Troy Bayliss - 2006 Rider Profile

Personal Stats

Bio In Brief

Troy Bayliss makes a welcome return to World Superbikes after three years in MotoGP. The 36-year-old Australian, who was 2001 champion with Ducati, is one of the most successful and popular riders in the history of the championship. He last raced in Superbike in October 2002 at a packed Imola circuit, in what is widely considered to be one of the greatest races ever seen. On that occasion Troy was edged out by his Honda rival, Colin Edwards in the battle for the title. Since then Bayliss has had mixed fortunes in MotoGP, the Australian stepping onto the podium three times in 2003 and once in 2004 on the factory Ducati Desmosedici before switching teams for a luckless 2005 season. Now Troy is back and determined to regain his Superbike crown for the Ducati Xerox Team.

Although Troy Bayliss started his road-racing career at the relatively late age of 23, he actually stepped onto bikes when he was a kid when his father bought him a 'Monkey' bike for riding around his family farm in Taree, New South Wales. Troy was into motocross and dirt track by the age of ten but then other sports and disciplines diverted him away from an interest in racing. Bayliss's racing career actually began in 1992 with a Kawasaki KR-1 in 250 Australian Sport Production and in 1993 he took part in several national races in the 600 category. In 1994 he finished sixth overall in the national 600 Championship, again on a Kawasaki and in 1995 he improved to second, a performance that earned him a ride with the official Kawasaki Superbike squad for 1996. He performed well in his rookie year, finishing third, but it was during the following season that he really started to emerge as a racer.

In 1997 Troy was runner-up in the Australian Superbike Championship and finished fifth in both races of the World Superbike round at Phillip Island, where he was entered as a wild-card against the series regulars. Another wild-card entry, this time in the Australian 250 GP, saw him finish sixth. His results attracted the attention of the British GSE Ducati squad, who offered him a ride in the UK's tough domestic Superbike series. Bayliss finished eighth in his first season away from home but he dominated the following year, winning six races and taking 14 podium finishes on his way to the BSB crown.

Troy moved to America in 2000 for Ducati Vance & Hines and set pole position in the Daytona 200 Miles, the first round of the AMA Superbike Championship. His US experience didn't last long however as he was drafted into the factory team for the 2000 world championship following Carl Fogarty's career-ending crash. He won two races at Hockenheim and Brands Hatch to finish sixth overall, despite only taking part in half the season.

Bayliss dominated in 2001, leading the points table from the third round, winning six races and scoring fifteen podium finishes on his way to the title. In 2002 his title defence began in spectacular style as he powered to an impressive points lead by mid-season, but a crash at Assen allowed his American rival to take the series lead. Just one point separated the pair at the nail-biting Imola finale, which went to Edwards.

Shortly after Imola, Bayliss joined the Ducati MotoGP testing programme alongside Loris Capirossi and the pair successfully campaigned the Desmosedici together for two seasons before Troy switched to Honda for his third year in MotoGP. Bayliss - who brings back his aggressive and spectacular riding style to World Superbikes - away from the track remains the relaxed family man he has always been, surrounded by wife Kim and their three children.