Troy Bayliss

Troy Bayliss (born 30 March 1969 in Taree, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian motorcycle racer.

During his career Bayliss won the Superbike World Championship three times and a MotoGP race, all with Ducati.

After finishing as runner-up in the Australian supersport championship in 1995, Bayliss moved up to the Australian Superbikes series the next year, finishing third that year and second 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, Bayliss finished in sixth despite exiting the final corner in third 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 new GSE Ducati team the next year.

His first win came in race 11 at Oulton Park, followed by another win at race 20 at Silverstone, but a large number of crashes and mechanical failures prevented a serious title challenge.

Incidentally, Peter Goddard vacated his seat on the Suzuki superbike in the Australian series in 1997 and recommended Bayliss for his position.

In retrospect, the season had been lost partially due to mishaps created by his own team.

Bayliss 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 Bayliss 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.

Bayliss was very competitive all weekend.

This changed in 1999, Bayliss beating Chris Walker to the title.

Bayliss began the season competing for Ducati in the US's AMA Superbike Championship, but was called in to replace Carl Fogarty in the Superbike World Championship when the latter was injured at Philip Island.

Despite missing the first three rounds and having a poor start at his first race in Sugo, Bayliss had a creditable season, winning two races and earning sixth overall in the championship.

In the season Bayliss opened with four seconds in five races, and took his first victory in race 8 at Monza.

His consistent performances and six race wins paved for the way for the championship title, defeating reigning champion Colin Edwards.

Bayliss clinched the title in the penultimate meeting at Assen when Edwards broke down, however he failed to earn any points in the final meeting after crashing in race 1 and suffering a broken collarbone.

Bayliss started 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, Edwards won his second title at a thrilling final round in Imola.

Bayliss 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.

Both Bayliss and Edwards 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 Bayliss taking three third places and finishing sixth 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.

Teammate Loris Capirossi took their first win at the Circuit de Catalunya.

2004 was a difficult year for the team however, with Bayliss only 14th in the standings.

Despite (or perhaps due to) its prodigious straight-line speed the bike didn't handle well, with Bayliss often over-riding and crashing frequently, this led to Bayliss' subsequent sacking from the factory Ducati squad, a part of which Bayliss had been for five years previous.

This move was considered an unpopular one by many, considering that neither Bayliss nor Capirossi were able to perform as well as they had the previous year.

He finished his career after winning the 2008 World Superbike title.

His 52 World Superbike victories ranks third all time in the history of the championship behind Jonathan Rea and Carl Fogarty.

Bayliss did much of his growing up in the Northwest NSW town of Warialda.

His father, Warren, was a baker, and his mother Lorraine drove a local school bus part-time.

The family lived across from the local high school.

By age 10, he was an accomplished motocross rider, and could often be found riding through the local bushland which surrounded the town and came right up to the back of the family house.

The family moved to Taree when Bayliss was about 11 years old.

Bayliss 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 on which he commenced racing.

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, Age 26.