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
The racing HaydenBrothers
s you cross the large truss
bridge over the Ohio River
from Indiana to Owensboro a sign r ead s " Welco me to the Blu e Grass
State of Ken tucky." On
this drab, rainy day in the Ohio Valley, I
imagined that someday the greeting sign
might read, "Welcome to Kentucky, the
home of the Hayden
Bro th ers - Motorcycle
World Champions."
Owensboro, a city of
53,000, is located on the
southern ba n k of the
Ohio River in weste rn
Kentucky. Racin g runs
deep in the blood of the
people in the r egion.
From horse racing to
stock
cars,
from
motocross to dirt track.
The most popular rac ing famil y to com e out
of O wensboro is the
Waltrips of NASCAR
fame.
On the ou tskirts of
Owensboro is the Hayden farm, home of 16year -old Tommy and
14-year-old Nick Hayden, two road racers
with very bright futures
in the sport. The Ha Y:
den sp read is typica l of
the numerous picturesque horse farms
for which Kentucky is famous. The first
tip -off tha t the Hayden's farm is the
home of a family of motorcycle racers is
the street sign leading into the driveway
that reads: Yamaha Drive . Once on the
property, which is bordered by a wooden fence and trees, you see the practice
track next to the house. The configura-
Earl says. " We don't push them into
d oing things they don't want to do. If
anything, it's the kids pushing me to get
them to more races."
The Hayden famil y se e m s welladjusted and certainly appear s to have
their children's best int eres ts in mind,
sacrificing financially to help realize the
kids' dreams.
The house in which the Hay den's live
is a farm house, built some 100 years
ago, but you'd never know by looking at
it. The place is totally modernized inside
and out. The first thing that catches your
eye when you walk into the family room
is the hundreds of trophies on the second-floor indoor balcony - most of them
are taller than the kids who won them.
we 're off to Owensboro Catholic High .
School wher e Tommy attends, to get
some photos.
"Lately the school has been very good
about giving Tommy time off for rac ing," says Earl, who is an alumni of the
schoo\. "At first they were a little hesitant about it, but now I think they realize
that this could be a career for him. As
long as he keeps up his grades, he can
take as much time off from school as he
needs."
We arrive just as Tommy's speech
class is about to begin. Many of the kids
recognize Earl as we walk through the
halls. "Hi, Mr. Hayden," they say, as we
walk by. Once in the classroom, Earl
introduces 'me to to Tom my' s speech
class teacher, Ms. Mak.
Ms . Mak opens the class by taking a
p rayer request. One girl asks to pray that
the rain stops so the football game can be
p layed. "It's already been ca ncelled,"
says a young man wearing a football jersey.
After the class prays, Ms. Mak introduces Earl and myself. i explain why I'm
there and tell them not to worry about
tion of the track changes every so often
to give the kids a new type of tum to
master.
Th e fact that To mmy and Nick are
making a nam e for themselves in racing
at such a youn g age is really no surprise.
Their father , Earl Hayden, rac ed d irt
track in the '60's and ear ly '70's in the
rough and tumbl e da ys when 200 riders
would be trying to qualify for the main.
Even the kids ' mom , Rose, raced in what .
they used to call the "Powder-Puff" class
for women racers. All five of the Hayden
kids, Tommy and Nick, along with
Roger Lee, Jenny and Kathleen have
known nothing but racing. Tommy
should probably be in the Guinness
Book of World Records for being perhaps the worlds youngest motorcycle
racer at the age of two.
Earl greet s me as I pull up to the
ho use. We spend some time talking as
he shows me around the place.
There are not many sports where
teenagers can mak e an impact on a professional leveL But in sports like tennis,
For 14-year-