Troy Bayliss

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Troy Bayliss
Taree, New South Wales, Australia
Current team	Desmosport Ducati
Bike number	21
Website	[1]
Motorcycle racing career statistics Grand Prix motorcycle racing Active years 1997, 2003–2006 First race 1997 250cc Australian Grand Prix Last race 2006 MotoGP Valencian Community Grand Prix First win 2006 MotoGP Valencian Community Grand Prix Last win 2006 MotoGP Valencian Community Grand Prix Championships 0 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 45 1 5 0 0 288 Superbike World Championship Active years 2000–2002, 2006–2008, 2015 Manufacturers Championships 3 (2001, 2006, 2008) 2015 championship position 24th (15 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 156 52 94 26 35 2442

Troy Bayliss (born 30 March 1969 in

Early life

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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

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.

Career

Early career

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

to the title.

Superbike World Championship

Bayliss began the 2000 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.^[2]

In the 2001 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

's Benelli. 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

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.

MotoGP World Championship

Both Bayliss and Edwards moved to

.

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.

According to some, confirmation that Bayliss' sacking was influenced by sponsorship pressure rather than any performance based reasons was seen in the appointment of Carlos Checa as Bayliss' replacement. However, Bayliss is much older than Capirossi, 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

would have been his 50th Grand Prix appearance. Bayliss 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 Superbike, Ducati offered Bayliss a one-off 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. This was the first time any rider had won a race in both the Superbike and the Grand Prix world championships in the same year, and the first by a reigning champion.^[3] His impressive victory was somewhat overshadowed by the dramatic events involving Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden that ultimately determined the 2006 title winner.

Return to Superbike

After a rather unsuccessful journey in MotoGP and a particularly disappointing 2005 season, Bayliss returned to the

team.

His pre-season form in testing for

were lapping faster at Qatar than many MotoGP contenders from the previous season, despite MotoGP bikes being purpose built racing prototypes and Superbikes being based on road-going machines.

Bayliss started

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

On 1 April 2007, at

phalanges

of his little finger. Bayliss' injury prevented him from competing in the second Donington race. He finished the season fourth overall.

Portimão

.

Bayliss tested a Ducati 1198 in a special private test at Mugello in May 2010, setting impressive times and leading to speculation that he would make a comeback to racing[6]

In February 2015 Bayliss made the comeback, when he was called to replace injured Ducati rider Davide Giugliano at Phillip Island opener, riding the unfamiliar 1199 Panigale R.^[7]

Touring/GT Cars

Bayliss has since embarked on a new career after signing to drive as co-driver for

They broke an alternator and did not start the Phillip Island race and did not finish the Bathurst 1000.

He also has raced as a co-driver in the

Australian Porsche Carrera Cup Championship

.

ASBK Comeback

Now aged 49, Bayliss came out of retirement again with his DesmoSport Ducati team to pursue his maiden Australian title.[9] He finished the 2018 ASBK season in third.^[10] Bayliss took delivery of the new factory Ducati Panigale V4R and switched to race number 32 for the 2019 season,^[11] but a crash in Free Practice at the opening Round of the season left him with a finger injury on his right hand and he elected to extend his break from riding to have metalwork removed from his foot.^[12] Bayliss suffered a subsequent injury following a bicycle accident in 2021.^[13]

Career statistics

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
1997	250cc	Suzuki		1	0	0	0	0	10	27th	–
2003	MotoGP	Ducati	Ducati Marlboro Team	16	0	3	0	0	128	6th	–
2004	MotoGP	Ducati	Ducati Marlboro Team	16	0	1	0	0	71	14th	–
2005	MotoGP	Honda	Camel Honda	11	0	0	0	0	54	15th	–
2006	MotoGP	Ducati	Ducati Marlboro Team	1	1	1	0	0	25	19th	–
Total				45	1	5	0	0	288		0

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Pts
1997	250cc	Suzuki	MAL	JPN	SPA	ITA	AUT	FRA	NED	IMO	GER	BRA	GBR	CZE	CAT	INA	AUS 6			27th	10
2003	MotoGP	Ducati	JPN 5	RSA 4	SPA 3	FRA Ret	ITA Ret	CAT 10	NED 9	GBR 5	GER 3	CZE 3	POR 6	BRA 10	PAC Ret	MAL 9	AUS Ret	VAL 7		6th	128
2004	MotoGP	Ducati	RSA 14	SPA Ret	FRA 8	ITA 4	CAT Ret	NED Ret	BRA Ret	GER Ret	GBR 5	CZE Ret	POR 8	JPN Ret	QAT Ret	MAL 10	AUS 9	VAL 3		14th	71
2005	MotoGP	Honda	SPA 6	POR 11	CHN Ret	FRA 10	ITA 13	CAT 8	NED 11	USA 6	GBR Ret	GER Ret	CZE 9	JPN	MAL	QAT	AUS	TUR	VAL	15th	54
2006	MotoGP	Ducati	SPA	QAT	TUR	CHN	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GBR	GER	USA	CZE	MAL	AUS	JPN	POR	VAL 1	19th	25

