Beginnings and AMA Championship

As a youth, racing others twice his age in CMRA, Hayden would often start the race from the back of the starting grid while a family or crew member held his bike upright because he could not touch the ground. Later at age 17, he was racing factory Honda RC45 superbikes while still in high school. In 2001, his first full season as an AMA superbike racer, he came within 40 points of winning the championship, behind champion Mat Mladin and runner-up Eric Bostrom. The 2002 season, however, would see Hayden answering the bell: he won the Daytona 200 on a Honda Superbike en route to becoming the youngest ever AMA Superbike Champion, defeating reigning treble champion Mat Mladin, among others. He also entered the World Superbike round at Laguna Seca, but collided with Noriyuki Haga in race 2.

Grand National Championship

Hayden is 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, Nicky Hayden won the Springfield Short Track. In 2002, despite racing in just a handful of dirt-track events, Hayden was able to win four races: Springfield Short Track (twice), Springfield TT Steeplechase, and Peoria TT Steeplechase. At the Springfield TT race, the three Hayden brothers took the first three places (Nicky 1st, Tommy 2nd, and Roger Lee 3rd). The win at the 2002 Peoria TT is nothing short of legendary, as he broke Chris Carr's string of thirteen consecutive wins at the venue, depite starting from the penalty line. Hayden only lacks a win at a mile track to join Dick Mann, Kenny Roberts Sr., Bubba Shobert, and Doug Chandler in the prestigious "Grand Slam Club."

MotoGP

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- Repsol Honda. Hayden also became teammate to the defending series champion Valentino Rossi, who many believe to be the greatest motorcycle racer ever. Hayden was seemingly unfazed, and in his first year of MotoGP racing (2003), Hayden finished fifth in the championship points standings while riding Honda's RC211V, an achievement that won him the Rookie-of-the-Year award. In 2005, Hayden finished third in the MotoGP championship points standings behind Marco Melandri and series winner Valentino Rossi.

World Championship season

For 2006, Hayden was charged with spearheading Repsol Honda's championship aspirations, and was the only rider to be handed the full 2006 Honda bike during preseason testing. He led the championship from the third race and looked set to break Valentino Rossi's championship-winning streak, which had dated back to 2001. Capturing the championship was not without peril: in the second to last round at Estoril in Portugal, teammate Dani Pedrosa missed his braking point while following Hayden. The resulting lowside accident took out both bikes, with Rossi claiming second place in that race, finishing 0.002 seconds behind Toni Elias. This left Hayden eight points behind Rossi in the championship with one race left to go. In the last race of the season on October 29, 2006, the unexpected happened when Rossi fell off his motorcycle on lap 5 trying to make up for a poor start. Hayden, who was challenging for the race lead at the time, was informed of Rossi's mistake and backed off his lap times by nearly a second, winning the championship by finishing a safe 3rd behind race winner Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi. He thus won the 2006 championship, beating Rossi 252 points to 247.
Nicky Hayden with number 1 on his motorcycle for the 2007 season
Nicky Hayden with number 1 on his motorcycle for the 2007 season

On September 22, 2006, Hayden signed a two-year agreement that would allow him to race for and develop with the factory Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) team for the 2007 and 2008 MotoGP seasons.[1] He has already begun testing the new 800 cc Honda RC212V. His MotoGP racing number changes from 69 to 1 for the 2007 season.

2007 started badly for him, with the team struggling with performance, and team-mate Dani Pedrosa having the better of the Honda performance. A crash at Le Mans dropped him to eleventh in the standings at this stage. However, during testing before Donington, he requested that most of the electronics be switched off and his times improved dramatically. His subsequent performance in a wet Donington and a dry Assen showed a powerful return to form, seriously challenging for first and executing stunning passing manoeuvres around the outside with his trademark controlled sliding and tail-out non-standard lines.

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