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“LEGENDS NEVER DIE”
“REMEMBERING THE KENTUCKY KID”
“RIDE ON KENTUCKY KID”
“Honestly, some of my best memories
of Nicky were when I was a little kid. We used to do these big indoor races -- we’d have a bunch of people come help us rent a track in Kentucky and it was just this tiny little horse arena. We’d be on our little 50s and 65s or something and Nicky, Tommy, and Roger would come ride with us. Nicky didn’t care that we were little kids, he was just balls to the wall -- showin’ us how it’s done, puttin’ us in into the wall, takin’ us off the track
-- I have a lot of memories of doing that stuff with him. And he treated you like you were just an adult, he didn’t treat you like you were a little cousin, or a little kid, he treated you like how he wanted to be treated. I’ve actually got one memory where we were at their house riding and I was like eight or nine or something -- we were on 100s, ridin’ their TT Track, and somehow, I dunno how it happened, but I ended up bumpin’ him off the track.
He ran off into the sandpit and just stuff like that was kinda -- it’s just funny lookin’ back on it, I was a little kid riding with my cousin and one of my all-time racing heroes, just wanting to beat him. He was just so nonchalant about it, just another guy. When I raced Rookies Cup over- seas for a year, he was always there asking how it was and would come and check on me every now and then. Just stuff like that, it was a big deal growin’ up with somebody like that.”
-HAYDEN GILLIM
WWW.GRITMOTO.COM
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