Interview: Earl Hayden – The Patriarch
Paul Carruthers | January 29, 2013
Photography By: Andrea Wilson
Earl Hayden is not only the patriarch of the racing Hayden family, he’s also a storyteller. A good one. Get him started, sit back and enjoy. Apparently the skill of spinning a yarn goes back a ways.
“I had to tell bedtime stories every night and Nicky was the worst,” Hayden says of his middle son, the 2006 MotoGP World Champion. “I had to tell him… ‘coming off the last corner at the Sacramento Mile, Wayne Rainey leading, Doug Chandler, King Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson and Nicky Hayden.’ At the end, King Kenny would nip Nicky and I had to tell the whole story again until Nicky won. I might tell it with him getting third, but I had to keep telling it until he won the photo-finish.”
And to think the rest of us got tucked in with Dr. Seuss.
For the complete Earl Hayden feature, click on the following link:
http://cyclenews.uberflip.com/i/106171/48
