Nicky Hayden, former MotoGP champion, passes away after cycling accident

23 May, 2017

News broke last week that 35-year-old Honda rider and former MotoGP champion, Nicky “The Kentucky Kid” Hayden, was involved in an incident with a car while while cycling in Rimini, Italy, following the Imola World Superbike round. 

While we initially held off reporting the incident in the hopes that Hayden would pull through, sadly, news has reached us that he passed away overnight.

Younger brother Tommy Hayden said in a statement, “On behalf of the whole Hayden family and Nicky’s fiancée Jackie I would like to thank everyone for their messages of support … although this is obviously a sad time, we would like everyone to remember Nicky at his happiest – riding a motorcycle. He dreamed as a kid of being a pro rider and not only achieved that but also managed to reach the pinnacle of his chosen sport in becoming World Champion. We are all so proud of that.”

Throughout his 13 year career, Hayden made a total of 217 MotoGP starts and most notably beat out Valentino Rossi to claim the 2006 world championship title in his fourth of six seasons with the Repsol Honda team. 

In a controversial decision, he would leave Honda for a switch to the Ducati Marlboro Team to ride alongside Casey Stoner for the 2009 MotoGP season. Hayden would return to riding Honda in 2014 with the Aspar Racing Team where he would spend his final two full-time seasons campaigning the World Superbike Championship.

The former champion returned to MotoGP for spot starts to replace the injured Honda rider Jack Miller (Marc VDS Honda) at Aragon, finishing 15th; and factory Honda rider Dani Pedrosa at Phillip Island, which also marked his first appearance on a Repsol Honda since 2008 — he would only finish 17th after colliding with Jack Miller late in the race.

Hayden leaves behind fiancee Jackie, mother Rose, father Earl, and younger brother Tommy.

Rest well, champ.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.

NZ Classic Car magazine, May/June 2025 issue 399, on sale now

Who would have thought it would become such a worldwide motorsport star when Ford introduced the humble Escort in 1967?
Its popularity, particularly in Mark 1 form, is now of iconic status. Our cover story for this issue is on a 1968 Ford Escort Mark 1, Alan Mann Racing Tribute. We talked with the owner of this very special Escort, finished in tribute also to the owner’s father.
“Most children love speed, and motorsport typically comes courtesy of a parent, and Elliott is no different. His engineer father, Mark, had a love for motorcycles and going fast; however, when children came along, he swapped two wheels for four, in the form of two Ford Escorts.
Little did Mark know it at the time, but the humble Escort was about to weave its way into the family fabric once and for all.
After emigrating from London to New Zealand, Elliott recalled one evening when he was 14 being invited to tag along by his father, helping a friend convert an Escort road car into a racing car. This was the pivotal moment when Elliott remembers the motorsport bug taking over. He knew he had to have his own one.”