to the AMA Supersport Championship and then to the AMA Superbike Championship. He won the AMA title in 2002 and was approached by the Repsol Honda team to race for them in MotoGP in 2003.
Hayden largely had mixed results in his first 2 seasons at Repsol Honda only getting 4 podiums. He then rallied in the 2005 season by scoring his first Grand Prix win at Laguna Seca, and finishing third in the standings at the end of the season. The next year, 2006, would be Hayden's best in motorcycle racing as he won the 2006 MotoGP world title, breaking Valentino Rossi's five-year consecutive streak. He remained with Honda for two more seasons without a win, before moving to Ducati for 2009. Hayden had five largely unsuccessful seasons at Ducati, with his highest championship position being a seventh place in 2010. He subsequently moved to the Honda Aspar team in 2014 where he raced for two seasons.
Hayden moved to the Superbike World Championship with the Ten Kate Racing Honda team in 2016. He finished fifth in his first season in the Superbike World Championship with the highlight of his season being a win in Malaysia. For 2017 Hayden continued with the Red Bull Honda team.
On May 17, 2017, Hayden was hit by a driver while riding his bicycle in Italy. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and died five days later in a local hospital. Hayden was posthumously inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2018.
Career
Early career
Hayden was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He started road racing with the CMRA, often against racers many times older. Hayden would often start races from the back of the grid because a family or crew member would have to hold his bike upright as his feet would not yet touch the ground. Later, at age 17, he was racing factory Honda RC45 superbikes while still in high school.In 1999, Hayden won the AMA Supersport championship on board a privateer Honda. In 2001, his first full season as an AMA superbike racer, he came within 40 points of winning the championship, finishing behind only champion Mat Mladin and runner-up Eric Bostrom. In the 2002 season, he won the Daytona 200 on a Honda Superbike en route to becoming the youngest ever AMA Superbike Champion, defeating reigning triple champion Mat Mladin, among others. He also entered the World Superbike round at Laguna Seca, making a solid fourth in the first race before colliding with Noriyuki Haga in the second which ended in a 13th-place finish.
Hayden was one of a long line of American road racers to come from the American dirt-track scene. In 1999, Hayden won his first Grand National Championship race and took Rookie of the Year honors. He was also declared the AMA's athlete of the Year. In 2000, Hayden won the Springfield Short Track. In 2002, despite racing in just a handful of dirt-track events, Hayden won four races: Springfield Short Track, Springfield TT, and Peoria TT. At the Springfield TT race, the three Hayden brothers took the first three places.
Hayden's win at the 2002 Peoria TT came after beating 13-time Peoria winner, Chris Carr, despite starting from the penalty line. Hayden only lacked a win at a mile track to join Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts, Bubba Shobert, and Doug Chandler in the prestigious "Grand Slam Club."
MotoGP World Championship
Honda (2003–2008)
2003
Immediately after winning his AMA Superbike championship, Hayden was tapped to join not only Honda's MotoGP racing efforts, but what was arguably the premier team in MotoGP racing: The Factory Repsol Honda team.In his rookie year of MotoGP, Hayden would be overshadowed by his teammate Valentino Rossi, who was the defending series champion of the year, but would still score consistent points. At the opening round in Japan, Hayden finished seventh while Rossi won the race. But the race was marred by the death of Japanese rider Daijiro Kato who crashed at the 130R and hit the barrier at high speed in the ensuing Casio Triangle. At the next race in South Africa, Hayden would once more finish in seventh position while his teammate scored second place.
Hayden's only retirement of the season came in Spain. He would score two 12th places at the next rounds in France and Italy and would finish ninth in Catalunya. Further points would arrive at the Dutch round with an 11th place, the British round with an eighth place, the German round with a then career-best fifth place, nearly losing out on fourth after a battle with Loris Capirossi, the Czech round with a fifth place, the Portuguese round with a ninth place and the Rio de Janeiro round with another fifth position.
