Story and photos from motoamerica.com

With three championships in the past two seasons and 33 career MotoAmerica victories across three classes, it’s fair to say that Hayden Gillim may be the most underrated racer in the paddock. And let’s not forget that he’s a three-time MotoAmerica Champion with two of those titles coming in the same season. Those are the sort of stats that usually equate to factory rides. Not so for Gillim. At least not yet.

Underrated? Well, the proof is in the pudding.

2018: Four wins, second in Supersport Championship. No factory ride.

2019: Five wins, third in Supersport Championship. No factory ride.

2022: Five wins, second in Stock 1000 Championship, lost in a tiebreaker. No factory ride.

2023: Six wins, Stock 1000 Champion. No factory ride.

Three wins, Mission King Of The Baggers Champion. No factory ride.

2024: Seven wins, Stock 1000 Champion, No factory ride.

Three wins, third in Mission King Of The Baggers Championship. No factory ride.

So, does it bother Gillim that he’s never had a shot at a factory Superbike in the MotoAmerica Championship?

“I’ve thought a lot about it, especially the last couple years,” the laid-back Hayden said. “I know if I have a proper Superbike, I know I could win races and fight with those guys at the front. But I don’t know if up until the last couple years I just never pushed for myself on that side enough to really make anything happen, or what. I know the last couple years there’s been a bunch of fast guys. Right now, we have the most stacked lineup of riders in a long time in AMA and in MotoAmerica, across all classes. So, there’s a lot of talent out there trying to get the same seats. Luckily now we have quite a few rides available. There are a lot of guys that have a lot of high caliber resumes and everything. I don’t know what the reasoning is behind my luck on that side, but that’s always been a dream of mine to get to ride a real, proper Superbike.”

The closest Gillim has come to that “real proper” Superbike ride came via a Wild Card ride in World Superbike with the Petronas MIE Racing Honda team last year during a break in the MotoAmerica schedule.

“It’s funny that now I can say I’ve raced an actual Superbike, but it wasn’t even in America,” the 29-year-old Gillim said. “It was in World Superbike. That’s one thing that I think I’m working towards it, but it’s taken a lot longer than I would have ever expected to get on a real Superbike in America and have a go at Superbike race wins or a Superbike title and everything. It seems like other people have just been in the right place at the right time to be on a Superbike, and I’ve always found myself either already having something lined up or… I don’t know. It’s been a big thing on my mind. I don’t talk about it a lot, but that’s the dream to be on a factory Superbike. Hopefully, we can make that happen.”

Gillim is coming off another season of success with his second straight Stock 1000 Championship after a dominant seven-win season. Gillim started the season with three straight wins, and his confidence was never higher than it was after a race-one win at Brainerd International Raceway. Brainerd is one of Gillim’s favorites, and it showed as he was doing lap times within the same second as the Superbikes. In race two, however, it all came unraveled with a crash on the opening lap. The always-honest Gillim copped to the fact that he was simply trying to do too much to show that he could go as fast as the top Superbikes on his Real Steel Motorsports Honda CBR1000RR-R SP.

“I learned from it,” Gillim said of the Brainerd crash. “Obviously, I regret it because it cost me a possible win and a bunch of points and some money and everything. But I kind of needed it to ground me a little bit. After that, I wasn’t so focused in the Stock class on running Superbike times so much. After that, I tried to relax a little bit. I didn’t have to win everything. I wanted to, but I didn’t have to. I definitely regret crashing, but I think I needed it.”

Gillim was putting too much emphasis on winning, and it resulted in some crashes – in both Stock 1000 and Mission King Of The Baggers. In fact, Gillim ended up the “crash king” of 2024 with a total of 10 crashes combined on his Honda and the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson.

“I think I kind of needed this year to bring me back down,” Gillim said. “Whenever I came back into the series a couple years ago, my main goal was just to stay up and take what I could get on days that I wasn’t at my best or anything. I think, after winning the Bagger championship and then the Stock 1000 championship last year, I felt like this year I had to go win more. It kind of bit me in the butt a couple too many times. I definitely regret all the crashing, but I think I needed it just because it did kind of bring me back down a little bit and make me realize that there’s a lot more on the line than just going out and being super-fast.”

