INTERVIEW I MOTOAMERICA STOCK 1000 & KING OF THE BAGGERS CHAMPION HAYDEN GILLIM
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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.
