Troy Bayliss
Troy Bayliss
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Troy Bayliss

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Troy Bayliss

Troy Andrew Bayliss (born 30 March 1969 in Taree, New South Wales, Australia)[citation needed] is an Australian motorcycle racer. During his career Bayliss won the Superbike World Championship three times and a MotoGP race, all with Ducati. He finished his career after winning the 2008 World Superbike title. His 52 World Superbike victories ranks fourth all time in the history of the championship behind Jonathan Rea, Álvaro Bautista and Carl Fogarty. His son with Kim Bayliss is named Oli Bayliss, he competes in the World Supersport Championship.

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.

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

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.

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.

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