Transcript

Troy Bayliss · Rusty's Garage

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A listener production.
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I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
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Occasionally in sport you hear the term late bloomer.
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It doesn't happen very often now in motorsport with youngsters getting into karting and riding motorbikes before many of them even hit double figures.
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Troy Bayliss fell in love with bike racing in his pre-high school years as a junior.
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He drifted away as a teen but came back in his 20s and went on to become a triple world champion.
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I was brought up on a wheat farm out west, and like many kids out there, you're either on horses or bikes, and my sister was on horses and I was on bikes.
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And basically I went through the ranks of doing a little bit of junior motocross and dirt track, but it sort of finished as I was around 14 or 15 as we moved back to this side of the country.
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And it sort of left me for a little while, but it was always inside me, and every now and then I'd see bikes and it would make me think about them.
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But I had no...
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No really idea that I was going to become involved in road racing at all until I passed the shop one day on my bicycle out training and seen a Kawasaki 750 H1 in the window.
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And I just went home and got a loan and went and bought it.
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You were inspired, though.
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You had been down, I think, from memory to, I think you'd watched the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Eastern Creek, and you'd thought a bit about getting back into it again.
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But you had to borrow a bit of money for that bike.
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Is that right?
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Tell me that story.
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It was $9,999.
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Yeah, I bought that bike, and then basically straight away, a few of my mates that had bikes down in Taree said they were going down to the...
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down to watch the Grand Prix down at Eastern Creek.
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And we went down and like really roughed it out in the parking lot.
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And I even got involved with like, you know, it was different back then.
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There was drag races in the night and, you know, not organized, it was just like the boys on their bikes.
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And I couldn't believe that I was doing that.
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But when I went over and watched the guys, I watched them riding around and I just thought to myself, wow, that'd be a cool job.
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And I think I could ride pretty fast.
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I'm gonna give that a go.
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So come back a step for me.
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Tell me about your very first bike.
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Am I right in saying that it was a Honda Z50?
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Whatever happened to that?
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Have you tracked it down?
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No.
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That thing was so beaten up by the time my dad or mum sold it.
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I just remember everything that was broken on it, the lights and blinkers and the handlebars were all pushed in.
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They were a cool bike.
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I see them around now.
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They're worth a lot of money.
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It's crazy.
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Most people, they get addicted to it once they get started.
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In that period where it drifted away from you, you said it was always still in your mind that you enjoyed the whole notion of racing, but it was only that moment when you saw the Kawasaki that you really kind of triggered things again, or what happened?
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Yeah, it was, but when...
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As soon as I was old enough, I actually did buy a Yamaha TT 250 trail bike just so I could get around on.
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That was my first really experience on the road.
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But I used to ride it, even ride that thing.
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It was only a 250 trail bike, but I used to ride it down to Newcastle sometimes to go to tech.
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It was weird.
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But yeah, that was actually the start of getting back on the road.
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I'm told, correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm told a local police officer took an interest in you and kind of warned you about being well behaved on the road and things like that.
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Is that true?
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Yeah, pretty much.
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And they give me a little bit of a revan.
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But I only had the bike on the road, like the 750, for a matter of months before I realised that I was probably going to...
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hurt myself or get locked up and that was it.
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We took the fairings off and put a set of fiberglass fairings on it and headed on down to Oron Park.
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It was the first ever ride we did.
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So what did you decide to do?
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Was it a case of, okay, you were working as a spray painter I think back then.
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Was it, let's just get a van and we'll have a crack at this for a bit of fun?
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What was the approach?
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Straight away it was like, go and have a bit of fun.
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But yeah, we used Kim's dad's van and we went down to Oran Park and straight away I realised...
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I went down there and I was going okay, but I realized man, but this is, I'm in the wrong place, you know?
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Like if I want to do this properly, I need to get a 250 because that's where all the guys are learning and that's where the racing seemed to be really good.
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So I did the race there at Oran Park and then we went and I went and traded in on a KR1S 250 and just because that was the right way to go.
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And then that was, that was the start of it.
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We started doing a few, a few of the Australian championship rounds.
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And then the following year we went and did
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all of them.