At the Pacific GP, Hayden would score his first ever podium in the motoGP class after an overtaking manoeuvre from Makoto Tamada on the last lap, which pushed Sete Gibernau into the gravel, was deemed to be against the rules by Race Direction and disqualified Tamada from the race, gifting third place to Hayden. Hayden finished fourth in Malaysia, before scoring his second third place podium at the penultimate round in Australia. During the race, Hayden had made his way up to third but ran slightly wide at the Honda curve, dropping him behind Marco Melandri, Tohru Ukawa, Sete Gibernau and Carlos Checa. He fought his way back and finished +0.031 seconds ahead of Gibernau. Hayden also battled with teammate Rossi on the opening laps for fifth, passing and re-passing each other on multiple occasions. At the Valencian Community race, Hayden would finish just outside the points in 16th place.
Hayden finished fifth in his first year in the championship with 130 points, 227 points behind the champion and teammate Valentino Rossi, an achievement that won him the Rookie-of-the-Year award.
2004
After his decent rookie year in the top class, many expected Hayden to do even better and some even speculated about a title fight with his new teammate Alex Barros or Valentino Rossi.At the season opener in South Africa, Hayden started off well by scoring fifth, a result he would equal at the next round in Spain. In France however, he finished 11th before retiring at the first part of the rain-affected race in Italy. Hayden had qualified second on Saturday, 0.369 behind polesitter Sete Gibernau and 0.373 seconds quicker than third position Valentino Rossi to secure his second ever front row start on the grid. Hayden would retire once more in Catalunya, this time due to mechanical problems to his Factory Honda bike. At the Dutch round, Hayden would once more finish in fifth place.
At the seventh round of the season—the Rio de Janeiro GP—Hayden would score his first podium of the season in the form of a third place. At the start, both Max Biaggi and Hayden put pressure on Kenny Roberts Jr. who started from pole before passing him. At the halfway point, Hayden was in second place before being overtaken by the Honda Pons of Makoto Tamada and was relegated to third, a place he would maintain until the finish line. At the next race in Germany, Hayden would finish third once more, behind his teammate Barros and race winner Biaggi. On Saturday, Hayden qualified ninth, but managed to charge up the field and close in on Biaggi and Rossi halfway into the race, along with Barros. He would overtake Hayden for third place before he also passed Rossi for second. With six laps to go, Hayden overtook Rossi for the final podium position and would hold on to cross the line 0.207 seconds ahead of "The Doctor".
After his consistent podium finishes in the last two Grand Prix, Hayden would finish off the podium once more in fourth at the British GP. At the Czech Republic, Hayden would retire for the third time this season. On Saturday, he had qualified on the third row in seventh place, but showed some serious pace during the pre-race warm-up session by finishing first. When the lights went out, Hayden initially started off well—he moved up the field to battle with a three-man group consisting of Rossi, Biaggi and Barros, who tried to reduce the gap to race leader Gibernau. After Barros fell and retired, Hayden moved up to fourth, but with five laps to go, Hayden lost the front wheel on turn-in and bounced into the gravel, retiring from the race in the process.
Hayden would break his right collarbone when he rode a CRF450 Honda dirt bike in Italy, causing him to miss the next race in Portugal. He would return the next round in Japan but would retire from the race after he was involved in a six-bike crash on the opening lap, marking his fourth retirement of the season.
At the next three rounds in Qatar, Malaysia and Australia, Hayden would finish fifth, fourth and sixth, respectively, before retiring for the fifth and final time of the year at the last round at the Valencian Community. Hayden battled with Rossi and Biaggi during the race until his bike got sideways under braking into turn one, forcing him to ride wide —handing Troy Bayliss third and Tamada fourth in the process. One lap later, he lost the front of his RCV heading onto the back straight and span out into retirement, much to the dismay of the watching Michael Jordan.
Hayden finished eighth in the championship with 117 points, 187 points behind the champion Valentino Rossi. He scored two podiums and retired five times—the most times he retired in one season in his career.
2005
After a relatively poor season in 2004, many people critiqued Hayden's performances and stated that he should be kicked out of the Factory Honda team. However, things would improve for him in 2005.At the first round of the season in Spain, Hayden retired for the first time this season. Hayden was in a strong position to finish third—overtaking Valentino Rossi's Yamaha in the early part of the race before being demoted to third by the same Rossi—maintaining a two-second gap to fourth place Marco Melandri. With eight laps to go and 1.5 seconds behind the front runners Sete Gibernau and Rossi, Hayden lost the front of his factory RCV as he tipped in to final corner, sending him into the gravel trap and retirement. In contrast, Hayden scored consistent points in the next six races—the Portuguese, Chinese, French, Italian and Catalan and Dutch rounds—finishing seventh, ninth, sixth twice, fifth and fourth, respectively.