The Stock 1000 Championship ended up not being the total runaway that it looked to be early in the season. Orange Cat Racing’s Jayson Uribe made sure of that, with the Californian winning the two races that Gillim crashed in and pushing the Kentuckian in the majority of the other races. His efforts earned him kudos from Gillim, who was surprised by Uribe’s speed.

“He surprised me, honestly,” Gillim said. “I don’t think we had ever raced against each other before. Obviously, I’ve seen him racing and seen him at the track and all that. He surprised the heck out of me. I expected Ben Smith to be up there. I expected Ashton (Yates) to be up there. I expected Travis (Wyman) to do a little bit better than what he was able to do this year. Jayson definitely surprised me, which really everybody did. Everybody stepped it up big time this year. It was a really good season. That’s another thing I’m kind of glad for those couple crashes I had because it forced me to have to race a lot smarter than I was at the beginning of the year where I was just going full bore every lap. I was trying to just win every single session. I was trying to win every lap. I was trying to win everything. It was just about being the fastest. So, at the end of the year, I was kind of having to race a little bit smarter. It made it difficult. Made it a lot more stressful than I would have liked it to, but that’s part of it. It’s awesome whenever you have those guys that kind of pop up where you didn’t expect them to because it makes you grow. It makes them grow. Everybody learns and gets better. That’s what we need here, is just the talent level to keep rising and getting better and everybody getting faster. That’s just going to make the whole series better and make all the riders a lot better.”

Gillim admits his crashes on the Vance & Hines Harley were the by-product of over-riding the big V-twin. After all, he had a big number one on the bike, and he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“I had some big crashes,” Gillim said. “It was tough because we had some setbacks as a team early on in the year that made it tough. Then I compounded it by over-riding the bike and crashing. It was a tough year. I was frustrated a lot of the year just because I had the number one plate, and I wanted to win. That was what, again back to the crashing thing, I kind of went away from just taking what I could get on days when I wasn’t my best. I felt like I had to win every single race, and it bit me in the butt a lot. I made a lot of mistakes and had a few too many crashes and ultimately those crashes cost me any hope of being in the title fight.

“I felt like, all year, I had the speed and everything to be there, but obviously Troy (Herfoss) and Kyle (Wyman) were just on it every single weekend. But even those two guys, they had a few crashes and that’s where last year I capitalized on those by not having any and was able to win the championship because of it. It was tough. I won three races and was only on the podium in five of them, including those three races. So, for me as a rider on my side of things, I felt like I left a lot out there with a lot of mistakes and everything.”

Late in the season, a crash at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course left Gillim with a broken hand for the final two rounds at Circuit of The Americas and New Jersey Motorsports Park.

“At the end of the season I was kind of just hanging on for dear life trying to get what I could and still ended up putting the bike on the ground a couple of times,” Gillim said. “It was a long season. I’m looking forward to seeing what next year has in store for it. I think, this year, I learned a lot. Being able to get back to not having to win every single race… I think getting back to that mentality is going to be really good for me.”

If Gillim crashed 10 times, seven or eight of them were the kind that make your body hurt to watch. Gillim is tough. There’s no doubting that, but he hurts like the rest of us. He just hides it well.

“I try not to show any hurt,” Gillim said. “I definitely don’t want to tell people I’m hurt. I feel like nowadays everybody if they stub their toe, that’s the reason why they’re a second off the pace, or something. You have a little sniffle and that’s why you’re not riding very good. I feel like everybody nowadays has an excuse. If I have a bad day, I want it to just clearly be my fault or something and not make excuses for myself on it. I am fortunate that I have big crashes and I’m able to get up and walk away, but at some point, you have enough crashes you’re going to end up getting actually hurt. This year was my year for that. It’s been a while since I’ve broken anything. Breaking my hand, I was surprised. It’s been really frustrating how slow the recovery on it has been. That one really set me back a little bit. Even now, just kind of squeezing my hand together, it’s still tight and sore and tender. It’s a little frustrating, but I’ve been able to ride and everything with it now without any pain and all that. So, we’re back to a good spot on that. I think I’ve been fortunate, but definitely got to cut back on the crashes.”

Speaking of excuses, when asked if racing in two, sometimes three races a weekend is difficult, Gillim shrugged that off, as well. He thinks there’s a lot of good that comes from it.