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And yeah, that was it.
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Completely hooked and addicted by then.
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But I was also 22 probably then, I think.
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So it was a late starter.
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And it's really weird how it all works out.
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We've got Ollie riding now and he's only just turned 14.
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He's had his first full year in the Australian Championship.
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And I look at all the young guys now and I seem to think, it would have been good if I started that young.
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But honestly, I think your career is...
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You know, it's just...
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It's not the right thing to be starting at 22, but I'd learned everything and I'd had all the background.
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It was all there.
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It just needed kicking off.
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One thing that sticks in my mind is you getting a wildcard ride at the 1997 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
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I think for memory with a Dutch team on a Suzuki at 250 that wasn't quite the equal of the front running guys, was it?
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That was a big moment.
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And I can even recall my colleague, Mark Osler, encouraging people to stand up and get behind you and cheer you for what you were doing on this machine.
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It was crazy how that worked out because that was in, yeah, in 97.
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It was on the Ari Molnar Suzuki, the Dutch guys, and they were an incredible good bunch of guys, and we had the best weekend.
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It all started off weird for them because their rider was sick or injured.
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I can't remember now, to tell you the truth.
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And they were looking for a rider, Gary Flood.
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who was doing the suspension on Gavin Cosway's bike at the time that I was riding, put my name forward.
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And they actually, in the end, they gave me a shot, but they were worried because I had no...
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I was coming from Australian super bikes at the time.
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I was riding the Anstead Air Freight bike of Peter Goddard and Phil Taiten.
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And a 250 Grand Prix bike is a different machine.
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They were worried that I had no two-stroke experience, but I didn't even think about that because I'd ridden a 250 production bike and that was, you know, I said, yeah, I've ridden a 250 before.
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And they were just all on a downer and half of them were sick as well.
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I'm sure they had some food poisoning going around.
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And anyway, I hopped on the bike and straightaway,
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I really liked the bike and straight up, I was doing good.
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I came in and they were all excited.
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I just sort of rollercoasted and snowballed.
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The weekend just got better and better.
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It ended up being a great race.
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Honestly, the bike was a bit slower, but it was one of the best handling bikes that I'd ever ridden.
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And I remember back then, Barry Sheen and Bill Woods were doing some commentating there, and I got really good rap out of it, and it really made people sort of stand up and take notice.
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You were up against guys like Ralph Waldman, Max Biaggi, Olivia Jack, and as you say, Caporossi.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I mean, famous...
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names in that scene at the time.
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So the result ultimately was a sixth, but you nearly got a podium, mate, didn't you?
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Just as you come onto the front straight.
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Like every lap I was, at one stage I was in second in the early laps, and then eventually Biagi and Waldman, they sort of broke away.
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And then there was a big battle for the next four or five of us guys.
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But so many times I just get passed down the straight.
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And I was a bit heavy for a 250 as well.
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I was like 67 or 68 kilos.
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And
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But the bike handled so good and I knew Phillip Island pretty good even back then.
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And I was just carving them up on this thing.
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And it was such a good feeling.
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The bike was just working so well.
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Did it open doors for you?
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This was the key moment in terms of what I think ultimately took you to the UK, wasn't it?
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It was now international teams were noticing what Troy Bayless was capable of.
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Yeah, without a doubt.
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And honestly, there were a lot of people interested.
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And then we found out like right back, even back then in 97, that there was opportunities, there was even a couple of 500 opportunities, but like we had to bring money to the team.
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And we didn't even know anyone that had money.
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So, and we had no idea on how to chase money because basically we were country bumpkins.
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And that was the end of that.
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And it was only the following week we had a phone call from the UK with Darrell, who had a private Ducati team over there.
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And it was a pretty easy...
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It was a pretty easy decision for us.
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Mitchell and Abby were very young, but he said, OK, I'll give you 20,000 pounds.
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We'll give you a house to live in, give you a car, pay you like these wind bonuses.
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And we went, well, let's go.
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That was that.
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And did you think this is a two-year plan, we'll give it two years and see what happens?
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Did you just roll the dice and let's go and experience this?
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That was it.
