Dennis Noyes's avatar
Author:
Dennis Noyes
Login For More
Rate this article:
  • 0/5 Stars
SPEEDtv.com Store
Grand National:America's Golden Age of Motorcycle Racing, by Joe Scalzo
Joe Scalzo’s book captures the spirit of the Golden Age of motorcycle racing.
Our Price: $39.95
Visit Button
Buy Button
Man-Made Thunder
The book examines the sport of stock car racing through the eyes and ears of the men behind the wheel and the wrenches.
Our Price: $49.00
Visit Button
Buy Button
Unisex Sandwich Cap
Unisex Velcro back hat with SPEED logo on front. PINKS logo embroidered on left and PAO logo on right. One size fits all.
Our Price: $24.95
Visit Button
Buy Button
Speedway T-shirt
Men's 6 oz. 100% Cotton Jersey Short Sleeve Tee. SPEED logo imprinted on the front center chest.
Our Price: $24.99
Visit Button
Buy Button
Ferrari Red Classic Hat
100% cotton twill. Ferrari shield embroidered on front, piping on the peak and Ferrari logo embroidered on back strap adjuster.
Our Price: $30.00 ($27.00 Member)
Visit Button
Buy Button
Footer Bg
  • Zoom More Photos Button
  • Camera Icon
WSBK: Troy Bayliss: ‘01, ‘06, & ‘08 World Superbike Champion
Written by: Dennis Noyes   
10/08/2008
Magny-Cours, France
 
Three-time World Superbike champ Troy Bayliss (Photo: Ducati Corse) ยป More Photos

He speaks Italian about as well as Valentino Rossi speaks English and for Superbike fans, and especially for “Ducatisti” world wide, this trim, tough, straight-talking, clear-eyed Australian is the only other racing superstar who can be mentioned in the same sentence at Rossi himself.

Rossi, at 29, is only just reaching his peak. Bayliss, at 39, is riding as well as he ever has, and has just clinched is third World Superbike title. He will retire after his final two-race Superbike Sunday at the new Portimao circuit in Portugal on November 2nd.

Let’s leave the entire Bayliss story for then, but here, after his title-winning day at Magny-Cours, is a quick look at the rider and his amazing career:

Troy Bayliss was not a Red Bull Rookie, not a boy wonder. Maybe that is why he seems, to use a word seldom applied to modern roadracing stars, such a 'normal' person. Instead of being nurtured and prepped for stardom from single-digit age like so many current riders, Troy had a childhood and grew up wild and free…on the beach, surfing, cycling, and even working for a living as a young man. I mean a real job. He was spray-painting cars in his hometown of Taree, New South Wales, Australia, when he made his road racing debut at age 23 on a production Kawasaki ZX-R 750
in 1992, a bike he saw in a shop window, bought, and paid for.

His talent was undeniable and, in the true Australian meritocracy of roadracing, he rose quickly through the ranks on Superbikes. (Bayliss' chief motivation when he signed his first professional contract was to earn enough money to buy a house.) He was third in the 1996 Aussie Superbike Championship and second in 1997, but it was a one-off, wild card ride to sixth on an uncompetitive Suzuki 250 in the 1997 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island that attracted the attention, halfway around the world, of Darryl Healey, owner of the GSE Ducati team in the British Superbike Championship, that put Troy and his wife Kim on a flight to England and on a road to fame. He won the British title in 1999 and briefly rode a Ducati for Vance & Hines in the AMA Superbike Championship in 2000 (he was on pole at Daytona and Sears Point in his only two races. He crashed out at Daytona and the race at Sears Point was rained out).

He might have been around to battle fellow Australian Mat Mladin in the AMA if not for Carl Fogarty's career-ending crash at Phillip Island at the very start of the 2000 World Superbike season. Davide Tardozzi called Bayliss even though higher-ups in the Ducati food chain wanted Luca Cadalora. Tardozzi was right.


Page 1 of 4
Next Page »
1 2 3 > Last »
View All Comments