VOL. 52 ISSUE 38 SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 P71
the Ducati, but it has been
much more difficult on the
grossly underwhelmed
Honda. Even so, he has
still managed to put forth a
valiant effort against equal
machinery. Hayden's also
had to overcome injuries—
most notably his troubled
wrist that had many ques-
tioning whether it would end
his career or not.
All of that has culminated
with a very rough season
in 2015 with Aspar Honda.
The team lost its title spon-
sor at the beginning of the
year, and his upgraded
open-class Honda is gener-
ally still the slowest on the
track. Plagued with techni-
cal issues, even a simple
one—running out of gas—
during the 15-minute qualify-
I
t's not easy being a racer
these days, especially in
the MotoGP paddock.
Rides are difficult to come
by, and outside of the fac-
tory rides, your ability to
compete for a podium starts
to drop off significantly.
America's last rider in Mo-
toGP, Nicky Hayden, has
experienced these things
first hand.
After his departure from
the factory Repsol Honda
squad, the former world
champion has been slug-
ging away on progressively
less competitive machinery,
first the troubled factory
Ducati and more recently, a
very uncompetitive open-
class Honda.
He managed to post
some admirable results on
HAYDEN
SPEAKS
We caught up with Nicky Hayden to
talk about his future prospects, dirt
track and MotoAmerica
BY ANDREA WILSON I PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