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We're going to do the best we could do, but basically treat it as a working holiday.
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But I thought I was going to go there and be competitive straight up.
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But yeah, when we got there, we realised that the guys were really fast and they had some really...
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different sorts of tracks, some similar to the Australian style, but a lot of them were like really, really got some character.
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And some of the tracks we went to were quite dangerous as well.
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And a long story short, I had enough crashes and bike problems, but I did manage to win a couple of races in the first year.
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And that got, you know, Daryl keen to keep us on board and
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We really, even David Tardofsky came down because we were struggling that much with the bikes like playing up.
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He came to Knock Hill to see what was going on.
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And the following year we had like proper RS bikes and had Neil Hodgson as a teammate.
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And we battled really hard all year and we ended up coming out like winning the British Superbike Championship.
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So it was pretty cool.
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And the only other Aussie to do that was Wayne Garden at the time.
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So I felt pretty special.
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You should do, mate.
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It's a great achievement.
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Was that the first, you know, going back to that period, was that the first time you ever had ridden a Ducati and was it the 996 that you've got sort of really fond memories of from that period?
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Yeah, it was the first time that I'd ridden Ducati and I have to say that before then, just before I rode the Teen Cowes Aki bike in 96, I was offered a job with...
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with the guys here, Fraser's, to ride the superbike, but I'd already signed a deal to ride a 600.
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So it was like I should have been on Ducatis even before, you know what I mean?
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And it really hurt.
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But finally, when I got to ride the bikes, I loved the Ducatis and I was so happy to be on them.
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I think I recall reading an article somewhere that you described it a bit, if I've got this right, a bit like a... Shrack.
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Yeah, was it?
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Yeah, that's the words I used.
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Yeah, the British super bikes, they were pretty good bikes.
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But, yeah, the first time I rode the bike, I think, was at Mallory Park.
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yeah you know a new track a new bike a new team and everything it was freezing cold it was probably february over there it was bleak as hell but yeah the team were great we based ourselves like we're only like a mile away from the race team made some really good friends that we still have over there and um yeah it was just on the outskirts of coventry
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Was this a bit of a surreal moment as well?
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Because he's a spray painter from New South Wales with his young wife and kids in the UK, and now you're the British Superbike Champion.
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And I would imagine the phone's ringing even more about potential opportunities, firstly in the United States and then ultimately in Europe.
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Yeah, well, it was funny because when we went over there, it was the same time as all Mad Cow was happening, and we were so frightened that we were going to get Mad Cow.
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I'm not joking.
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And when we met some of the people that we became good friends with, we went around to their farm and we were having a lunch, and they just laughed their heads off, and we said, oh, we're not eating any meat.
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But, yeah, when...
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When I won the championship in 99, Carl Fogarty was there and he was presenting me the trophy.
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And, like, by that stage, you know, I knew I was fast.
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And inside myself, as he was, like, handing me that trophy, I was thinking, I'm having your bike.
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You know, I'm going to be there one day.
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But Darrell, the team owner, and basically was my manager as well, a great friend of ours now, he'd always had plans to go to World Superbike, but it wasn't going his way right at that time.
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He said, Troy, I want to go to World Superbike, but it's just not working out just yet.
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And Ducati offered me a job in America to do the AMA.
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He said, you go and do that, and we'll see the following year where I end up.
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And so off we went to the USA and that was just basically, I thought it would be there for a year or two.
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But yeah, that all got cut short when Carl had his crash at Phillip Island and I got the call to come and hop on the bike and basically the rest is history.
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Carl Fogarty, legend of the game, presenting you with the trophy, as you said.
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Sadly, he gets injured.
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That's just what happens in the game of motorcycle racing, but it opened the doors.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And there's so many stories in between all of that when we're in the US.
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And like when you pack up your family and you take off and go overseas and then you're in England, then you're in Italy and then we're moving to the USA.
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Like all the dramas and stuff we had to do for visas and stuff.
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Like it kept us on our toes.
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And Kim was, you know, where the kids were so young and there was plenty going on.
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And while I was getting shipped around there, going and riding in Italy, Kim was trying to pack up our stuff in the US.
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It was like a...
