VOLUME ISSUE DECEMBER , P89
easier, and Gillim went out in
style, winning the final four
rounds of the championship.
"You never want to win a
championship like that with
Ezra getting sick, but even with
him out, Kaleb and Travis both
made it really tough on me,"
Hayden says. "Me, Kaleb, and
Travis were all neck and neck
pretty much going into that
final weekend.
"I knew if I could just get in
front of Travis and Kaleb, or
whoever I was racing against,
I knew I could possibly pull a
little bit of a gap on the techni
-
cal sections of the track, to
where I could hold it before we
got back around to that long
straight. And that's what I was
able to do. It was a good week-
end. All season, we had our
ups and downs, but the Disrupt
Racing guys kept working hard
to give me a good bike, and I
did my part by not putting it on
the ground. If I would have, that
would have sort of been game
over at that point."
Gillim with best buddy, JD Beach, moments after
winning the 2023 Stock 1000 title in Texas.
