Estenson Racing has announced Owensboro racing legend Tommy Hayden as the new Director of Racing Operations. In his new position, Hayden will draw upon his personal racing experience to oversee the team’s race operations and his marketing experience to oversee sponsor relations and sponsorship development.
“I have become more and more excited about this project everyday that has passed since making the decision to join Estenson Racing,” Hayden said in an team statement on Monday. “To think back over the years on everything I have been involved with in the motorcycle racing industry and now for it to come full circle back to flat track where it all started [for me], it puts a smile on my face.
“With a five-rider team, it is going to be a big project to get the infrastructure built and everything put together in the short amount of time before the first race in Daytona, but I am confident we will show up ready to compete at a high level.”
The eldest brother of the Hayden racing family, Tommy has been involved in racing his whole life. In addition to two AMA Supersport Championships (2004-2005), Hayden amassed 34 wins in the U.S. National road racing championship (now called MotoAmerica), eight of which were in Superbike.
In recent years, Hayden was Global Road Racing Manager for Monster Energy.
“I’m so excited to have Tommy on board,” team owner Tim Estenson said. “After working together for a couple of weeks, I’ve already elevated his role to Director of Race Operations. It all came together for me from the understanding of his history as a successful racer and his background with marketing and sales, it made sense to make him the manager of the whole program.”
Estenson Racing was born out of Estenson’s passion for motorcycles and flat track racing, and they quickly established themselves as one of the top non-factory teams in American Flat Track. They reaped success early with an AFT Singles Championship and an X Games Gold Medal and followed that up in 2018 with their first win in the Twins class and multiple wins on the Mile in AFT Singles.
For 2019, Estenson Racing has more than doubled in size with five riders and plans to compete in all three classes of American Flat Track with JD Beach, Jake Johnson and Kolby Carlile in AFT Twins, and Ryan Wells and Dallas Daniels in AFT Singles.
Estenson also earlier announced a partnership with Attack Performance that will enable JD Beach to race for championships in both premier classes of MotoAmerica and American Flat Track for 2019. In addition to fighting for a Grand National Championship in the AFT Twins class aboard the Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07, Beach will also get his dream ride in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship on an Attack Performance/Estenson Racing Yamaha YZF-R1.