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It was a nightmare there for a while, and we didn't know where to go, and then we went back to live in the UK for a while until we realised that, okay, we're going to be staying in World Superbikes.
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When you realised that, had you already started to learn Italian?
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Because you can speak Italian, I think, can't you?
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I mean, it kind of becomes a necessary thing when you're working with your caddies.
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Yeah, I'm like a four-year-old.
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Four-year-olds get what they want, though.
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So I must be saying the right stuff.
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But yeah, I love working for them guys.
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I had such a good time.
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And I was lucky to work for possibly the best team in the world and a great bunch of guys.
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And right when you ride for the factory Ducati team,
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it automatically brings attention and it brings like a lot of supporters.
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It doesn't matter where you go in Italy, they love Ferrari and they love Ducati.
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And if you happen to be riding one of them for them, that means they're going to love you too.
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Did they teach you the language or did you go out and study it or just become a necessary thing because you're based in Europe?
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It was just learnt through, because we didn't live in Italy, we lived down in Monaco eventually, but
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There's everyone there, but the general language is English.
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And so all my Italian was learnt, like, around the mechanics.
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So it was always the bad words first.
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And then, like, you know, every night at dinner would be, like, it would be going to and throw.
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And I was put in so many situations early on where I'm around so many people and I didn't really speak the language.
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So it can be difficult and you can either handle that or you can't.
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And, yeah, I managed to be able to be fine with it and get by.
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You...
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race some good bikes we're talking before about the the brief stint of the united states and things like that and we discussed briefly the 996 i'm told your favorite ducati is the 998 of 2002 is that correct is that your favorite race bike why if it is um well i love them all but um 2002 was the 998 was definitely a great bike but also the 999 i like the 999 so much because ducati had
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spend so much money on it to make it competitive because when i rode the 998 it was a 1000 cc the the japanese bikes were 750 because they were like four cylinders um but when when all the japanese bikes started running the 1000 ccs we had we're still running the thousand like the 909 but ducati had the it was basically like a mini gp bike that is to make the thing competitive um yeah so it's a like a really special bike the 909
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You kept, I'm told, the 998, the 999 and the 1098 championship winning bikes.
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Was that a hard thing?
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Because Barry Sheen, different era, admittedly, was able to keep some of his bikes that they were, you know, Suzuki's, Japanese winning bikes and things.
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But the Japanese engineers and management weren't very keen on handing them over, mate.
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They didn't like that thought.
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I think, like, I've heard lots of stories about the Japanese, like, crushing a lot of the bikes, which I find crazy, really.
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The Italians, though, no, the bikes get around.
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I'm so happy to have the bikes here at home.
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You know, I walk past them and just...
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It feels like another lifetime ago, but they're beautiful things, and they've got a nice home here, and it's so nice to have them.
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But a funny story with the first one from 2001 was Ducati wanted me to run Numba because basically all my bikes, they...
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In my contract, like when they make a replica bike, like I take the replica.
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So I have all the replicas, number 21 of blah, blah, blah, and all this sort of stuff.
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But the race bikes, when they said, oh, okay, I want you to run number one in 2002, and I asked for my bike, they said, I said, I'll run number one if I can have the bike, otherwise I'm running 21.
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So that was that bike.
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And I've got the other two here as well.
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Let's talk a little bit more about that because in numbers terms, I think you ran 32 in the British Championship, 12 during your stint in MotoGP, but everyone automatically thinks of 21 from your time in World Superbikes and the successes there.
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Is there a story there?
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Is there a backstory to 21?
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Why did you have that?
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There is.
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When I arrived at Sugo, the first time I rode the factory bike, well, I was a little bit
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It was only like a week before when David called me and said, Troy, you're coming to Sugo.
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Like, you know, after Carl's crash, I didn't have a say.
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He said, you're coming to Sugo.
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Righto.
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So I arrived there.
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But before then, he said, what number do you want to run?
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And I said, I don't care.
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And he said, OK, 21.
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And that's it?
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That's it.
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Really?
18:16
David was number 21.
18:17
OK. Yeah, yeah.
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We're talking about a guy by the name of David Tardotzi who is famous in Ducati terms.
