Troy Bayliss blitzes Aussie dirt track

Troy Bayliss is a motorcycle racing freak – how else can you explain a 40-plus road racing icon winning three Australian dirt track titles on the same day?

Well, it happened on the 2014 Queen’s Birthday long weekend in his former hometown of Taree (NSW) when he took out the three major classes at the 2014 Australian Senior Dirt Track Championship: Pro 250, Pro 450 and Pro Open.

Remarkably, Bayliss had never won an Australian title of any persuasion before he headed overseas in the late ’90s, but the Gold Coast resident has now laid that bogey to rest in the most remarkable of circumstances.

Previously, when he was road racing at the elite level in Australia, Bayliss finished top three in the superbike and supersport titles but was never able to win one of them.

At the Old Bar circuit in Taree, Bayliss added a KTM 250 to his normal 450cc mount and won all three classes with varying degrees of difficulty against the country’s most accomplished dirt track riders.

All looked good for Bayliss on Saturday as he won his first two rounds in all classes, before he went winless in the third rounds on Sunday morning.
All eight championship classes provided thrills, excitement and drama, before Bayliss emerged as the only competitor to achieve more than one class win.

Bayliss was not always in front after 50 metres, but usually was by the first corner, but even when he did not make the best of starts he stuck to the racing lines that worked so well -- and he was inevitably soon in control.

The first two attempts to run the Pro 450 final were red-flagged after Luke Richards and Josh Hook fell, before Bayliss finally got to the chequered flag ahead of Jarryd Oram (who only got to the final via the repecharge) and Marty McNamara.

Six-time Pro 250 champion Luke Richards narrowly led Bayliss in the final when it too was red-flagged, but in the rerun Bayliss was a comfortable winner from Richards and Jared Myer.

The icing on the cake for Bayliss was the Pro Open final, this time leading home Michael Kirkness and Ian Hamilton.

There was some mixed outcomes among the results, as both McNamara and Hamilton failed to shed the tag of ‘best never to have won an Aussie title’, while Kirkness bravely battled through the meeting just a fortnight after breaking bones in both arms in a track mishap.

Former champion Paul Caslick took no part in racing on Sunday after suffering a broken wrist in a crash on the first day.

Riders from the oiled tracks like Taree and Kempsey were prominent in the action, although it was a disappointing sign-off for local star Ian Bisley who has unbeaten in leading the qualifiers in the Pro Open, but failed to take home  hardware from any of the three finals.

Former world supersport rider Matthew Davies was a deserving winner in the Under 19s class, although not making the best of starts in the final. In one of several ‘photo-finishes’ only split by the timing transponder Brayden Elliott edged out Bayley James for second.

Only one of the Aussie dirt track champions in 2013 made it back-to-back victories this year, with Jessica Shepherd winning all five rounds of the women’s class to beat Amy Wedd and Georgia Murray.

Over the past five years the Dirt Track Sidecars have been dominated by two teams and although triple champions Corey and Tom Banks won their heat clash against Adam and Graham Liebke, the result was reversed in the final as the Liebkes also became triple champions. Brad Banks / Stephen Hamilton finished third in the final.

The ATV riders played a significant role in the meeting, having done many laps to dry out the track on Sunday morning before racing started. This was the fifth year that the ATVs have had championship status, and for the first time South Australian Mel Brandle did not claim either of the class wins.

The honours were shared with Robert Booth (Pro) and Toby Hyde (Open) the winners as well as each taking second place in the other class, with Mel Brandle and Jack Weston third respectively.

Ian Bisley did manage to claim victory with an unbeaten run in the Over 35s support class, while the two junior classes saw victories to Max Stauffer over Jarred Loveday and Luke Bush (65cc 7 – Under 11) and Jack Hyde over Max Stauffer and Andrew Jordan (85cc 2str / 150cc 4str 9 – Under 13).

FULL CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS