World Superbike regulars talk Troy Bayliss’ return to racing at this weekend’s season opener at Phillip Island. PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
The buzz in the World Superbike Championship has been Troy Bayliss’ return to racing at this weekend’s season opener at Phillip Island. Now that the reality of the 45-year old Bayliss stepping in as the replacement for the injured Davide Giugliano sank in with the World Superbike paddock, his rivals gave their viewpoints on what it meant to compete against the three-time World Champion on his own patch, seven years after his retirement.
Most were excited about the prospect of racing with the Superbike legend, but as a racer, most took a step back to say, “hey, better beat the old man.” His teammate for the weekend, Welshman Chaz Davies on the Aruba.it Racing Ducati Superbike Team, was no exception.
“It will be interesting and it is actually quite cool,” Davies said about Bayliss filling in for Giugliano. “I spoke to Ernesto Marinelli [Ducati Superbike team manager] yesterday and he wanted to tell me before it came out in the press and my first feeling was being quite excited and then I thought, ‘hang on a minute, I probably should beat him!’
“I am excited to share a garage with a guy who has so much success like Troy, and hopefully bring something to the weekend in terms of his experience and what he knows about lapping fast around the Island. It is going to be good because I am interested to see how we stack up and what we can learn from him.
“Like all the guys I am excited to share the grid with him, but if he is competitive it is something else. You cannot rule him out if he is competitive; you cannot rule him out because he has kept himself pretty sharp on the bikes since he has retired. From what I gather it is a retirement he has never wanted to make anyway. So, looking at him he is still as fired up as you used to see him back in the day, so it is going to be great. It is really good for the fans and us guys to share the track with him.
“When I was younger and just started out in BSB [British Superbike Series] in the Superteen challenge Troy was one of the only guys to come up every weekend and say how are you doing guys. So to get the opportunity to share the track with him and share a garage with him is going to be an honor—until he beats me…”
Voltcom Crescent Suzuki’s Alex Lowes was also looking forward to competing with one of his all-time heroes, but yes, does not relish getting beat by Bayliss.
“It is great for me because he is probably one of my all-time heroes,” Lowes said. “Coming over to BSB when I was a young lad, and winning like he did with his all-action style, was pretty cool. I am looking forward to it, but I do not think I will be looking forward to it if he is sliding up the inside of me at Honda hairpin! Hopefully he will do a good job… and just to share the track with him will be pretty cool. If anybody can come back after not riding for a period of time and put in a surprise performance – like he did at Valencia [2006] on the GP bike – he is going to be the guy to do it. It should be great for everyone and I just hope I do not embarrass myself by getting beat by him.”
Pata Honda’s Sylvain Guintoli went on to say what everyone was feeling, expect the unexpected with Bayliss. The Australian has surprised in the past.
“I do not think it will be embarrassing actually because you never know what he is going to do,” Guintoli said. “Like I said I think he could surprise everybody and be very fast, actually. It is going to be very hard for him… but actually, he has got a lot of balls to come back and do that. Big respect from me. Also, I am one of the oldest riders on the grid and he is taking that off me.”
Kawasaki Racing Team’s Jonathan Rea has gridded up against Bayliss before—at Bayliss’ last World Superbike race before retirement—and looks forward to the rematch.
“I was lucky that Troy’s last ever race in World Superbike,” Rea said. “The Ten Kate team bumped me up to World Superbike for the last round of the championship and we shared the front row together. So we get to finish the story again here.
“I think what he is doing is incredible and there is going to be so many more people through the gate because Troy is such a legend in his own right. When I saw the gossip news on my twitter feed, and then I saw the official news, I was so happy for him and everyone. Then I remembered that I believe in fairy-tales—and then I though to myself, ‘Wait a minute… what if everything goes right and he kicks my ass and makes me look pretty amateurish? Because I have been at this every single year.’ I am just really happy to share a grid with him again.”