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Bike	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos	Pts
		R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
1997	Suzuki	AUS 5	AUS 5	SMR	SMR	GBR	GBR	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	USA	USA	EUR	EUR	AUT	AUT	NED	NED	SPA	SPA	JPN	JPN	INA	INA					20th	22
1998	Ducati	AUS	AUS	GBR Ret	GBR Ret	ITA	ITA	SPA	SPA	GER	GER	SMR	SMR	RSA	RSA	USA	USA	EUR 13	EUR 15	AUT	AUT	NED	NED	JPN	JPN					40th	4
2000	Ducati	RSA	RSA	AUS	AUS	JPN Ret	JPN Ret	GBR	GBR	ITA 4	ITA 4	GER 1	GER 4	SMR 2	SMR 2	SPA 4	SPA 3	USA Ret	USA 7	EUR 1	EUR 2	NED Ret	NED Ret	GER 3	GER 2	GBR 2	GBR Ret			6th	243
2001	Ducati	SPA 2	SPA 2	RSA 2	RSA 2	AUS 3	AUS C	JPN 13	JPN 15	ITA 1	ITA 1	GBR 13	GBR 9	GER 2	GER 1	SMR 1	SMR 2	USA 4	USA 4	EUR 5	EUR 3	GER Ret	GER 3	NED 1	NED 1	ITA Ret	ITA DNS			1st	369
2002	Ducati	SPA 1	SPA 1	AUS 1	AUS 1	RSA 1	RSA 1	JPN 5	JPN 4	ITA 1	ITA 1	GBR 5	GBR 1	GER 1	GER 1	SMR 1	SMR 1	USA 1	USA 2	GBR 3	GBR 2	GER 2	GER 2	NED 2	NED Ret	ITA 2	ITA 2			2nd	541
2006	Ducati	QAT 2	QAT 2	AUS 6	AUS 1	SPA 1	SPA 1	ITA 1	ITA 1	EUR 1	EUR 1	SMR 1	SMR 12	CZE Ret	CZE 8	GBR 1	GBR 2	NED Ret	NED 1	GER 7	GER 3	ITA 5	ITA 1	FRA 4	FRA 1					1st	431
2007	Ducati	QAT 5	QAT 8	AUS 1	AUS 2	EUR Ret	EUR DNS	SPA 3	SPA 6	NED 4	NED 1	ITA 2	ITA 3	GBR 1	GBR C	SMR 1	SMR 1	CZE Ret	CZE 6	GBR Ret	GBR 7	GER 4	GER 1	ITA 2	ITA 1	FRA 2	FRA 5			4th	372
2008	Ducati	QAT 1	QAT 4	AUS 1	AUS 1	SPA 2	SPA 2	NED 1	NED 1	ITA 3	ITA Ret	USA Ret	USA 22	GER 2	GER 4	SMR 3	SMR 3	CZE 1	CZE 1	GBR 2	GBR 11	EUR 1	EUR Ret	ITA 6	ITA 16	FRA 3	FRA 1	POR 1	POR 1	1st	460
2015	Ducati	AUS 13	AUS 16	THA 9	THA 11	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	POR	POR	SMR	SMR	USA	USA	MAL	MAL	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	QAT	QAT			24th	15

Complete V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	Pos	Pts
2009	Triple F Racing	ADE R1	ADE R2	HAM R3	HAM R4	WIN R5	WIN R6	SYM R7	SYM R8	HDV R9	HDV R10	TOW R11	TOW R12	SAN R13	SAN R14	QLD R15	QLD R16	PHI Q 29	PHI R17 DNS	BAT R18 Ret	SUR R19	SUR R20	PHI R21	PHI R22	PTH R23	PTH R22	SYD R23	SYD R24	65th	27

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Team	Car	Co-driver	Position	Laps
2009	Triple F Racing	Holden VE Commodore	Dean Fiore	DNF	59

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Troy Bayliss.

• Troy Bayliss at Racing-Reference.info
• Troy Bayliss at DriverDB.com
• Troy Bayliss at MotoGP.com
• Troy Bayliss at WorldSBK.com
• Fan Club