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David won the first ever world superweight race on a Bermota back in the day.
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Incredible guy.
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He was very fiery.
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He certainly calmed over the years.
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I used to see him on the rev limiter so much.
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He's like a Jack Russell.
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He wasn't scared of anyone.
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His influence in the bikes and the race team and everything was just phenomenal.
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He was an incredible team manager and he knew how to get the best out of the riders, that's for sure.
18:54
This is Greg Rust and you're listening to Rusty's Garage.
18:57
More with Troy Bayliss in just a few moments.
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19:59
Doeys.
20:00
The act of spinning the rear wheels of a car while turning in a tight circle mimicking the shape of a donut.
20:05
Often used by racing drivers to celebrate victory or unsuccessfully used by adolescent men to impress their female counterparts.
20:14
Some fantastic battles during your career with the likes of Colin Edwards, for example.
20:18
Who's the toughest rival?
20:20
Was it him?
20:21
I have to say, you know, I had my time in GP as well, and there's a lot of fantastic riders there, but I'm known for my super boat days, and yeah, there's plenty of fast and hard guys out there, but I did have so many battles with Colin that I'd say most people would agree that definitely Colin and myself...
20:40
He was the man I had to try and he was there week in, week out and always really hard to beat.
20:45
And we had a pretty good relationship considering we were always banging ourselves around on the bikes.
20:50
But after all them years, we never, we never, we rode so close together.
20:54
Same with Harga as well, but we never, we never were involved in a crash together.
20:59
So not a bad word.
20:59
Not a bad word.
21:00
Amazing.
21:01
There are chapters, as you said before, in MotoGP for you, if memory serves me correctly, a stint with Cito Pons on the Honda, and then you won that season-ending round at Valencia the same year that Nicky Hayden, the late Nicky Hayden, went on to win the title.
21:14
What was that MotoGP bike like to ride?
21:18
It was...
21:20
The bike was great.
21:21
Loris and I developed the bike in 2003 and 2004.
21:26
And then I found myself back on basically that bike, which the development had continued.
21:32
And, but you know, you go to some tracks like Valencia, even on the bikes in 2003 and four, I had podiums there.
21:37
So for some reason, I was always pretty fast at Valencia.
21:40
And when the...
21:42
situation arose which was quite funny.
21:44
Well, not funny, it was bad for Sete because he injured his shoulder.
21:47
But when the guys asked me to come to Valencia and ride the bike, it was going to be the final race of the 1000cc bikes before they went back to the 800s.
21:55
They were putting across the line that, you know, this is a good idea because it's the last, you know, the last time the bike will get ridden.
22:02
It's the bike that you and Loris developed.
22:05
And I said, I'm interested, but there's no way I'll do it unless I can bring my super bike crew.
22:11
to work on it with me for that weekend.
22:13
Yeah.
22:14
Well, a lot of the mechanics I knew already, but I wanted Ernesto there, David, and Parlo.
22:19
So we got together and went backwards and forwards a little while.
22:23
Eventually, Claudio Domenicali basically said, okay, it's gonna happen.
22:28
So we went along there and I hopped on the bike and was fast straight away again.
22:33
And it was on Bridgestones, which I'd been on Pirelli's all year.
22:38
But I felt great on the bike.
22:40
It was crazy.
22:41
I ended up qualifying second to Valentino and everything was going so good.
22:47
And I went out in the warmup that morning and I was probably back in about 11th and I came in a little bit flustered.
22:53
And I was worried about like how the back was working.
22:56
And David said, don't worry.
22:58
Like, you know, we could have put a better tire in for the warmup, but you put the same tire in, you're gonna use it in the race.
23:03
And the lights went green and off I went.
23:07
basically controlled the whole race and I had Loris behind me for most of the way towards the end and um but with four laps to go I knew that if he had been able to like actually pass me he would have but he was he was doing everything he could but I had the speed that day and I just watched the lap board and the last four laps felt like I was in cruise mode.
23:27
Amazing.
23:27
But how special?
23:28
Where does that rank for you in terms of the career success?
23:30
It felt like a mini world championship.
