Australia has produced many impressive motorcycle champions. One of them has a birthday, today - Troy Bayliss, three times World Superbike Champion.
He is the fourth most successful WSB rider by wins with 52 trophies in the cabinet. Only Jonathan Rea, Alvaro Bautista and Carl Fogarty have won more.
Troys ascendance began the the British Superbike Championship in 1998, claiming his first win in race 11 at Oulton Park but DNFs left him out of contention for the title.
That all changed in 1999 when he beat Chris Walker to the British title.
The AMA Superbike Championship was supposed to be his next career challenge in 2000 but he was called up to world level when Carl Fogarty was injured at Philip Island.
The following year, 2001, Bayliss hit the top spot, winning the WSB championship on a Ducati. With 14 wins you’d think he would’ve won the 2002 championship as well, but he finished second to a relentlessly consistent Colin Edwards.
Troy moved up to MotoGP in 2003 with Ducati where he was a regular top 10 finisher and occasional visitor to the podium. It wasn’t enough for the Ducati factory who dropped him after the 2004 season.
Honda gave him a ride in 2005 but he finished down in 15th place after breaking his arm and missing the last six rounds. That was almost, but not quite, it for his MotoGP career.
A return to WSB brought a return to the top step of the podium and the championship trophy for Bayliss in 2006, a year that ended with a surprise win, his only one, in MotoGP when Ducati gave him the ride at the final race of the season at Valencia in place of the injured Sete Gibernauu. The only time a rider has won a MotoGP and a WSB race in the same season.
Troy’s third WSB championship in 2008 brought his full-time motorcycle racing career to a close.
Good on ya, mate!
