NICKY HAYDEN: Race in Peace.

Jumkie said:

Goodbye Nicky. Thank you so much, thank you so very much Nicky.

Ride in Peace Champ.

https://www.motorsport.com/wsbk/news/hayden-909249/

Click to expand...

BarryMachine said:

Local Newcastle Australia FM radio station ...... usually they talk about footy and other sports ....... never/extremely rarely moto racing ( even though they cover Kurri the centre of flat track in Aus....... devoted the whole minute of sports covet to just Nicky Hayden. Was nicely done ..... began with Nick Harris's anouncement when Hayden won the 2006 WC.

Click to expand...

michaelm said:

Quite extensive coverage on ABC news radio, eith epitaphs from Stoner, Mark Webber and Dani Pedrosa.

Click to expand...

Freddie Spencer said:

I am going to report on the 2017 French Grand Prix at Le Mans, but I’ll get to that in just a minute because I want to talk about Nicky Hayden.

As some or most of you probably know, he was involved in a tragic bicycle accident, where he was on his bicycle and got hit by a car last Wednesday. He was hanging on and trying to survive since then. Unfortunately he succumbed to those injuries yesterday and he lost his life. As a racer, we realise what we face on the track every time we get on it. It is part of what we do and we accept that and for many people in many types of lives and jobs that they choose to do. But what makes this shocking is that it wasn’t on the racetrack and he was in the prime of his life after so many years of racing. Not only the way he raced, but the way in which he conducted himself.

I want to tell you just a little bit about how I met Nicky. I met Nicky in the early ‘90s at a little racetrack near my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana in a little town – not even really a little town, but a small little place – called Henderson in East Texas. There was a track called Oak Hill Raceway that actually opened in 1974 and I raced there a lot when I was a kid.

I was over there one day just visiting and I had some time off and a man walked up to me and put out his hand, I’ll never forget it, in that Kentucky accent and said to me “My name is Earl Hayden. I have my family over here and they’re young racers and I’d really like for you to come over and meet them.” I said “sure”, so I went over and the first thing I noticed was just the sincerity of this family, beginning with Earl. I met Nicky and his brother Tommy and one of his sisters and they were there racing. I never forget the look in their eyes – these were really young racers and you could tell that they were passionate and definitely had that competitive look. I never forgot that.

Years later, when I was working with the American Honda Team consulting, Nicky was hired. This was in the early 2000s – 2000, 2001 – and his crew chief Merlyn Plumlee and I go way back. We all worked together and working with Nicky was just a real pleasure. It wasn’t just the dedication on the track but off the track when he came to my school and the laps he would put in. But for me it was more than that – it was the way he interacted with people. He was the type of person that you could see that he was. That was such a real pleasure, to not only work with him but to help him in any way possible.

I got the opportunity to go to Japan in 2001 and Mr Ikenoya, who was in charge of the beginning of the Honda RC211V programme, the V5, asked me about Nicky because Nicky was winning the AMA Superbike Championship. He said ‘do you think he can win the world championship?’ and I said “I think he can if you build him the bike”. I’ll never forget that moment when I shook Mr Ikenoya’s hand because I believed in Nicky.

Again it was more than just what he could do on the track that mattered. Years later he won the world championship in ’06 and I saw him in Portugal in January for the Honda launch and we hugged each other. He hadn’t changed from that little boy when I met him at nine years old, and that’s what I’m proud of him for - not what he did on track, but for the way he carried himself and didn’t change.

You know, in the world that we live in, when you leave your environment – I left Louisiana and Nicky left Kentucky – and you leave that comfort of the family and you go out into the world, it’s not easy – but he did it. He never changed and he always did the best he could. For that I’m very proud of him. He is going to be missed, so to all the family, Earl and Rose, and the family, we’re all thinking of you.

Rider insight with Freddie Spencer: Grand Prix de France | Motor Sport Magazine

Click to expand...