Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127648
mates. Next, one of the g irls gives a speech abou t an a musemen t park she attended this past su mmer. "It's in Indiana, that's the onl y bad thing abo ut it," she says. More applause. Earl and I exit between speeches and head to Nick 's school, a smal l Catholic institution where some of the grades are combined into one class. Wh en we arrive, Nick and a few of his classmates seem to have taken charge of the class. Nick is the center of allen: tion. "Substitute teacher toda y," H e shouts over the roar of the class. He has a big smil e on his face. This one is definit ely not shy. I look up at the yo ung teacher and he shrugs his shoulders. After a few photos into which every kid in the class tries to sneak, Earl and I head back to wait for the kid s' ar rival home. The rain has fina lly tapered off: "It's going be too wet for them to get any riding in today," Earls says as he surveys the puddled field. Soon the kids are home and they start s ho wing me around th e place. 1 ask them about some of the bigger trophies and they seem to remember exactly from what ra ce each of the hundred s of trophies ca me. At this p oint, 1 head up to the bedrooms. The w alls a re pl ast ered with nothing bu t racing posters. We sit do wn and the kids start to tal k ab ou t their favorite subject. "1 used to race in the trainin g wh eel -class," Tommy says. "By the time I was three, we took off the training wheels and I was racing motorcycles for real." Calculate that out and you will find that Tommy has been racing for 14 years - three years longer than his little brother. Tommy first remembers doing really well when he took a th ird place at the 1984 Mini Olympic Nationals in Florida in the 50cc Automatic class - h e was seven . Tommy first road raced in Henderson, Texas on a Yamaha YSRSO in 1990. "There weren 't as many racers in the cla ss as I expected," Tommy sa id. "1 thought there would be afactory team and all that stuff, but there wasn't. It was just a club race . I was running second before I crashed in the rain. " In 1991, Tommy got a 125cc GP bike and started winning races right away. At the end of the year he won the WERA Formula Three Novice title at the Grand National Final. Not only had Tommy passed all of the other novices in the field, but from the second wave, he also passed all the experts an d was the overall winner of the race. . "That was the first time I was ever in the p apers fo r road r acing," Tommy recalls. At th e time, a lot of Tommy's competitors pointed to his ultra-light weight as the reason for his winning. This season Tommy p roved that his weight 'w asn' t the onl y reason he was successful. At the WERA Pro race at Willow Springs, Tommy w on in a field that included established stars such as Kurt Hall, Nick Ienatsch and Rodney Fee. Tommy wen t on to win the WERA Pro Formula ill Championship as well as the WERA Formula Clubman title at the 1993 Grand N ational Final. And for the firs t time, Tommy ran in a few AMA National road rac es. In his firs t run at Mid-Ohio, Tommy didn't fare too well, finis hi ng 21st on a mod ified Yamaha TZ R250. A t Sears Po in t, Tommy was about to crack the top 10 when his bike broke. The Hayden's found o ut the hard way that running a modified streetbike in ultra-competitive GP racing was not the wa y to go. To help remed y that, Earl purchased Jimmy Filice's championshipw in n ing '93 Yam ah a to campaign in WERA and AMA Nationals in 1994. "We didn't get all the goodies on i t," Tommy is quic k to add . "It's pretty stock:' Nic k came to ro ad racing the same w ay his bi g bro th er did - fir st on the YSR50, bef ore graduating to 125s then 250s. This yea r N ic k ra n second to his brother in WERA Pro F-ill in the opener at Road Atlanta; led at Moroso before his bike broke; crashed at Seattle; took third at Willow and won at Pocono. Some racing pundits say that Nick may ultimately •be the faster road racer, having learned so much earlier by following his brother. "He shows m e a lot," Nick admits. " H e's pre tt y s m a rt when it co mes to road racing and I'm always asking him questions:' The family knows the risk involved in the sport. They all ha ve seen, and been in v o lved in, crashes . Tommy was invo lved in a horrific inulti-bike pile-up on the ba nking of Pocono during p ractice for a WERA Pro race. One ride r died in that crash. "I was just drafting this guy on a 600 aroun d the banking at almost top speed when all of a sud de n he went sideways," Tommy reca lls . "As soon as tha t hap pened, boom, 1 was on the gro und, sliding. I slid up to th e wall and stopped. When 1 go t up, bi kes were crashing everywhere - some of them coming right at me . I took off ru nning down to the bottom of the track:' "You never really thin k about the dang er while you're on the track," Nick adds. "Som etimes after you get off the bike you just think about how lucky you ' were not to have crashed in oil or something: ' Training is a big part of the Hay dens' s uccess. The boys' trai ni ng consists mainly of racing their motocross bikes . aga inst each other. Every once in a while other racers come to train at the Hayden's. The track next to the hou se is in use all year round . Wh o's the kin g of Hayden Racewa y? "It m anges from day to da y, depending on the track," Tommy says. Besides racing, the boys have other hobb ies: football, camping, fishing and huntin g top the list. Tommy's favorite su bject in sch ool is computers, while Nick cites Phys . Ed. as his best subject . Pizza is their food of choice. The goals for both Tommy and Nick are easy to define. Both want to get factory rid es, and eventu ally compete for a World Championship. After our talk, the boys go downstairs to check ou t th e track. Even though it's still very wet and pu ddled in spots, they convince their da d to let them go rid ing. After abo ut 40 minu tes on the slippery so il, th e boys begin clea ning th e layers of mud off of themselves and their bikes . Supper is about read y as the sun sets on the rolling Kentucky countrysid e. As I head down the driveway the Ha yd ens wave goodbye and Nick shouts, "See you at the races." ~ (To p and above) The Haydens attend private Catholic schools in Owensboro, Kentucky. (Below - front left to right) Tommy, Roger Lee and Nicky - horses and motorcycles together in Kentucky.