23:33
To win like in 2006 on the superbike and then go there, I just put 2006 down as definitely my best year.
23:39
The affinity with Ducati, we talked about that before.
23:41
I mean, you'll hate me saying this, but you're like a demigod there, mate.
23:45
You're part of the family.
23:47
Why did it all work so well?
23:49
Is it bikes, people, culture?
23:51
Is it all of those things?
23:53
It's a really hard one.
23:56
First, you've got to get the results.
23:58
So like I said, we had good bikes.
24:00
I was in my prime, riding really well.
24:04
I'm pretty easy to get along with normally.
24:07
And we hit it off with the team.
24:09
There were a great bunch of guys.
24:11
Every Sunday night, there would always be like...
24:13
beer, pasta and pizza.
24:16
Up until then, it's like dead set serious.
24:18
But Sunday night, we'd have a good time and all get together.
24:21
And we'd get together during the week too of the racing.
24:24
But of course, it was just full on.
24:25
It was all about the, you know, about the win.
24:28
Like, we're going to go and get the win.
24:30
You guys are the heroes for me with what you do on these bikes.
24:33
So it's a game that comes with a lot of risk.
24:35
You've had your injuries too.
24:36
I mean, the crash at Donington is one that comes to mind.
24:40
But you might argue that you've been luckier than a lot of others.
24:43
But, I mean, that's the one that I think about.
24:44
Yeah, definitely.
24:45
What did you do?
24:46
You lost your finger?
24:47
I lost my finger and done a little bit of man damage.
24:49
Yeah.
24:51
It's all good though.
24:52
It's all good-ish.
24:54
What do you say?
24:55
Split an atom you could say.
24:57
But yeah, basically every year you'll be breaking something.
25:00
Like you'd crack a bone in your hand or your wrist or so many little things and vertebraes and stuff.
25:07
But when I look at how I got out of it, my body's in really good shape.
25:11
And to stop in 2008 as the champ and have your body intact was special.
25:18
But it comes with...
25:21
um how do i explain it it was i felt like i needed to retire at the end of 2008 and it was because i was at the top of my game i was 38 or 39 but also mitchell and abby were uh mitchell was 14 so and we're living in monaco and it just seemed like we wanted to get the kids everything was adding up like it was a good time to come home with the kids as well we wanted them to sort of
25:45
get brought up like a bit more Australia.
25:49
It's a bit weird over there.
25:50
It's good to be there, but I don't think it's good long-term.
25:53
I don't think anyway.
25:55
So we're back here.
25:56
That's that.
25:56
And the body's in good shape.
25:58
But...
26:00
after all them years away and then you come home and you're so used to being racing week in, week out and maybe the spotlight, I don't know about the spotlight, but the winning or the competition.
26:14
When I went down to see the team at Phillip Island for the first round of the World Superbikes, I was like so depressed.
26:21
I could hardly even go into the box and speak to the guys.
26:24
It just felt so wrong to even be there.
26:26
And I felt like that for years, but...
26:29
I used to go back and test the bikes and do a bit of work with the guys and was always thinking, no, I should be back there racing.
26:38
But eventually I sort of got over that.
26:41
It had been such a massive chunk of your adult life, that's why, and then all of a sudden you stopped that.
26:47
So how difficult has that whole thing been?
26:50
You briefly came back in 2015 and did the cameo appearance kind of thing, but I sort of sensed in you that you loved it so much.
26:58
It must have been enormously hard to give it up.
27:01
Yeah, it was so hard to give it up, but also by the end of 2008, I think it comes in cycles, and it was like 10 or 12 years of racing every year, and it gets to you a little bit towards the end, but then you have some time off and you feel fresh, and...
27:17
I might have just needed one year off.
27:19
But, yeah, when I came back and did that ride in 2015, that was just completely out of the blue.
27:26
Davida Gugliano was injured.
27:28
Yes.
27:29
And it was just before they come to Phillip Island.
27:31
I just rang Ernesto up, and I wasn't fit or anything.
27:34
I said, Ernesto, I'm riding that bike.
27:36
He said, are you sure you want to do that?
27:39
I said, yeah, I'm coming down.
27:40
I'm going to have a ride.
