Earl Hayden Passes
E
arl Hayden, father of a family
of racers that included 2006
MotoGP World Champion Nicky
Hayden, and one of the most
popular personalities in racing
paddocks across the world,
passed away Wednesday, De-
cember 29. He'd been battling
cancer. He was 74.
Earl and his wife Rose both
raced motorcycles when they
were young and then, as a
couple, taught their five chil-
dren, Tommy, Jenny, Nicky,
Roger and Kathleen, to ride and
shortly after all began racing
at young ages. The three boys
Tommy, Nicky and Roger Lee,
all became factory racers, each
winning national road racing
championships. Nicky went on to
win the MotoGP World Champi-
onship in 2006.
Raising the kids on a horse
ranch on the outskirts of Ow-
ensboro, Kentucky, Earl built
tracks on the property for them
to train on and under his watchful
eye helped nurture their racing
aspirations.
"The Haydens grew up admir-
ing the champions of flat track
racing and Earl did everything
he could to help them reach
their goal of following in the
footsteps of those champions,"
said Chris Jonnum, author of the
book The Haydens: From OWB
to MotoGP. "The kids all really
loved racing, and Earl was great
at helping them get through the
times when things got tough
and found a way to keep them
enthused and moving ahead to
the next level."
Perhaps the proudest moment
for Earl and the entire fam-
ily came in 2002 at the Illinois
State Fairgrounds Rodeo Arena,
where Nicky, Tommy and Roger
finished 1-2-3 in the AMA Grand
IN
THE
WIND
P28
Earl Hayden,
the father of
championship road
racers Nicky, Tommy
and Roger Lee,
passed away at the
age of 74.
