There is a backstory to this article that I wanted to share with our readers, as we originally planned to publish this piece a couple weeks ago, as something for our A&R Pro readers, to showcase the upbringing of Nicky Hayden, and his early racing career.

Steve and Nicky had been working together on several pieces – we will share the another with you later today/tomorrow – about his career, and we delayed this one because Nicky said that he had a bunch of old photos we could use with the story.

Getting the photos and finally ready to click “publish” on A&R, I woke up on the morning of Wednesday, May 17th with plans to start the day with this great story by Steve, only to read first the horrible news about Nicky’s accident.

Throughout the week that followed, it seemed inappropriate to share this retrospective with our readers, as Nicky clung onto life. Now today, as his family and friends remember him in Owensboro, we wanted to share Nicky’s story with all of our readers, as we say goodbye to The Kentucky Kid. -JB

Growing up in Kentucky, Nicky Hayden was a motorcycle racing protégé from an early age, but winning hasn’t come easy to the Hayden family.

Over the last 15 years, Nicky Hayden has become one of the most recognisable faces in the motorcycle racing world. He’s morphed from the Kentucky Kid to an old hand of the paddock, and now the Kentucky Legend.

But where did that legendary status come from? Hard work, dedication and an insatiable love of racing are the traits that have made Hayden famous, but the cornerstone has always been family and loyalty.