5 Aussies who have won MotoGP and WSBK races
Nicky Hayden is the 16th rider to swill the winner’s champagne on both world superbike and MotoGP podiums. Of those 16 riders, five are Australians...1. Chris Vermeulen
The likeable Aussie became the most recent Australian rider to claim both a world superbike and MotoGP race win when he rode a gutsy race from 12th place to win the 2007 French Grand Prix at Le Mans. With the 2003 world supersport title already under his belt and 10 world superbike wins to his name, Vermeulen became the first (and currently only) bloke in the four-stroke era to put a Suzuki MotoGP machine on the top step of a GP podium.
2. Troy Bayliss
This year marks 10 years since Troy Bayliss stunned the world to claim won of the greatest victories in the 67-year history of the motorcycle world championship. Having just clinched the 2006 Superbike World Championship, Ducati drafted the Taree-born Aussie into the GP squad to replaced injured rider Sete Gibernau in the dramatic season finale, which was to be the title decider between Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. With 34 world superbike wins to his name and having been sacked by Ducati’s MotoGP squad just two years earlier on performance grounds, Bayliss had a point to prove, and prove it he did. And so on his wife Kim’s birthday, from second on the grid Bayliss led from start to finish to win his first and only MotoGP race.
3. Garry McCoy
Sydney-born Garry McCoy, who earned the nickname Mr Squiggle thanks to his spectacular riding style, became the third Australian to win races in both world-level motorcycle series when he won race two of the second round of the 2004 Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island aboard the NCR Ducati. His first 500cc Grand Prix win came four years earlier in 2000 riding the WCM Yamaha YZR500, during his most successful grand prix season, finishing fifth overall and recording three victories: one each in South Africa, Portugal and Valencia.
4. Kevin Magee
Horsham-born Kevin Magee won two rounds of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island in both the 1991 and 1992 seasons despite never campaigning a full season in the production-based series. Better known for his GP exploits, the Horsham Hurricane raced two full seasons in 500 GPs with the Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha squad with his first and only win coming in the 1988 Spanish Grand Prix.
5. Mick Doohan
When Mick Doohan crossed the line to win the second race of the Japanese round of the inaugural Superbike World Championship in 1988, many suspected but few knew just how many accolades the Australian rider would eventually notch up. For the next season he would switch to the GP paddock and in just his second year and from his 26th grand prix start, he became the first ever Australian to win both a 500cc and Superbike World Championship race when he claimed his debut victory in the 1990 Hungarian GP. In his 10 spectacular seasons on a 500cc grand prix machine, he would rack up 54 victories from 137 starts to amass five 500cc Motorcycle World Championships.
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