Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 4 JANUARY 29, 2013 tonight. And it definitely beats drugs and alcohol and I always knew where they were at on a Saturday night." But the danger doesn't go away. "I think it bothers me more as I get older," Earl says. If you ask Hayden what his best move was with the boys, he'll likely tell you it was making the switch from dirt track to road racing. And the advice came from pretty high up on the flat track food chain. "Scott Parker told me one time Maybe Ben Spies and [Jason] DiSalvo…. When Tommy came along, there were 15-18 factory riders – all riding 600s and Superbike except Harley. When there were 18 factory rides with my three kids, I could get 'em a ride. Then it got down to nine… maybe the last year Nicky won, and I had three of them. And there were a lot of them coming over and riding for free… now there's one factory." Early on, it was a financial drain. There were lots of mouths to feed, lots of motorcycles to " I love going to the races. It's the best medicine in the world. Like with Roger Lee winning at Homestead…" at Lima, Ohio – 'Earl, go home and sell your dirt track bikes tonight and get road racers.' I said, 'You're about a seven-time Grand National Champion…' He said, 'there's one factory ride and you've got four kids racing. You're gonna starve to death.' That pissed Chris Carr off and he said, 'that's why dirt track is the way it is, guys telling you stuff like that.' "King Kenny [Roberts] was always telling me – 'you get one ready and give him to me and I'll show him the world. You ain't gonna see the world in dirt track.' And King Kenny was my hero. And so he's telling me to go road racing. I got lucky that we did the switch when we did because there wasn't a whole slew of kids. maintain, tires to buy… "My dream was to break even," Earl said. "God, if I can ever just break even. I did get to break even when I wasn't paying for motorcycles and tires. Heck, when we'd get done racing, I'd go pay the tire guy, the duct tape, the wire guy… hell, there'd be eight people I'd have to go see and pay. The racing was good and I'm not complaining. And the girls got to see a lot of the world." When the subject of his grandkids comes up, a smile lights up Earl's face. At the races, they oftentimes surround him. He starts by telling you that he's not sure about them ever racing, that he'd like to see them in tennis, maybe golf. At least his precious little granddaughters. And what if a P57 grandson happens to arrive on the scene? Well, then it seems… all bets are off. "Yes, I'd go through it again with the grandkids because they can make a living at it," Earl says. "But I want them to make some money. I raced for trophies and I still went through fences. That's why I ran [number] 69. I ain't proud of it, but I went upside down all the time. I wanted them to make a living so when they got through they didn't have to go look for a job. And I wanted them to do what they loved to do." But things would be different the next time around. Or so he says with a grin. "With the grandkids, I'm probably not going to have them sit there when they're born… there's Nicky, two years old in diapers, standing in the garage waiting for me to open the door. I probably won't brainwash 'em like that. "I wouldn't do some of that stuff again. Driving sleepy… every weekend we'd go to Texas and I'd leave Sunday night dead tired, my head out the window trying to get cool air, kids in the car. I've been off guardrails. I wouldn't do that kind of stuff with grandkids." He might do it differently, but it sounds like he'd still do it. So maybe, just maybe, the Hayden racing clan won't end with Tommy, Nicky and Roger Lee. "Grandkids? I'd rather have the golf clubs setting there, but I don't know. A little boy… that might change things and I get me another little fresh one… " CN

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