Troy Bayliss

Have been to a big bike expo here in Australia today. Awsome show. Most of the new bikes were on display.
Troy Bayliss was on the Ducati stand, and his SBK Championship winning 999 and 2008 1098 bikes were on display. Not mock ups but actual race bikes with scars. Also had a 990 Desmo RR on display. Awsome bikes.
Had a short chat with Troy Bayliss about SBK and MoptoGP and he said a couple of interesting things.

He said the match race with Valentino was never going to happen, and he doesn't really think Vale was ever that serious about doing it anyway. Troy said he knows Valentino well, and gets on well with him. He thinks the race suggestion was a 'off the cuff' comment by Valentino, and it was blown out of proportion by the media. He said they never really seriously discussed it.
He said, Valentino has much more to loose than he stands to gain, unless it was purely for money. Valentino does not need to challenge Bayliss on a SBK to prove anything, but if he did and lost (which is a real possibility on SBK) it could effect Rossi.
He also said he didn't think Yamaha would ever let Valentino do it.

Bayliss said he thinks 2009 MotoGP will come down to Casey and Rossi, and will ultimately depend on reliability in the second half of the season. He said he thinks Stoner and Rossi are well ahead of anyone else in the MotoGP field.

Talking about Stoner, he said Stoner is absolutely fearless, and technically very very good. He said Ducati love him.

Troy Bayliss was signing autographs and mingling with people on the Ducati stand for a lot of hours. He is a really great guy and happy to talk to anyone.

http://www.crash.net/World+Superbikes/News...o_to_rossi.html


Lools like we can expect Bayliss to race iAustralian V8 Supercars n this year's Bathurst & race full time in 2010.

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"WSBK » Bayliss: Yes to V8s, no to Rossi
Retired World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss has revealed he is planning to test a V8 Supercar in the coming months with a view to competing in a handful of races, but confirmed he will not be racing against Valentino Rossi any time soon.

The Australian biking legend has been out of action since the end of November when concluded his successful career with a pair of Superbike victories in Portugal, but admitted to Australian newspaper The Courier Mail that he is 'getting edgy'.

With this in mind, Bayliss is eager to get back into competition, albeit on four-wheels, when he takes to the track with a as-yet-unnamed team. Fellow South East Queensland-based team Triple 8 are widely tipped to be the ones in question.

Adding that it would be a dream to compete in the annual Bathurst 1000 driving a V8 Supercar, Bayliss hinted that he is targeting a full-time drive in 2010.

"Cars are something that I love and I've been watching the V8s for many years. Bathurst would be good. I've done my time there on a bike. It would be my favourite place," he said.

"I'm under no illusions how difficult it will be. I've been thinking about this for quite a while so [racing] is not an easy thing to pack it up and just stop."

By contrast, Bayliss is less keen to get back on a bike in a competitive capacity, the three-time World Superbike Champion confirming that he will not be tackling Rossi in a well publicised head-to-head any time soon.

"I won the last race in Valencia in MotoGP in 2006 and Valentino finds that a little hard to take.

"My team has now been assigned to [Noriyuki] Haga and they can't just pull that team away from him now just before the season starts. Superbikes has been growing the last few years and if [the Rossi challenge] had happened it would have been good for the series."

However, he did admit that he likely to test with Ducati through the season, although not as an official test rider.

"I might do a test at Mugello on the superbike and GP bike just to keep my eye in, but I won't be an official test rider for Ducati," he said."