Cycle News

Cycle News 2023 Issue 50 December 19

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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INTERVIEW I MOTOAMERICA STOCK 1000 & KING OF THE BAGGERS CHAMPION HAYDEN GILLIM P88 maybe even looking into becom- ing a State Trooper because I admire those who serve the public so much. But luckily, the racing kind of came back to me, and now it's looking like I'm hopefully here to stay for a while." Gillim, who is a cousin of the famous racing Hayden family, has been around the sport so long and racing professionally since he was 16 years old, so it seems like he might be getting up there in age, but no, he's only 28, right in the prime of his racing career. It's conceivable he could race professionally for another 10 years or more if he chooses to. "People always think I'm a lot older than what I am," Hayden said. "Especially like being around a lot of the younger guys, I guess I've just got an older look to me, and you know, especially now after having a couple of kids and everything, I've got gray hairs coming out and all that. So, I'm aging fast in my looks, but yeah, I'm not that old, and I feel like I have a lot of good racing years left in me, especially with the training and knowing how to eat healthy these days." In Stock 1000, Hayden got off to a slow start, explain - ing not having tested the new Dunlop tires caused him to be a bit behind early in the year. But he rallied and then had a season-long battle with Ezra Beaubier, Kaleb De Keyrel and Travis Wyman, all three of those competitors riding the potent BMW M 1000 RR. And Hayden said while his Disrupt Racing Su - zuki GSX-R1000 was certainly a good-handling machine, he said he was at a disadvantage on tracks with long straightaways, partially because the BMW is just faster on the top end and partially because Hayden is a bigger rider. It all came down to the final weekend at Circuit of the Americas, where the unex - pected happened. Series points leader Ezra Beaubier became so ill that weekend that he was unable to race. That made Hayden's path to the title a lot Gillim stalks his season-long rival Travis Wyman. Wyman's BMW had the legs on the straight at COTA but Gillim's more nimble Suzuki kept him in the hunt in the corners.

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