What Lies Ahead For Nicky Hayden
NICKV HAVDEN MAV BE THE NEXT BIG THING.
HEREJS WHAT THE WORLD IS BEGINNING TO THINK OF
THE MAN DESTINED TO BE AMERICAJS NEXT KING.
with attitude, a Grand Prix racer with
Bv DENNIS NOVES
PHOTOS Bv HENNV RAV ABRAMS
a rock star's following, very similar to
've been traveling around Europe
and the world covering Grand Prix
racing for the last 25 years or so and
I am starting to note a bit of deja vu
in the buzz coming out of the United
States about Nicky Hayden. It begins
to remind me of the situation in the
late '70s, when all Europe was wild
about Barry Sheene, the cockney kid
I
22
JULY 3, 2002'
cue
•
Sheene as soon as he left the AMA
e
series.
the popularity and image of today's
Valentino Rossi. It was just as Sheene
ing in Europe in the old Anglo-Ameri-
started to assert himself, taking over
can Match Races, the Dutch IT (on a
from Giacomo Agostini and Phil
Read, that American journalists were
250) and at the 200 Miles of lmola,
before going on to take three straight
500cc World titles.
talking and writing insistently about a
Sure enough, he did, first appear-
tough kid with a Grand National Dirt
That American was, of course,
Track background who, they assured
Kenny Roberts, now known to the
me, would take the measure of
entire world as King Kenny. But when
ne'IIVs
Nicky Hayden has been on fire this
season, and his efforts haven't gone
unnoticed. He may not be a household
name in Europe just yet, but there are
plenty of team managers in both World
Superbike and MotoGP who know
exactly who Nicky Hayden is.
he made his European Grand Prix
debut at Jarama, near Madrid, in
1978, he was just Kenny who? - at
least to the more myopic Europeans
of the day.