Hayden's breakthrough came at the United States GP, held at the Laguna Seca Raceway. The Californian venue had not been on the calendar since 1994, meaning that only a handful of riders had experience with this track. Australian Troy Bayliss and American Colin Edwards knew this track well from their Superbike days, as well as Hayden, who won an AMA race at the circuit in 2000 and taken fourth in a World Superbike wildcard outing in 2002. Rossi on the other hand, had never raced here, giving these riders an advantage. On Saturday, Hayden took his first ever pole position in the MotoGP class, beating former teammate Rossi by 0.354 seconds. On race day, Bayliss would be battling him for the first spot when the lights went out, but held on and built a gap of a second by the end of the opening lap. Rossi passed Bayliss for second place but 2.6 seconds separating Hayden and Rossi by lap 10. On lap 16, Edwards overtook Rossi for second place and cut the lead gap to 1.8 seconds three laps later. Hayden responded by upping his pace and crossed the line 1.941 seconds clear of second-place Colin Edwards and 2.312 seconds clear of third place Valentino Rossi. This was the first personal victory for the "Kentucky Kid" and the first win for the Factory Honda team since Rossi's last win at the 2003 Valencian Community round.
After a great result at his home grand prix in the US, Hayden recorded his second DNF of the season in Great Britain. On lap two, Hayden high-sided his bike at the final turn while being in seventh place. At round 10 in Germany, Hayden scored his second pole position of the season, as well as overall, beating Sete Gibernau by 0.101 seconds on his 24th birthday. When the lights went out, Hayden converted his pole into a lead at the first turn, followed by Rossi, Barros and Gibernau. The race was stopped on lap six after a highside of John Hopskin's Suzuki caused him to lay on the track injured. After the race was restarted with the results from lap five taken, Hayden would once more start in first position, followed by Rossi and Barros. At the restart, Hayden once more kept the position, with Rossi, Gibernau, Barros and now Max Biaggi following him. On lap two, Rossi took the lead from Hayden before he was relegated to third by Gibernau, overtaking him at the end of the same lap. Gibernau ran wide on the last lap, but Hayden failed to capitalise on this mistake, crossing the line 0.885 seconds behind race winner Rossi to pick up his second podium place of the season.
In the next three races, Hayden would finish off the podium. At the Czech, Japanese and Malaysian rounds, Hayden finished fifth, seventh and fourth—picking up the fastest lap at the Sepang circuit.
Hayden finished the season on the podium in the next four consecutive races. In Qatar, Hayden would score another third place podium position. In Australia, Hayden went on to score his third pole of the season on Saturday and set a new record on the Phillip Island circuit with a time of 1:29.337, 0.731 seconds faster than Rossi's previous record on the venue. The next day, Hayden converted his pole into a turn-one lead when the red lights went out. On lap three, Rossi overtook Hayden going into turn one before then being passed by Marco Melandri. Hayden fought back, passing Melandri again on the runup to Lukey Heights and closing the gap to Rossi and battling hard with him from laps eight to 17. On lap 17, Hayden would retake the lead from Rossi, but he had slowed down the pace enough for the trio of Melandri, Gibernau and Checa to catch the two at the top. On lap 19, Rossi overtook Hayden before Melandri did the same by taking the position under braking at the Honda hairpin. The pair would swap positions multiple times before Hayden finally found a firm advantage over Melandri, but the combined effect of the squabble and Rossi's victory charge up front, meant that Hayden was now one second behind Rossi with five laps to go. Hayden did everything to close the gap, but Rossi managed to win the race with a 1.007 second lead over him. At the new Turkish GP, Hayden took another third place and at the Valencian Community round, he would narrowly lose out on the race win by 0.097 seconds to race winner Marco Melandri, battling hard on the last lap.
Hayden finished third in the championship with 206 points, 161 points behind the champion Valentino Rossi and 14 points behind runner-up Marco Melandri. He scored six podiums—one of which was a win.