From Flattrack to the World Stage

In 2006, Nicky Hayden was chasing a dream: the dream of becoming World Champion in motorcycle racing’s premier series: MotoGP. Pursuing that dream also meant chasing Italy’s Valentino Rossi, who, with the previous five Championship titles to his credit, was one of the most formidable competitors the sport had ever seen.

Throughout the series, fans held their breath as “The Kentucky Kid” ran up a substantial points lead over “The Doctor” by mid-season. However, the former teammates, now rivals, were in for the title battle of their lives as Rossi began to eat away at Hayden’s points lead, all while Nicky fought mechanical issues with a temperamental clutch on his multi-million dollar prototype machine. It all came down to the final race in Valencia, Spain. Rossi was leading in the points for the first time in the season as the race began, but when it finished, Nicky Hayden was the first American MotoGP World Champion since Kenny Roberts, Jr. in 2000. He had caught Rossi – and his dream.

“SINCE I COULD TALK”

Born in 1981, Hayden grew up in a family of racers (his father was a dirt track competitor, his brothers are standouts on the AMA Supersport and Superbike circuit, and even his mom raced in the Powder Puff class). “My dream has been to become world champion basically since I could talk,” the rider says.
Hayden made his start on dirt and in flat-track events, turning pro in 1997. By 1999 he was crowned AMA/Speedvision Pro Athlete of the Year and was being touted as perhaps the best 18-year-old motorcycle racer ever. As part of the Honda roadracing team, he won the AMA 600cc SuperSport title, logged a win in the AMA Grand National Dirt Track series, finished second in the AMA Formula Xtreme series, and even stood on the podium in an AMA Superbike race.
The success gave Hayden a full-time AMA Superbike seat for 2000, and he quickly worked his way up the ranks. Two years later, he started the Superbike season with a win at Daytona; and he kept up the pace to seize the overall championship. At 21, he was the youngest AMA Superbike champ in the history of the series.

“ALL IN 69”

With his 2002 AMA Superbike championship, and honors like Motorcyclist magazine’s Motorcyclist of the Year, Hayden clearly had momentum. But MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, putting the best international riders head-to-head – at speeds reaching 215 miles per hour – on fabled tracks in sophisticated locations around the world. As one sportswriter put it, anyone who even qualifies to race MotoGP is a hero. Was The Kentucky Kid ready for such cosmopolitan ranks? There was only one way to find out. For 2003, Honda placed Hayden in the thick of the action, teaming him with Rossi, the reigning world champion, on their factory team. The American rose to the occasion, putting in electrifying performances and standing on the podium twice, for a fifth-place finish overall. His efforts earned him the MotoGP Rookie of the Year award. While happy with the honor, the newbie realized that ultimate victory would require patience. “In the U.S. I was doing a lot of winning, and I must say I miss that feeling!” he acknowledged at the time. “But it was like a dream come true to join MotoGP. I know I’ve got a lot to learn and I’m going to have to step it up, but I ain’t gonna lay down. I’ll keep chasing my dream.” The chase was on in 2004, as Hayden put together two consecutive podiums, but it was in 2005 that he really started to advance on the field. In front of a home-country crowd at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, Hayden led from start to finish for his first MotoGP victory. Two additional pole positions, as well as five more podium performances, gave Number 69 his solid third-place overall ranking at the end of the season. He was determined to take his Repsol Honda team even higher in 2006. “Moto Grand Prix racing is really intense, but I enjoy fighting the best in the world,” said the American. “I grew up on a dirt road in Kentucky, so I don’t take this chance as a joke. I’m giving it all I’ve got.” As the 2006 season began, Hayden walked his talk. His former teammate, Rossi, was the man to beat – the charismatic Italian had won five consecutive championships and was looking for a sixth. Yet it was Hayden who stunned the field by taking seven podiums in the first eight races of the seventeen-round series, including his first MotoGP win outside the United States at the Assen TT in the Netherlands. Hayden won again at the series’ eleventh stop, the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, and the Championship looked to be within his grasp when disaster struck at the next-to-last race of the season. In Estoril, Hayden’s own teammate collided with him, taking Number 69 out of the race and leaving the “The Kentucky Kid” eight points back going into the final round. Only one rider had ever entered the series’ final race from behind to emerge as a champion, and that was Wayne Rainey in 1992, who arrived at the last round only two points behind an injured Mick Doohan. Hayden’s chances seemed slim, but the determined rider refused to give up, and the resulting race in Valencia was one for the ages. Rossi earned the pole position, while Hayden started in fifth position, making his intentions clear with a nod to poker terminology. On his leathers and bike’s windscreen, “All In 69” was emblazoned along with stacks of poker chips and five cards, four of them showing a royal flush draw, but the fifth card was yet to be turned over showing a question mark instead. Hayden got off to a great start, then on lap four, the crowd of 130,000 collectively gasped as Rossi, feeling the unaccustomed pressure, made an uncharacteristic error, lowsiding his bike and crashing. Although he scrambled back into the race, he couldn’t make up the loss, and when the checkered flag came down, Australian Troy Bayliss had his first career MotoGP race win, while Hayden finished in third place, enough for the overall championship, out-duelling Rossi by a razor-thin margin of only five points. Hayden’s emotions were strong as he crossed the finish line, and the well-liked rider seemed almost overwhelmed when the media corps gave him a round of applause to start his press conference. “I swear on the warm-up lap this morning I was riding around in front of a full house here and I had tears in my eyes because I knew this was the chance of a lifetime and I had to go for it,” Hayden stated. “When you dedicate your life to something and the dream comes true, it feels so good.”

So, what happens to the dreamer once he’s achieved his dream? In MotoGP, that’s easy: the rules change. For 2007, Hayden – like everyone else – will be switching to an 800cc bike. (Due to that rule change, he and Rossi will go down in the record books as the only riders ever to win the MotoGP title on a 990cc, four-stroke bike.

Can The Kentucky Kid triumph again on a different kind of ride? Pete Benson, chief mechanic for Hayden’s 2006 World Championship effort, isn’t worried. “I think Nicky will continue to do well when we make the switch to the 800cc bikes,” he says confidently. “Great riders can adapt to anything.”