7 machines Australians piloted to greatness

1. 1961: Honda 250 GP bike
The inline-four cylinder 250cc machine that Australian Tom Phillis rode during the 1961 world championship represented a lot of things. Not only did it signal the beginning of the changing of the guard from MV Agusta’s previous dominance, but Tom Phillis also became the first bloke to win a grand prix on a Japanese-built racebike. His teammate Mike Hailwood claimed the 250cc title six points ahead of the legendary Australian rider – in fact the Honda claimed the first five positions of the 1961 250cc world championship.

2. 1963: McIntyre Matchless
It wasn’t so much the number of wins or poles racked up by Australian rider Jack Findlay (cos there weren’t any) in the 1966 500cc Grand Prix season, but what he achieved in the face of his fierce and talented competition. Up against the likes of MV Agusta’s Giacomo Agostini and Honda’s Mike Hailwood, who were both riding high-revving and highly advanced four cylinder machines to claim first and second in the title, Aussie Jack put it to them on a three-year-old single-cylinder Matchless to finish in third. “You could drift the bike in fast corners and use opposite lock on the handlebars, a bit like driving a racing car,” he was reported to say at the time.

3. 1978: Kawasaki KR250
The 1978 250cc world championship was a battle between teammates hailing from the Southern hemisphere when Australian Gregg Hansford would end up finishing just six points behind eventual title winner South African rider Kork Ballington. In a dominant show of performance and talent, both Ballington and Hansford stood on the top step of the podium four times apiece during the season. And proving the machinery’s worth, the bike then went on to claim the next three world championships in the hands of Ballington (1979) and Toni Mang (1980 and 1981).

4. 1983: Honda RS500
Essentially the precursor to Honda’s NSR500, the RS500 was Honda’s first go at two-stroke 500cc grand machine and while rivals Yamaha and Suzuki had opted for four-cylinder configurations, the V3 Honda proved a formidable racebike. Not least for Australian Wayne Gardner who was piloting the bike for Honda Britain in the national championship while the same year a certain Freddie Spencer was riding the HRC version (NS500) to the 1983 500cc world title. The following year, in 1984, Gardner won the British title on the RS500 as well as contesting a couple of grands prix under the British factory’s banner, before he made the switch to the world championship on a full-time basis in 1985.

5. 1997: Honda NSR500
Honda’s dominant NSR500 won every world championship between 1994 and 1999 and it made Australian Mick Doohan a hero. While it was Spanish teammate Alex Criville who claimed the 1999 title, the five-time championship winner rode the V4-powered two-stroke to victory no less than 54 times, setting a new record along the way of 12 grand prix wins in a single season — it stood unbroken for 17 years until for since Spanish sensation Marc Marquez went and won 14 races in the 2014 season, also on a Honda. The bike also shone a light on the enormous talents of another Australian, Doohan’s crew chief Jeremy Burgess. And while Doohan would eventually succumb to the after effects of his 1992 crash and remarkable and subsequent recovery, Burgess enjoyed another championship win with the NSR500, this time in the hands of a young Valentino Rossi in 2001.

6. 2006: Ducati 999R
There’s more than a few to mention, but it's the 2006 Superbike World Championship that makes Troy Bayliss’ 999R a stand out. The Aussie had returned to the title after a three-year hiatus in MotoGP where he had a best finish of sixth overall and, with the 2001 title already under his belt, was desperate to return to his winning ways. And that he did, the Taree-born Aussie dominated the season with 12 wins, eight of them consecutive, finishing the season almost 100 points clear of James Toseland. Fellow Aussie and Suzuki-mounted Troy Corser gave Bayliss a hurry-up on more than a few occasions, but ended the season in fourth place ahead of another Aussie in Yamaha rider Andrew Pitt. Bayliss’ V-twin-powered Ducati was down on power compared to his Japanese rivals but rode the wheels off it to take the title. His teammate, Lorenzo Lanzi, was next highest place Ducati, finishing eighth overall.

7. 2007 Ducati Desmosedici
Australian great Casey Stoner left both his fans and rivals wide-eyed when he turned the ho-hum Ducati into a dominant powerhouse in 2007 to claim 14 podiums from 18 starts on the way to his first world title. His predecessor, Spanish rider Sete Gibernau, finished the 2006 season in 13th place with a best placed finish of fourth at three of the 18 rounds. However we can’t mention Ducati’s 2006 MotoGP season without talking about Troy Bayliss’ shock and stunning victory at the season finale in Valencia. The factory gifted the Australian a wildcard ride to replaced the injured Gibernau and led the race from start to finish with teammate Loris Capirossi making it a memorable one-two for Italian factory. It was Bayliss’ first and only grand prix victory. Perhaps taming that decade-old Ducati was an Aussie thing?