I’d like to take some time to write about one of the greatest riders of the modern era. Troy Bayliss has proved to the world that your talent has nothing to do with your age. Bayliss has ridden against and beaten the best and he’s done it all with a cheeky smile and razor sharp wit.
Troy, who is now 39 years old has decided to retire after the season is complete, hopefully with a third World Superbike title to his name, which he will have taken on three different generations of Ducati.
Although a keen flat track rider in his youth, Bayliss lost the passion for the sport in his teenage years, It was costing a lot of money to travel the country to compete and Bayliss didn’t see a future in it. So instead he decided to settle down, got a job as an apprentice spray painter and got married to his lovely wife Kim.
Fate hadn’t yet played its hand in Bayliss’ future though. On his commute to work, Bayliss would have to ride past a local motorcycle dealership. It wasn’t long before Bayliss had been drawn in to the dealership and ended up the proud owner of a Kawasaki ZXR750. Yes, that’s right, one of Ducati’s most successful riders started out on a Kawasaki.
After a few months on the Kawasaki and by his own admissions a few brushes with the law, Troy decided to take the Kawasaki to the track and started competing in the Australian supersport championship. Bayliss proved to be an instant success which was a relief for his family who had decided to back him financially in his decision to take to the track.
Troy went into the final race of the season with an outside chance of taking the championship, but unfortunately he crashed and had to settle for second place which was still a fantastic result and summoned the start of what was to be a great career.
In 1996 and 1997 Troy competed in the Australian Superbike championship taking third and second place in the championship over the two seasons respectively. His performances earned him a wildcard ride for the Dutch Arie Molenaar Suzuki squad in the 250cc World Championship race at Phillip Island. Bayliss managed to give the team their best finish in the championship with a hard earned sixth place on a bike that was underpowered to put it mildly compared to its competitors.
With the world watching, it wasn’t long before Troy’s phone was ringing with offers, one of those offers was from Daryl Healy, who was looking to start a team in the BSB championship and thought Troy would be the ideal rider to take the team forward. In 1999 Troy managed to take the title for the GSE Ducati team in only his second season in the championship.
In 2000 Troy moved to America to take part in the AMA series for Ducati, this turned out to be a very brief encounter. After Carl Fogarty’s horrific injury at Phillip Island Troy was drafted into the Ducati WSB team. Troy completed the 2000 season for the factory Ducati team taking his maiden win in the class at Hockenheim proving to the factory and the Ducati fans, that he was the right man for the job.
Since entering WSB Troy has set a record second to none. Taking the title in his first full season in 2001, finishing a close second to Colin Edwards in 2002, regaining the title in 2006 on the Ducati 999 and also don’t forget that fantastic win at Valencia in MotoGP on the Ducati Desmosedici beating Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, and Nicky Hayden.
Bayliss is one of the great characters of the World Superbike paddock and he will be truly missed when he decides to call it a day at the end of the season. His wit and humour provide riders and commentators alike with a light hearted laugh that is needed in the sometimes serious world of motorsport. Asked before the WSB race at Phillip Island in 2002 if he was feeling the pressure, Bayliss quickly retorted with “Nah, the only pressure I’ve got is in my tyres”
Bayliss has proved time and again that he is without doubt one of if not the best Superbike riders in the history of the sport. He has an amazing start/win ratio which is second to none and he was the only rider to truly make the Ducati 999 look competitive in every round against the Japanese four cylinder superbikes in 2007.
Even at 39, Bayliss is dominating the World Superbike field and after only eight races already has a very secure stranglehold over the opposition. Many have been quick to point out that the new Ducati is fair too strong for the four cylinders and the new rules are unfair. However I think that it is a bit of a biased view. So far only two riders have won on a Ducati this season, Troy Bayliss and Lorenzo Lanzi. Now the only reason Lorenzo Lanzi won is because Carlos Checa and Max Neukirckner both fell off at the final corner. Add to that the fact that the remaining podium places at Assen were filled up with riders on Suzuki’s, Honda’s and Yamaha’s and you find that although Ducati have built a fantastic machine, the man producing the results is still Troy Bayliss. Michel Fabrizio is on exactly the same machine and so far he has only managed to score one podium.
Some people may look at the championship and think that it’s a little one sided or a bit boring with Troy already seventy points ahead in the standings, but his lead is really down to other riders chucking their bikes at the scenery in an attempt to keep up with Bayliss. Haga has had three or four terrible races, Biaggi has been out of the points on a similar amount of occasions, Xaus, Corser, Checa and Kagayama have also failed to score on a consistent basis.
Troy will undoubtedly go down in World Superbike history as one of if not the greatest rider, and still has an opportunity to break Carl Fogerty’s record for race wins in Superbike. However as Troy has said in the past “I’m not here to make records, I’m here to make a living.”
