HAYDEN: Beyond the Visor; You Gotta Believe

Have you ever felt like you just could not do something? I’m sure you have, and I know I have. Self-doubt is a pretty natural human feeling. “Am I good enough?” “Do I have what it takes?” Whether in racing or in life, we need to believe in ourselves AND surround ourselves with people who believe in us. Having the belief that you can do something — that you are worthy — can change your outlook on everything. Having others in your corner who believe in you only strengthens that feeling.

In 2008, I started racing template late models after five years in stock-style cars. It was a pretty big step up, but I felt like I could handle the challenge. My uncle, Tim Priebe, bought a car, and we worked on it during the winter to prepare for what was known at the time as the ASA Late Model Series. Looking back, I don’t think I could have been any LESS ready for that.

The first race of the year was at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. I had never been on a track bigger than the “small half-miles” at Birch Run and Auto City, let alone a place as big and fast as Indy. After about an hour of practice, we were 40th on the speed charts out of the 41 cars there. Now don’t get me wrong — I didn’t think we would be at the top of the board, but I was hoping we would at least be in the mix to make the race. The problem was, I couldn’t have told you a single thing the car needed to do better, or what I needed to do better. I just wasn’t ready for that level yet.

During the final practice, my uncle and I went down to the entry of Turn 3 to watch some of the faster cars — guys like Eddie Hoffman, Brett Moffitt, and Jesse Saunders.

My uncle pointed at a billboard and said, “You see? They are lifting there.” Then he pointed probably close to a hundred feet farther back and said, “You are lifting there.”

It was honest feedback, and I’m sure I wasn’t driving the car the way I needed to in order to go fast. I literally just shook my head and walked away. We ended up not making the race that day — not even close, honestly.

As embarrassing as it sounds, I had never really driven a stick shift or manual transmission before that car. I wasn’t horrible at it, but I wasn’t good either. So then we went to Grundy County Speedway for Race #2 in the series. It was a track closer to my comfort level, so I felt like there was a chance for us to be competitive.

At bigger traveling-series races, the track is usually “hot” during practice, meaning when there are gaps in traffic, they just send cars out under green. So I’m sitting at the top of the chute, ready to enter the track, and it’s busy. The guy flips the sign to go, I gas it up… and stall it. I fire it back up, he flips the sign again, and again I stall it.

At that point, I started to panic. I looked around, and there were crew members everywhere shaking their heads and pointing. I finally got going, but it was pretty embarrassing. Then, at the end of the day, we didn’t make the race there either.

At that point, the self-doubt had seriously crept in. Was I out of my league? Was I good enough to be here? Honestly, I wasn’t sure anymore.

The next race was at Toledo. And if you have never been to Toledo, that place is FAST. In a crate motor car, you aren’t off the gas for very long. As you can imagine, my confidence was pretty low by then. Maybe I should have just stuck to street stocks?

I’m also honestly not sure why my uncle even decided to go to that race. He had spent a boatload of money at that point, and we basically had nothing to show for it.

But we went anyway.

Practice went okay. On the charts, we were not fast enough to make the show on speed, but we weren’t the slowest either. Then qualifying rolled around, and we squeaked into the show on time — 24th fastest, with the top 24 locked in.

But that was just the beginning of the fun that day.

After rolling off 24th, I sliced and diced my way through the pack. We gained a few spots through attrition, but during a green-flag run of over 60 laps, I found myself sitting in the top 10 after passing a number of cars. We wound up finishing 9th that day after starting 24th.

It was at that moment I knew I belonged. I believed in myself more than ever at that point, and my uncle’s belief in me had paid off.

There is a famous quote that goes something like, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” I think that is very true. In order to accomplish anything worth accomplishing, you have to deep down believe that you can.

As always, I appreciate any feedback. And if you have ideas for future story topics, please share those too! Find me on Facebook, or email me at kylehayden2214@gmail.com.

Until next time… race on!