Troy Bayliss

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Troy Bayliss
Troy Bayliss
Nationality	Australian
Date of birth	March 30, 1969 (1969-03-30) (age 39)
Place of birth	Taree, New South Wales, Australia


Website	troybayliss.com
SBK Record
Current team	Ducati Xerox Team
Bike number	21
World Championships	2001,2006
Race starts	130
Race Wins	44
Podium finishes	80
Pole positions	19
Fastest laps	28

2008 Championship position	1st (194pts)

Troy Bayliss (born March 30, 1969) is an Australian motorcycle racer. He has twice won the Superbike World Championship, as well as the British Superbike series, and a MotoGP race. He currently rides for Ducati in World Superbikes.

1 Early life
2 Early career
3 Superbike World Championship
4 MotoGP
5 Superbike World Championship return
6 Family
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Troy Bayliss was born at Taree, New South Wales, Australia in 1969. He showed much promise as a youngster in the sport, however when he entered his teens his enthusiasm for racing waned. He commenced an apprenticeship as a spraypainter at Joe Berry's and commuted to work by bicycle. On this daily commute Bayliss would pass a motorcycle dealership and finally was tempted enough to obtain a loan to purchase a Kawasaki ZXR 750 which he commenced racing on. He won the first race he entered on the bike and performed well in subsequent events. As a result of this early success and despite the financial risk he was taking, Bayliss decided to compete in the Australian Supersport championship.

[edit] Early career

After finishing as runner-up in the Australian supersport championship in 1995, Troy moved up to the Australian Superbikes series the next year, finishing 3rd that year and 2nd in 1997.

His big break came that year - he was entered as a wildcard for the 1997 Australian 250 Grand Prix riding for the Dutch Arie Molenaar Suzuki team. On a significantly underpowered machine compared to his competitors, Troy finished in 6th despite exiting the final corner in 3rd place, such was the lack of power of his machine.

Bayliss's remarkable performance on a clearly underpowered machine earned him considerable attention, and he was subsequently offered a ride in the British championship with the GSE team the next year, winning it in style in 1999.

[edit] Superbike World Championship

He started 2000 in the US's AMA Superbike Championship, but was called in the Superbike World Championship when Carl Fogarty was injured at Philip Island. Despite having a shocking start at his first race in Sugo and missing the first 3 rounds he was an eventual race winner. He opened 2001 with four 2nds in 5 races, and first won in race 8 at Monza. This paved for the way for a championship win, beating reigning champion Colin Edwards. He clinched the title in the penultimate meeting at Assen after Edwards broke down, but didn't score in the final meeting after crashing and suffering a broken collarbone in race 1.

He started 2002 in dominant form breaking the record (at the time) for most race wins in a season, but Edwards thanks to his consistency in usually minimizing the points lost when Bayliss won by finishing second overturned the advantage, Colin won his second title at a thrilling final round in Imola. Troy crossed the line first in race one, but lost on aggregate, as the first part of race one being red flagged because of an oil leak by Peter Goddard's Benelli. Incidentally, Peter Goddard vacated his seat on the Suzuki superbike in the Australian series in 1997 and recommended Troy for his position.

In retrospect, the 2002 season had been lost partially due to mishaps created by his own team. Troy was injured at Brands Hatch when colliding with his teammate Ruben Xaus, whilst Xaus was swerving to bring heat into his tyres, and after the Laguna Seca round, Ducati changed the frame. This frame change would prove costly as Troy consistently complained that the bike didn't feel like the same machine he had been riding previously. It was only at the final round in Imola that the team reverted to the original frame. Troy was very competitive all weekend.

[edit] MotoGP

Both Troy and Colin moved to MotoGP in 2003, and it was Bayliss who was initially more successful. In Ducati's first season in the class their bike was highly competitive, with Troy taking 3 third places and finishing 6th overall in the championship. He briefly led at Philip Island, Brno and Welkom, and only narrowly losing the rookie of the year race to Nicky Hayden. Team-mate Loris Capirossi took their first win at the Circuit de Catalunya.

2004 was a difficult year for the team however, with Troy only 14th in the standings. Despite (or perhaps due to) its prodigious straight-line speed the bike didn't handle well, with Troy often over-riding and crashing frequently, this led to Troy's subsequent sacking from the factory Ducati squad, a part of which Troy had been for five years previous. This move was considered an unpopular one by many, considering that neither Troy nor Loris were able to perform as well as they had the previous year.

According to some, confirmation that Troy's sacking was influenced by sponsorship pressure rather than any performance based reasons was seen in the appointment of Carlos Checa as Troy's replacement. However, Troy is much older than Loris, and had not been as close to him in 2004 as he had in 2003, so some questioned whether he had any more to offer the team.

However, good results near the end of the season earned him a ride with Sito Pons' Camel Honda team for 2005, but was not a frontrunner, despite promising speed shown in his first tests on the 2004 machine and Alex Barros winning in Portugal. A severely broken arm meant that Troy was unable to compete in the final 6 races, had he done so, the season ending Valencian Grand Prix would have been his 50th Grand Prix appearance. Troy did give an insight as to his inability to crack into the upper echelons of Grand Prix racing, describing the Honda MotoGP bike and MotoGP bikes in general as too inflexible, rigid, and like a 250 for his style.

After the success of 2006, Ducati offered Bayliss a wildcard entry in the final MotoGP race of the year in Valencia, due to Sete Gibernau being injured. Remarkably Bayliss qualified 2nd and led the whole race, which ended in a Ducati 1-2. His impressive victory was somewhat overshadowed by the dramatic events involving Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden that ultimately determined the 2006 title winner.

[edit] Superbike World Championship return

After a rather unsuccessful journey in MotoGP and a particularly disappointing 2005 season, Bayliss returned to the Superbike World Championship in 2006 and was reunited with factory Ducati team.

His pre-season form in testing for 2006 showed much promise, with Troy topping the timesheets at both Qatar and Valencia. Even more remarkable is the fact that both he and Troy Corser were lapping faster at Qatar than many MotoGP contenders from the previous season, despite MotoGP bikes being designed for racing and Superbikes being based on road-going machines. Troy's good form, the defection of former GP stars to SBK and the looming capacity change in MotoGP has certainly contributed to the re-emergence of WSBK once again as a contender for the title of the premier motorcycle racing category.

Troy started 2006 in dominant fashion, leading the points table after the first 5 rounds with seven consecutive race wins and additional podiums.

His form continued to the point that he went into round 10 at Lausitzring with a chance of clinching the title with 3 rounds to go. A fall in race one prevented this, but he only required a 4th place in any of the final 4 races to seal the title. Bayliss duly won the title at Imola, in race 1 with a 5th place, which was enough as James Toseland did not win. He won race 2, to cement the title.

Although he scored an impressive win in the final MotoGP race of 2006 at Valencia, he continued to race in WSBK with the Ducati team in 2007.^[1]

On April 1, 2007, at Donington Park, Bayliss crashed at Coppice corner on lap six of the first Superbike race of the day. His right hand was momentarily caught under the motorcycle during the crash, and the injury required the surgical removal of the intermediate and distal phalanges of his little finger. Despite this amputation, Bayliss was able to continue riding and earned a podium in the next race. He finished the season 4th overall.

2008 sees Bayliss continue racing for the factory Ducati team, riding the new Ducati 1098. At the season opener at the Losail circuit in Qatar, Troy won the race one to give Ducati their first win with the new 1098 model. He also won both races at Philip Island on what is likely to be his final appearance at his home round having already stated he will retire from motorcycle racing at the end of the 2008 season.