“Right Now, I’m Riding A Good Wave” – Hayden Gillim

It’s hard to believe Hayden Gillim is still only 31-years-old.

The Kentuckian—born into one of the most illustrious racing families in America history with Roger, Tommy and the late Nicky Hayden all cousins—has been a permanent fixture of racing venues since his pre-teen years, but it’s only in the last five years that he’s really hit his stride as a professional go-fast man.

“It’s interesting how things work out,” Gillim says. “As you get older, you think things are going to slow down a little bit, but for me, the last couple of years have actually sped up. It’s awesome.

“In 2025, was my first year riding for a factory Honda team, and now I’m riding for Honda and Indian. Life just throws curves at you, whether they’re good or bad. Right now, I’m riding a good wave.”

Gillim’s a known gun at flat track but the tarmac has always been where his heart lies. A debut championship win in the 2014 AMA Pro Supersport series (the final year before the introduction of the MotoAmerica format), looked to have set the stage for bigger and brighter things but it took nearly a full decade for title success to fall his way again, with victory in the 2023 and 2024 MotoAmerica Stock 1000 class and the 2023 Mission King Of The Baggers title with Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.

The latter of those championship wins seems to have pigeonholed Gillim as a Bagger rider, but the truth is, he’s made almost more forward progress as a four-cylinder Superbike rider.

Gillim moved into MotoAmerica Superbike full-time with Real Steel Honda and scored his first Superbike podium at New Jersey Motorsports Park in 2025. In 2026, he is competing in both Quad Lock Superbike and Mission King Of The Baggers, switching between Honda and Indian machinery and picking up a few extra cherries in the form of a WorldSBK wildcard ride and now a chance to compete in the Bol d’Or 24 Hour Endurance World Championship classic.

“The World Endurance thing is something I never thought would happen,” Gillim says. “A lot of those are bucket-list tracks, and that championship has Paul Ricard. Getting to do that is really cool.

“The World Superbike thing a couple of years ago was another opportunity I thought I was probably past. It just came about through a right-place, right-time situation. Looking back, if I could talk to myself as a kid, I’d say, ‘Don’t give up. Keep pushing and everything will start working out.'”

Gillim is now in the prime position to join Kyle Wyman and Tyler O’Hara as a dual winner of one the most popular championships in the MotoAmerica paddock in Baggers.

After switching to Indian Motorcycle machinery along with the Vance & Hines outfit for 2026, Gillim has been on an absolute rampage. He missed a memorable double win at the opening round at Daytona when a mechanical issue forced him out of the lead in race two to finish ninth. Gillim capitalized with double wins at Road Atlanta and Road America, with an off round at Laguna Seca with yet more mechanical drama for a third and ninth, but a rebound double win at Mid-Ohio has Gillim 23 points clear of teammate and former champion Troy Herfoss, and 54 points up on Harley-Davidson’s Bradley Smith. 

“I’ve been with Vance & Hines for quite a while now,” Gillim says. “We did the first Bagger race with them, and I’ve had that relationship with Terry for seven years. Then I got the opportunity to race Superbike a couple of years ago with Disrupt Racing.

“I took a year off from the Baggers because it didn’t seem to be working out at the time, and then I was able to come back to it. Now that everything has moved up to the factory space, I think it’s just a little bit of being in the right place at the right time.

“There are a lot of riders who can’t race Baggers because of their obligations with their other teams. The Superbike guys have commitments, and teams don’t necessarily want to share riders.

“I think I’ve been lucky enough to show that I can do both for a good number of years. The factories have seen that I’m going to give 100 percent no matter what bike I’m on. I can give it over a full weekend and over a full season.”

What Gillim desperately wants is to stand on that tall middle step of a Quad Lock MotoAmerica Superbike podium as a race winner. He grabbed a podium and tasted a touch of the champagne in 2025 at New Jersey Motorsports Park, and a victory against America’s best superbike stars would be the icing in a cake that has taken many years of hard knocks to bake.

“I’d so love to get a win on the Honda,” Gillim says. “I got a podium at New Jersey last year, which was my first Superbike podium, and that was really special. It was hard to enjoy it, though, because we had back-to-back races and I had to turn around and get on the Bagger.

“At New Jersey, our bike works really well. It’s not as much about horsepower there, and we have the tripleheader. It’s going to be interesting.

“Even so, I’ve got two really great teams and crews in Honda and Indian that I love being around, plus I get to do the Endurance thing. Everything is working out so far. Hopefully it just keeps going.”

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