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BOMBSHELL: Bayliss Contemplates Comeback
by dean adams
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Three-time World Superbike champion and full-fledged Ducati racing
hero Troy
Bayliss is contemplating a return to World Superbike racing. Bayliss
retired
at the culmination of the 2008 World Superbike season with 52 wins
and three
world titles. His forthright, workingman persona, coupled with his
prowess
on a Ducati Superbike, made him a favorite of fans from the alleys
near the
Ducati factory in Bologna to the pit lane at Salt Lake City's Miller
Motorsports Park, and all points in between. Now, after a season off
from
racing, Bayliss says he is mulling a racing comeback.
Reached last night in his hotel room in Italy, the Australian spoke with
Superbikeplanet.com about his retirement and unhappiness in leaving
racing,
which many infer happened a season or two too early.
Asked if, after a full season of not racing, he has come to terms
with being
retired, Bayliss said in his characteristically blunt fashion, "Not
one little
bit, not at all."
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"All I can say is that I am going back to ride the bike again," Bayliss
confessed, "and I am thinking about starting again, honestly." |
Bayliss tested the factory Ducati MotoGP bike last season and is, in
fact,
testing a factory Ducati Superbike today at Mugello. It's clear that his
role as a sometimes test rider for the factory has not been enough to
placate's Bayliss' competitive spirit and need to win. Perhaps his
future is
in team management at Ducati Superbike? Bayliss: "You're joking right? I
have no interest in being a team manager of any kind. The test riding
job is
okay but ...".
"All I can say is that I am going back to ride the bike again," Bayliss
confessed, "and I am thinking about starting again, honestly."
The triple world champion sealed his WSBK career with a third title
in his
final season of racing, and left little doubt of his ability right up
until
the final lap. He won both WSBK legs at Portimao, his then final
race. At
the time, many of his rivals openly scoffed that he would stay
retired for
long, with both Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi saying privately that they
expected to see Bayliss back on a Superbike eventually. Xaus
predicted that
he'd be on the bike and racing in 2009.
"I quit too early," Bayliss said last night. "I'm pissed off because I
stopped one championship short of Fogarty and I'm seven wins down on
him."
Was this just idle talk from Bayliss? "I'm not joking," he said.
"This is
basically all I want to say for now. If I do come back, I should be on a
Ducati." Bayliss clearly made an effort to clearly form the word
"should"
when speaking this sentence.
Is the current state of the factory Ducati WSBK team—they struggled at
Monza and were not competing for the podium—a factor as to why
Bayliss is strongly
considering donning his leathers and taking the grid again? It's
difficult
to know. Bayliss spoke about his old team, saying that they had "hit
a rough
patch" but that he wasn't surprised that they were under the gun at
ultra-high-speed Monza.
"We struggled there in top speed in 2008, so it's no surprise that
they did
this year," he said. "The bike is lacking a little bit of top end power. I think Monza was one of the most difficult races they'll have this year. The Ducati can still win; we saw it in Valencia where Nori had to come from a long way back."
About the rider who replaced him on the factory Ducati team, Bayliss
said, "Nori has always been a rider that's had to build himself up over a weekend and the way qualifying is now (the new SuperPole format) doesn't suit him. I think if he could sort out his qualifying issues he could be winning races."
Throughout his career at Ducati, Bayliss enjoyed a close relationship
with
Ducati race engineer Ernesto Marinelli. The two worked together when
Bayliss
set the pole for the Daytona 200 on the Vance & Hines Ducati
Superbike and
continued that successful collaboration when Bayliss replaced the
legendary
Carl Fogarty on the factory WSBK team. When Ducati team manager Davide
Tardozzi left Ducati, Marinelli moved up from the engineering ranks to
guide the team. Bayliss didn't vocalize this, but it can't be easy to
stand
by and watch Marinelli and company struggle.
"I said, let's do a test with Ernesto and the boys and see what we
can do, do a race sim (simulation) and let's see,"
Bayliss said.
Bayliss' often-told story is one of an auto body shop worker,
probably too
old to race at the world level who proved conventional wisdom and
many, many
experts wrong by becoming the pre-eminent Superbike rider in the
world and a
multi-time world champion. What fueled Bayliss' drive through that
incredible journey is a quiet confidence and a passion to compete and
win.
"I can tell you that I'm looking forward to tomorrow more than any
tomorrow
since I retired," Bayliss said last night on the eve of his Ducati
Superbike
test.
ENDS
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