LIAM PHILLIPS
ANDY Haydon, who became the first Australian
to win a stage on the Dakar Rally in
1998, returned to the bike recently for the
Phillip Haydon Reliability Trial – only to be
upstaged by his own son, Kyan.
Andy hadn’t competed for more than five
years, but with Kyan recently turning 16 and
getting his learner’s permit, the opportunity
arose for the two to compete in the same event.
Andy said he was more than happy to come
along as a spectator, but eventually decided to
hop back on the bike for the six-and-a-half hour
endurance event.
“I honestly didn’t want to run it – I’ve done
a lot of them over the past 30-odd years and I
was quite happy to just follow Kyan around and
make sure he went all right,” he said.
“Eventually my wife Kelly and the family
said they thought it’d be a good idea to do one
together, so it was a last-minute operation to get
me involved.”
In a field of 140 competitors, Andy showed
you never forget how to ride a bike, finishing
sixth, only for Kyan to produce the run of his
life and take second.
“I was rapt that I had a good run, but you
never know in these sorts of events because you
don’t start together and you don’t see each other
during,” Andy said.
“This was the first time Kyan had been riding
in the dark, and there were a lot of factors
to take into account, so it was a massive effort
for him to ride for more than six hours and not
crash once – even I had a bit of a stumble.
“I remember back in the day I had older
brothers to bounce ideas off and give me all
kinds of advice about doing this, and not doing
that, and so on.
“So I guess it’s the same for Kyan with me in
his ear about every little thing.”
Kyan said he even surprised himself with
how well he performed.
“I was flying – I had that many close calls
with crashes,” he said.
“But I realised the longer I went without a
crash that I was having a pretty good run – I
was even surprising myself.
“I expected to finish at least top-15, but when
the results came out and I saw I was top-three, I
was pretty shocked.
“It was a little weird with Dad doing it as
well, because I’ve always looked up to him
since I was little, but now I’m starting to beat
him – definitely feels weird.”