Nicholas Patrick Hayden (July 30, 1981 – May 22, 2017), nicknamed "the Kentucky Kid", was an American professional motorcycle racer who won the MotoGP World Championship in 2006. Hayden began racing motorcycles at a young age. He began his road racing career in the CMRA before progressing to the AMA Supersport Championship and then to the AMA Superbike Championship. He won the AMA title in 2002 and was approached by the Repsol Honda team to race for them in MotoGP in 2003.
Hayden largely had mixed results in his first two seasons at Repsol Honda only getting four podiums. He then rallied in the 2005 season by scoring his first Grand Prix win at Laguna Seca, and finishing third in the standings at the end of the season. The next year, 2006, would be Hayden's best in motorcycle racing as he won the 2006 MotoGP world title, breaking Valentino Rossi's five-year consecutive streak. He remained with Honda for two more seasons without a win, before moving to Ducati for 2009. Hayden had five largely unsuccessful seasons at Ducati, with his highest championship position being a seventh place in 2010. He subsequently moved to the Honda Aspar team in 2014 where he raced for two seasons.
Hayden moved to the Superbike World Championship with the Ten Kate Racing Honda team in 2016. He finished fifth in his first season in the Superbike World Championship with the highlight of his season being a win in Malaysia. For 2017 Hayden continued with the Red Bull Honda team (formerly Ten Kate Racing team).
On May 17, 2017, Hayden was hit by a driver while riding his bicycle in Italy. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and died five days later in a local hospital. Hayden was posthumously inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2018.
Hayden was born in Owensboro, Kentucky. He started road racing with the CMRA, often against racers many times older. Hayden would often start races from the back of the grid because a family or crew member would have to hold his bike upright as his feet would not yet touch the ground. Later, at age 17, he was racing factory Honda RC45 superbikes while still in high school.
In 1999, in just his second full season in the AMA Supersport Championship, Hayden won the title aboard a privateer Honda. In 2000 Hayden moved up to the AMA Superbike Championship, riding a Honda RC51 for the factory American Honda racing team. Despite it being his first full season on a 1000cc superbike, he finished second, losing out on the championship by only five points to multiple-time series champion Mat Mladin. In 2001, Hayden finished third, behind champion Mladin and runner-up Eric Bostrom. In the 2002 season, still riding the Honda RC51 superbike, he won the Daytona 200 en route to becoming the youngest ever AMA Superbike champion, defeating reigning triple champion Mladin, among others. He also entered the FIM World Superbike Championship round at Laguna Seca, earning a solid fourth-place finish in the first race before colliding with Noriyuki Haga in the second race, resulting in a 13th-place finish.
Hayden was one of a long line of American road racers to come from the American dirt-track scene. In 1999, Hayden won his first Grand National Championship race (Hagerstown Half Mile) and took Rookie of the Year honors. He was also declared the AMA's athlete of the Year. In 2000, Hayden won the Springfield Short Track. In 2002, despite racing in just a handful of dirt-track events, Hayden won four races: Springfield Short Track (twice), Springfield TT, and Peoria TT. At the Springfield TT race, the three Hayden brothers took the first three places (Nicky first, Tommy second, and Roger Lee third).
Hayden's win at the 2002 Peoria TT came after beating 13-time Peoria winner, Chris Carr, despite starting from the penalty line. Hayden only lacked a win at a mile track to join Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts, Bubba Shobert, and Doug Chandler in the prestigious "Grand Slam Club."
Immediately after winning his AMA Superbike championship, Hayden was tapped to join not only Honda's MotoGP racing efforts, but what was arguably the premier team in MotoGP racing: The Factory Repsol Honda team.
In his rookie year of MotoGP, Hayden would be overshadowed by his teammate Valentino Rossi, who was the defending series champion of the year, but would still score consistent points. At the opening round in Japan, Hayden finished seventh while Rossi won the race. But the race was marred by the death of Japanese rider Daijiro Kato who crashed at the 130R and hit the barrier at high speed in the ensuing Casio Triangle. At the next race in South Africa, Hayden would once more finish in seventh position while his teammate scored second place.
Hayden's only retirement of the season came in Spain. He would score two 12th places at the next rounds in France and Italy and would finish ninth in Catalunya. Further points would arrive at the Dutch round with an 11th place, the British round with an eighth place, the German round with a then career-best fifth place, nearly losing out on fourth after a battle with Loris Capirossi, the Czech round with a fifth place, the Portuguese round with a ninth place and the Rio de Janeiro round with another fifth position.
At the Pacific GP, Hayden would score his first ever podium in the motoGP class after an overtaking manoeuvre from Makoto Tamada on the last lap, which pushed Sete Gibernau into the gravel, was deemed to be against the rules by Race Direction and disqualified Tamada from the race, gifting third place to Hayden. Hayden finished fourth in Malaysia, before scoring his second third place podium at the penultimate round in Australia. During the race, Hayden had made his way up to third but ran slightly wide at the Honda curve, dropping him behind Marco Melandri, Tohru Ukawa, Sete Gibernau and Carlos Checa. He fought his way back and finished +0.031 seconds ahead of Gibernau. Hayden also battled with teammate Rossi on the opening laps for fifth, passing and re-passing each other on multiple occasions. At the Valencian Community race, Hayden would finish just outside the points in 16th place.
Hayden finished fifth in his first year in the championship with 130 points, 227 points behind the champion and teammate Valentino Rossi, an achievement that won him the Rookie-of-the-Year award.
After his decent rookie year in the top class, many expected Hayden to do even better and some even speculated about a title fight with his new teammate Alex Barros or Valentino Rossi.
At the season opener in South Africa, Hayden started off well by scoring fifth, a result he would equal at the next round in Spain. In France however, he finished 11th before retiring at the first part of the rain-affected race in Italy. Hayden had qualified second on Saturday, 0.369 behind polesitter Sete Gibernau and 0.373 seconds quicker than third position Valentino Rossi to secure his second ever front row start on the grid. Hayden would retire once more in Catalunya, this time due to mechanical problems to his Factory Honda bike. At the Dutch round, Hayden would once more finish in fifth place.
At the seventh round of the season—the Rio de Janeiro GP—Hayden would score his first podium of the season in the form of a third place. At the start, both Max Biaggi and Hayden put pressure on Kenny Roberts Jr. who started from pole before passing him. At the halfway point, Hayden was in second place before being overtaken by the Honda Pons of Makoto Tamada and was relegated to third, a place he would maintain until the finish line. At the next race in Germany, Hayden would finish third once more, behind his teammate Barros and race winner Biaggi. On Saturday, Hayden qualified ninth, but managed to charge up the field and close in on Biaggi and Rossi halfway into the race, along with Barros. He would overtake Hayden for third place before he also passed Rossi for second. With six laps to go, Hayden overtook Rossi for the final podium position and would hold on to cross the line 0.207 seconds ahead of "The Doctor".