INTERVIEW
P52
EARL HAYDEN
r 69.
al numbe
in
The orig
best thing that could ever happen to me. Just getting that fresh
air and stuff. When you are laying in that bed… I was getting 33
radiation treatments and chemo.
But it was that seasickness. It
ain't like being sick. Hell, a hangover… when I had 'em - well, you
get over those. But with chemo
it was five days later that you're
sick and getting sicker. I couldn't
even take my clothes off.
"But it's all good now. I had
good doctors and I about halfway
did what they told me. I told them
to get me to my daughter's wedding in July and this was in January. She [the doctor] said she'd
get me there, but I might not
be eating cake. Then Tommy's
kid was born and then my other
daughter had a kid and I wanted
to feel good for that. I also want to
go back [to MotoGP] with Nicky
because he wants me to."
And when you travel with
Nicky, you travel in style. "Ducati
pays for two first-class tickets
and you get to lie down. I wasn't
used to that. Most of the time it
was me driving the van. It's a little
payoff time."
Since he can't be in two places at once, Earl relies on different methods of keeping up with
the boys – timing and scoring on
the Internet, live TV and Twitter
– because waiting patiently for
a phone call simply doesn't cut
it. And on most weekends Earl's
Racing Team is suddenly back together again – even when separated by thousands of miles. The
entire clan serves as Earl's supporting cast on race weekends
with his wife Rose and daughters
Jenny and Kathleen helping keep
track of sons and brothers. And
between the four of them they
somehow manage to keep up
with it all. At least now the racing trio are only in two places –
Nicky in MotoGP and Tommy and
Roger Lee in AMA. It was worse
when Roger Lee did his season
of World Superbike racing.
When Nicky crashed badly in
the Grand Prix of Aragon and the
family witnessed him flying over a
guardrail, the Hayden team went
into full reconnaissance mode.
