Former American professional motorcycle racer Nicky Hayden was a true racing legend, and although he cheated death many times in the line of duty, it was fate that he met his demise on the road while riding his motorcycle.
Nicky made his MotoGP debut in 2003 and has celebrated many major victories in his career, including the MotoGP World Championship title in 2008 and the FIM Legend title in 2015 ahead of the Valencia Grand Prix. In the two years before his death, he won his first Superbike world race and the AMA Horizon Award was renamed in his honor.
Nicky Hayden Bio
Nicky Hayden, born on March 30, 1981, with the full name Nicholas Patrick Hayden and the famous name “Kentucky Kid”, was a passionate racer who received his inspiration to get into racing at a very young age from his older brothers who were also professional racers, and he is said to have followed his brothers to tour the city of Kentucky on his 5cc dirt track bike.
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At the age of 8, Nicky started riding in the national amateur AMA dirt track scene, and by the time he was 17 years old he had specialized in dirt track racing. He was also very good on the asphalt. For the first time, he competed as a professional motorcycle racer in the AMA Supersport series with a Suzuki motorcycle. Things started to take shape for him when he won the Grand National Dirt Track Award and also landed the title of Rookie of the Year in 1999. After two years Nicky won the superbike race on the Daytona 200 Honda, becoming the youngest AMA Superbike Champion ever.
Career
Nicky Hayden’s later career after his big performance in the first year of his trial was not as rosy as he had imagined, but his struggles to stay at the top of his game paid off when he got back on his feet in 2005 and scored his first win against Laguna Seca. The following year Nicky fulfilled his long-awaited dreams and won the MotoGP World Championship against his biggest rival Valentino Rossi.
In 2007 he finished 8th in the MotoGP World Championship, he also had his race number changed from 69 to number 1. By 2008 he had improved two places to 6th in the standings and more, his 10-year successful career with the Repsol Honda ended on September 15th of the same year.
He joined the Ducati Marlboro Team for a new experience in 2009. His first year on the team was not really successful as he finished 13th in the MotoGP World Championship. After his first year in the new team, he battled between 7th and 9th place in his five-year career with the Ducati Marlboro Team, which ended in 2013.
Nicky Hayden returned to the Honda in 2014, but due to a wrist injury that prevented him from performing well, he was placed 16th in the MotoGP World Championship. The following year he returned to the Superbike World Championship, finishing 20th overall, and in November 2015 he claimed the FIM Legend title ahead of the Grand Tournament in Valencia, and the following year he won the Superbike World Race.
Following his shocking death in 2017, the AMA Horizon Award was renamed in his honor, and is said to have finished 13th in the MotoGP World Championship.
How Much Was The Racer’s Net Worth?
Haden accumulated a lot of money in his career, and it is said that he was one of the richest motorcycle racers. Nicky’s net worth at the time of his death in 2017 was estimated to be between 18 and 20 million dollars.
Nicky Hayden Death: What Really Happened?
The life of Nicky Hayden was interrupted on May 17, 2017, in Cesena, Italy, when he was hit by a car while riding a motorcycle. The incident is said to have occurred at the intersection of Via Ca’ Raffaelli and Via Tavoleto in Misano Adriatico. He collided with a Peugeot 206 CC when he entered Via Tavoleto from Via Ca’ Raffaelli.
A surveillance camera around the scene of the accident indicated that Nicky Hayden had ignored the stop signal, so the driver of the vehicle could not avoid him. After the accident, Nicky was immediately taken to the Maurizio Bufalini Hospital in Cesena. He suffered a serious injury known as polytrauma, including a craniocerebral trauma that resulted in severe brain damage.
He also suffered a broken femur, a fractured pelvis, and several fractures, and on May 22, five days after the crash, Nicky was confirmed dead.
Following his death, the results of the crash investigation were released in September 2017, which indicated that the car was driving in a 50-kilometer-per-hour zone at approximately 73 kilometers per hour and Hayden was driving at approximately 20 kilometers per hour, leading to the conclusion that Nicky had been killed.
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Family – Parents, Brothers
Nicky Hayden comes from a Catholic family that is also passionate about racing, as his parents Earl and Rose Hayden both competed in the local championship at a young age. His other two brothers, popularly known as Tommy Gun and Roger Lee, are both professional motorcycle racers. In addition to his brothers, Nicky also had two lovely sisters named Jenny and Kathleen.
Was He Married? Wife, Girlfriend
After talking about his family, let’s digress to his love life, which shows that Nicky had a romantic relationship with Jackie Marin, a movie actress known for the movie Skyline and the sitcom Tequila Sisters. The two lovebirds got engaged in May 2016, and Nicky Hayden is said to have asked Jackie to marry him in Venice, but as fate would have it, he died before they made it to the altar.
Nicky Hayden Height and Weight
Nicky Hayden was a chunk with a height of 173 m (5 feet 7 inch) and a weight of 72 kg (159 lbs). His other body measures his chest, waist, and biceps, each of which is 41-32-13 inches tall.
