Man, Van, Plan
MAN, VAN, PLAN
UP FRONT
EDITOR'S LETTER
CYCLE WORLD GOES RACING WITH HAYDEN GILLIM
Cycle World believes in racing. We also believe in American racing and American racers. Which is why we've teamed up with young racer Hayden Gillim. Inspiration? Think Mert Lawwill in On Any Sunday roadracing and dirt tracking across America in his quest for the Grand National Championship. These days, there is no combined roadracing/dirt track championship, so we are focused on competing in a full season of MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 roadracing and picking choice dirt track races in the AMA Pro Flat Track GNC2 class, the Peoria TT among them.
This multidisciplinary approach has been the foundation for America’s past successes on the world stage and also promises to be the future of our success.
Hayden Gillim has grown up racing. Cousin to 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden and Yoshimura Suzuki’s Roger Lee Hayden, Gillim grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky, racing flat track from age six. He began roadracing at 10. Hayden, now 21, has won dozens of flat-track and roadracing championships and was selected to race the MotoGP Red Bull Rookies Cup series both in the US and Europe. He won the 2014 AMA SuperSport Championship on a Suzuki GSX-R600 and competed in MotoAmerica Supersport last year on an MV Agusta F3 675, finishing 10th in the championship. In dirt track, Hayden has a lot of speed and finished fifth in last year’s Peoria TT.
Gillim is also no stranger to these pages: street, dirt, and track testing for us. His talent on the motorcycle was obvious, but Gillim also has a great sense of humor and a positive attitude. When we conceived of the idea to go roadracing in MotoAmerica and AMA Pro Flat Track, his background made him a perfect fit for our Man in a Van with a Plan concept.
Of course, he’s also a qualified van driver.
Our Nissan NV3500 is outfitted with a cot, toolbox, workbench, and more to make it a home and workshop at the racetrack and on the road. It’s white, like Mert’s van in On Any Sunday, which was part of the inspiration for this project. The main difference for us is that Gillim is towing a trailer to fit both MotoAmerica Superstock-spec 2016 GSXRiooos and his pair of Suzuki RM-Z450 GNC2 flat-track racebikes.
Gillim will be chasing the 2016 MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 championship. Rick Matheny, crew chief for Gillim’s 2014 AMA Pro SuperSport Championship effort, returns as crew chief for this campaign. Attack Performance built the roadracers to suit MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 rules. For GNC2 rounds, Gillim will campaign a 2016 Suzuki RM-Z450. This is a grassroots effort in American racing, and Hayden and crew will be documenting their struggles and victories, from simply getting prepped for the season to training to hopefully fighting for the championship in Superstock 1000.
Daytona shorttrack started well with a third-place finish in the opening race of the season followed by a less auspicious 11th the next day. The first (and only) MotoAmerica test we got in was at Circuit of the Americas, where Hayden finished 13th fastest (versus Superbikes and Superstock 1000s, which run combined). This was after picking up the bikes at 3 a.m. in California and driving straight through to make the test in Austin, Texas, rolling in at 5 a.m. a mere 26 hours later. Perhaps we should have sought Peet’s Coffee or Red Bull for driving sponsorship...
Video updates will follow every round Gillim competes in during the season, so visit cycleworld.com/man-in-van-withplan or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: #manvanplan.
MARK HOYER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
THIS MONTH'S STATS
$3,295 PRICE OF THE CLEVELAND ACE, CHEAPEST NEW BIKE WE TESTED
PRICE OF BUILDING BRAND-NEW NATIONALLY COMPETITIVE SINGLES FLAT-TRACKER
zero HOURS OF SLEEP FOR #MANVANPLAN RACER HAYDEN GILLIM