27:41
We'll just have some fun.
27:44
It was pretty funny.
27:46
And that was that.
27:46
I did okay, but honestly, I didn't really take it too seriously and decided to go and do the next round and did better.
27:54
I did better in Thailand, but I never liked riding in the heat anyway.
27:58
And after riding over there in Thailand in the heat, I was like, this is not a good idea.
28:02
Okay.
28:02
The fitness side of things for you, I can always remember you enjoying your cycling.
28:09
Did that come naturally to you?
28:11
Did you have to work at that?
28:12
Or did you take to the fitness side of things in the same manner you did your racing?
28:17
Yeah, it just come naturally because I, honestly, when you've got a job like that, we're living in an apartment.
28:25
That was, you know, that's my job.
28:26
So the training part of it was easy.
28:28
Basically, I'd have my training done by lunch, come and have some lunch with Kim, and then we're just a normal family for the rest of the afternoon.
28:35
And being over where we were, like living in Monaco, most of the races were in Europe.
28:40
I didn't need to go to the races until like Thursday most of the time.
28:43
And like, so it was only like 12 races a year or so.
28:46
And it was like an office job.
28:48
Amazing.
28:49
It was a great job.
28:50
And you don't appreciate that until you've had it.
28:52
And then you look back on it.
28:54
And sometimes you'll think, oh, I was a bit snotty-nosed there or whatever.
28:57
But yeah, it's definitely, definitely a great job.
29:00
The Desmo Sport team you mentioned before is something that keeps you very busy at the moment, and so does the motorcycle shows here in Australia.
29:08
And so these are ways you've stayed very much involved in the industry, even though you're not racing on a full-time basis at world championship level anymore.
29:15
Yeah, with the motorcycle shows, it's been really good because everybody's always known me as, like, just Ducati.
29:22
But now, like, to be involved with all of the guys here in Australia, all the importers and everything, and all the accessory guys, it's really nice to be involved.
29:32
Kim and Mark Peterson, like...
29:34
Honestly, my name's behind it, but they're the drivers of it.
29:37
Mark's got so much experience, and now Kim's really got a thumb on it now too, and she enjoys it, and it's really good.
29:45
The Desmond Sport team, it's a good thing because I'm back in the Australian Superbikes where I started, and I love going there.
29:55
Of course...
29:56
Having Ollie there racing now too makes sense to be there with a team.
30:01
So it sort of just happens easy now.
30:04
So I've been enjoying that and it's good to be back.
30:06
And I think the championship's probably the best it's ever been right now.
30:11
Some great...
30:12
things in the pipeline i think for it as well it's it's really rebounded um you know there's some very memorable chapters of that australian championship and yes it's gone through some lulls but it's nice to see it coming back the way that it is you mentioned ollie 14 years of age he's following in dad's footsteps or it looks like that racing here in the supersport 300 class are you coach are you nervous dad what are you like on the sidelines
30:35
I'm probably, it's really hard to watch.
30:37
Is it?
30:38
Yeah, I rang my mum like not long after, halfway through the year, this year, and said, Mum, I'm so sorry.
30:44
I don't know what, you know, now I understand what I've put you guys all through.
30:48
Yeah.
30:49
But basically Ollie's been racing like a lot of his life.
30:52
He started off in karts and then switched from karts to bikes, so he was like probably eight or nine when he was doing dirt track.
31:00
and now the last two years we've started doing, brought him up to speed here on the Gold Coast at Extreme Karting on the kart track.
31:08
So I was always riding 300 with him and so different riding on the track with him because we ride hard, but when you're on the track, you don't feel the nervousness or anything like that.
31:20
But when you turn up to the ASBK and I see him going around the track, like with seven or eight guys like Dyson for...
31:26
Dyson for a win it's like it is stressful to watch I must say what about you are you comfortable just hanging out and involved in all of this or are there moments where you need to throw your leg over a bike and go and do something that that keeps the competitive stuff going
31:42
Over the years I've done, which has probably been good, we've done a lot of dirt track riding, which I did with Ollie and a lot of other guys, and sometimes I just go and do it myself, you know, just to go racing.