“I know people use that excuse too, but you’re racing two different classes,” Gillim said. “You might be stretched thin or tired. I don’t look at it that way. The last couple years doing it, racing Superbike, Stock 1000 and in Baggers, I think it’s been helpful because there’s no time to cool down and get tight or anything. I feel like I’m warmed up and ready to go every time I go out on track. I don’t have a ton of time to dwell on one thing and one class. I get done with one race or one session, and if it was a bad session or something I kind of have to put it aside and get on to the next one. And vice versa. Whenever I get done with that next session, I have to focus on trying to figure out what we need to do to make the other bike better. So, I think it helps. I think being on the bike a lot, you get more laps, you get more seat time and can learn more about the track. Even figuring out why is my Bagger working better than the 1000, or why is the 1000 working better than the Bagger. Being able to bounce stuff off and think about things. I think it helps a ton. I think it keeps me pretty sharp. It seems like the last couple years my worst weekends have been where I’ve only had one class to race. That’s because I’m used to having multiple classes going. So, I get to thinking about stuff too much or I’m tight whenever I get on the bike. That’s the hard part. This year only running two classes every weekend instead of doing the three classes… in those rounds, actually, I felt hurt me.”

“I definitely don’t want to tell people I’m hurt. I feel like nowadays everybody if they stub their toe, that’s the reason why they’re a second off the pace, or something.” – Hayden Gillim

Early in his career, Gillim was a madman when it came to training. His cycling rides were long and often. With a wife and two young children, Gillim has settled into family life and has learned to listen to his body and back off on the training. It’s a balancing act between not doing enough and over-doing it.

“I definitely need to do more (training) than what I have been,” Gillim said. “During race season, I do enough. Having the kids now and everything, I get sidetracked easily. That’s where my excuses come from. I’m like, ‘Well, I got to do this with Stone, or I’ve got to do some dishes.’ I make excuses as to why I’m not training as much as I feel like I should.

“It’s funny. Before Daytona for the 200, I was on it super-hard and was being really strict about my diet and cycling and running and everything. I felt like Daytona was a terrible weekend for me, even though I got on the podium in the 200 and was right there in the Bagger races. I made a lot of mistakes in the actual 200 race. I ran wide in turn one, like, three times. Ran through the chicane early on in the first stint. Then same thing in Baggers. I ran wide in turn one a few times, ran through the chicane one lap in one of the races. After the 200 and after the last Bagger race, I remember sitting there feeling super, super-weak. Like I had gone way too overboard on it. After that, I backed it off a little bit for the rest of the year. I used to do a lot. I used to cycle a ton and run a lot and do a bunch of stuff. Always doing something. I think it was good at that time for me, but with how my life is now, I don’t think I can do as much and still have the energy to be able to race a couple different classes. Back then, I was only racing one class at a time. I think now running multiple classes I can’t do as much, especially leading up to the race weekends because I end up draining myself too much now.”

In many ways, Gillim is old school. He doesn’t share everything about his life on social media. He just wants to race and let the results speak for themselves.

“This year, I felt like for me solidified to myself that I know with the right equipment and everything, I can make it,” Gillim said. “I can make a strong Superbike bid. I’ve told a few people. I was born like 15, 20 years too late. I should have been racing in the late ‘90s and everything. I think I would have fit in well with that crowd. I’m not a big social media guy. I don’t put myself out there enough and I know a lot of people really want that and like that. There are a few things that I think I could do better and kind of make myself stand out a little bit more. I’ve always been a firm believer that my racing and riding should do a lot of the talking for me. Unfortunately, these days, it doesn’t pan out like that.”

Although Gillim was mum on most of his plans for the 2025 season, he will be racing in the Superbike class on the same Real Steel Motorsports Honda team. No Stock 1000. Just Superbike. And he will also be back in the saddle of the RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson and making a push to regain that Mission King Of The Baggers Championship.

“Right now, the plan is to run Superbike,” Gillim said. “I’m not planning on doing Stock 1000. After tying for the championship in ‘22, and then winning the championship the last two years, I feel like I need to focus on Superbike. It will be on a Honda. It’ll be the same group working together. It should be a successful season. We have some other announcements coming up soon for other team members, which we are excited about too.”