31:54
The Troy Ballas Classic, which we've done has been good.
31:58
But yeah, the good thing is it's kept me on the bike.
32:01
And I tested our bike, the Desmond Sport bike, I think about three or four weeks ago at Morgan Park.
32:07
Yep, in Queensland.
32:08
In Queensland, yeah.
32:12
Did a good lap time.
32:13
I rode the bike at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which was fun.
32:17
And here's a little surprise.
32:19
I'll be riding our bike in the Australian Superbike Championship next year.
32:22
That's phenomenal for the Australian Championship, mate.
32:25
That's the whole, you're going to contest the whole championship?
32:27
Yep.
32:28
I feel I rode the, it's been a hard one.
32:31
This year we had Callum Spriggs on the bike and he sort of struggled a little.
32:36
He's a great 600 rider.
32:38
He crashed out and injured his shoulder.
32:40
And that was the end of him for the year.
32:42
I'm sure he's going to be back next year, I'd say, in the Superbike Paddock as well.
32:46
Also, Corey Turner had a spin on the bike, did very well up at Morgan Park and then sort of struggled a little bit towards the end of the year.
32:53
But, you know, we want to see the young guys on the bikes.
32:57
But after I rode the bike and what I felt on the bike...
33:01
It's a long story and hard to explain, but I feel the need that I need to ride, come back and try and get myself an Australian Superbike Championship.
33:09
So life has come, in some respects, full circle for you.
33:12
So you're going to contest it.
33:13
You're back.
33:14
You're going to contest the Australian Championship.
33:16
As you and I talk in one of the spare rooms at your house, you've got the bike set up.
33:20
So are you going to get serious about training and testing?
33:22
Yeah, without a doubt.
33:23
That's actually Ollie set up there.
33:25
Is it?
33:25
Yeah, he gets on the Zwift and hooks up with all his mates on there.
33:29
Yeah, fair dinkum.
33:30
Actually, I'm coming back.
33:32
I'm going to be very serious.
33:34
And that's that.
33:36
How's Mama Bear?
33:37
How's Kim about all that?
33:38
Kim's not too bad about it.
33:39
Like, it's a pretty...
33:42
We've got Mitchell Cage fighting.
33:44
He's 23.
33:44
There's one sane one in the family, Abby.
33:47
She's at university doing mathematics.
33:49
Ollie's racing bikes.
33:50
I'm at the track every weekend anyway.
33:53
We may as well both be riding.
33:54
What a great story, mate.
33:56
Congratulations.
33:57
It's been an honour to catch up with you.
33:59
World Superbike Champion in 01, 06, 2008, obviously.
34:01
152 starts.
34:05
52 wins, 94 podiums and 26 poles.
34:09
It is a very impressive strike rate, not to mention the British Championship and MotoGP race winner.
34:14
And we've learnt in the podcast today that you're going to make a comeback.
34:17
That's seriously cool.
34:18
Yeah, it's seriously, you know, some people won't really get it.
34:25
Myself, I'm a racer and that's what I need to do.
34:30
I think it will be good for myself, it'll be good for our team and I think it'll also be good for the Australian Superbike Championship as well.
34:37
100%.
34:38
Have a great season.
34:38
All the best.
34:39
Thanks, Greg.
34:41
On the next episode of Rusty's Garage, I'm in New Zealand talking with V8 supercar driver and Kiwi legend Greg Murphy, who after all his years of racing, has a trunk full of stories to tell.
34:53
And the passenger side of the car, which was the left-hand side of the car, the footwell and everything on the passenger side of the car was full of fuel.
34:59
And so the fuel line from the back of the car, it somehow ruptured and was filling the car up with fuel.
35:04
And as he did that, it ignited.
35:07
And so the car was on fire.
35:10
Peter Addison grabbed the fire extinguisher while everyone else stood back and watched because he was like, I'm not having this happen to this car.
35:16
This is so important.
35:16
So put the fire out, managed to fix it.
35:19
It didn't actually do too much damage because the fuel was burning, not the car.
35:23
And went on to race that weekend in the Toyota.
35:31
Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
35:35
Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
35:38
Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
35:48
Listener.