REALLY,..Does he have a chance???

[MOKE1K]

BOMBSHELL: Bayliss Contemplates Comeback
by dean adams of Superbikeplanet
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Retired world champion Troy Bayliss, photographed above at his 'final' race in Portugal 2008, is considering coming out of retirement to race again.
image by dean adams

Three-time World Superbike champion and full-fledged Ducati racing hero Troy Bayliss is contemplating a return to World Superbike racing.

Bayliss retired at the culmination of the 2008 World Superbike season with 52 wins and three world titles. His forthright, workingman persona, coupled with his prowess on a Ducati Superbike, made him a favorite of fans from the alleys near the Ducati factory in Bologna to the pit lane at Salt Lake City's Miller Motorsports Park, and all points in between. Now, after a season off from racing, Bayliss says he is mulling a racing comeback.

Reached last night in his hotel room in Italy, the Australian spoke with Superbikeplanet.com about his retirement and unhappiness in leaving racing, which many infer happened a season or two too early.

Asked if, after a full season of not racing, he has come to terms with being retired, Bayliss said in his characteristically blunt fashion, "Not one little bit, not at all."

"All I can say is that I am going back to ride the bike again," Bayliss confessed, "and I am thinking about starting again, honestly."
Bayliss tested the factory Ducati MotoGP bike last season and is, in fact, testing a factory Ducati Superbike today at Mugello. It's clear that his role as a sometimes test rider for the factory has not been enough to placate's Bayliss' competitive spirit and need to win. Perhaps his future is in team management at Ducati Superbike? Bayliss: "You're joking right? I have no interest in being a team manager of any kind. The test riding job is okay but ...".

"All I can say is that I am going back to ride the bike again," Bayliss confessed, "and I am thinking about starting again, honestly."

The triple world champion sealed his WSBK career with a third title in his final season of racing, and left little doubt of his ability right up until the final lap. He won both WSBK legs at Portimao, his then final race. At the time, many of his rivals openly scoffed that he would stay retired for long, with both Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi saying privately that they expected to see Bayliss back on a Superbike eventually. Xaus predicted that he'd be on the bike and racing in 2009.

"I quit too early," Bayliss said last night. "I'm pissed off because I stopped one championship short of Fogarty and I'm seven wins down on him."

Was this just idle talk from Bayliss? "I'm not joking," he said. "This is basically all I want to say for now. If I do come back, I should be on a Ducati." Bayliss clearly made an effort to clearly form the word "should" when speaking this sentence.

Is the current state of the factory Ducati WSBK team—they struggled at Monza and were not competing for the podium—a factor as to why Bayliss is strongly considering donning his leathers and taking the grid again? It's difficult to know. Bayliss spoke about his old team, saying that they had "hit a rough patch" but that he wasn't surprised that they were under the gun at ultra-high-speed Monza.

"We struggled there in top speed in 2008, so it's no surprise that they did this year," he said. "The bike is lacking a little bit of top end power. I think Monza was one of the most difficult races they'll have this year. The Ducati can still win; we saw it in Valencia where Nori had to come from a long way back."

About the rider who replaced him on the factory Ducati team, Bayliss said, "Nori has always been a rider that's had to build himself up over a weekend and the way qualifying is now (the new SuperPole format) doesn't suit him. I think if he could sort out his qualifying issues he could be winning races."

Throughout his career at Ducati, Bayliss enjoyed a close relationship with Ducati race engineer Ernesto Marinelli. The two worked together when Bayliss set the pole for the Daytona 200 on the Vance & Hines Ducati Superbike and continued that successful collaboration when Bayliss replaced the legendary Carl Fogarty on the factory WSBK team. When Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi left Ducati, Marinelli moved up from the engineering ranks to guide the team. Bayliss didn't vocalize this, but it can't be easy to stand by and watch Marinelli and company struggle.

"I said, let's do a test with Ernesto and the boys and see what we can do, do a race sim (simulation) and let's see," Bayliss said.

Bayliss' often-told story is one of an auto body shop worker, probably too old to race at the world level who proved conventional wisdom and many, many experts wrong by becoming the pre-eminent Superbike rider in the world and a multi-time world champion. What fueled Bayliss' drive through that incredible journey is a quiet confidence and a passion to compete and win.

[acecycleins]

Yes, he can come back. Yes, he can win (on a Corse Ducati). Yes, he can possibly win another championship in the 2012/2013 season.

[acecycleins]

Bigger question is: Can E-Boz score enough points in those 5 or 6 rounds to make it into the top 10 in points for the season?

[MOKE1K]

Give him the ol Zed X and he can do anything actually

[MOKE1K]

With only being out for two years Iam sure he'll come back to dominate.

[MOKE1K]

Kevin Schwantz On Troy Bayliss' Possible Comeback
by dean adams
Friday, May 14, 2010

1993 American World Champion Kevin Schwantz has some interesting views on a potential Troy Bayliss comeback in World Superbike. Schwantz made these comments shortly after he returned from the Jerez Grand Prix event.

On Bayliss potentially coming out of retirement.

(Laughs) Well. To come back after a year and a half ... the field, and I am going to get some criticism from saying this, but the field in World Superbike this year is softer than it was last year when Spies was there. Is that a factor? I don't know. Is money a factor? Money could be a strong motivator I suppose.

The way that Troy Bayliss left the sport is the way that many of us dream of doing it. Winning and being the top dog until the end. To come back now, if he genuinely feels that he left too early and still has the want and desire to go out and race, then all I can say is good luck to him, and best of luck. More power to him.

On how Bayliss should approach this:

(He's) got to remember the days when he's on a track he didn't like, the weather is **** and you've just been knocked down. When you're struggling and you hate racing for all the reasons I just mentioned, when you can't get the bike to work and nothing you do seems to help you find that last few tenths. Those are the days that you need your motivation, not the days when you're the fastest guy in practice at Monza or somewhere like that. Motivation is easy on those days. The day you need motivation is when it's all crap. That's when you need to have pockets full of motivation and desire to go fast. If he feels he can dig back into those pockets now, then he should be ready.

But I don't think Bayliss is going to be happy running around in sixth or eighth place.

Bayliss is healthy and has no issues which would preclude him from returning to racing.

Ah, yeah. That's how you want to leave the sport, in a perfect world. It's got to be gratifying that you're not banged up, have no health issues and you can do any activity that you feel like doing, no issues with knees, wrists, neck or worse. You can lead a normal life. In my mind that's how you want to leave racing.

Could Ducati's difficult 2010 season in WSBK be a motivating factor for Bayliss, that he feels Ducati needs him?

I suppose. Troy was a Ducati guy and always will be, I guess, and to see them suffering can't be easy. But that, too, is something he needs to really consider. It's not the same bike that it was a year and a half ago.

On the life of a retired racer:

I can't understand why Troy didn't do more bicycle riding after he retired. Myself, what I did was to try and get away from motorcycle racing for a while, to break myself from it. I went and did some car racing where I was a pretty insignificant person in a big series. Then, when I did come back to motorcycle racing in another role, I knew that it would be hard to draw me back in to ride, that I could remain involved but not want to race.

Is the lack of adulation and the being out of the limelight a major challenge to a retired racer?

For me it wasn't. I personally enjoyed it in car racing where basically no one knew who I was, very few anyway. It allowed me to focus on something else, and again, get away from motorcycle racing. I had a better relationship with fans after I retired than I did when I raced because when you're racing, no matter what you're doing, you're always thinking about the bike or trying to go faster.

Can Bayliss win again?

I don't see why not. The field is a bit softer in 2010 and there's some guys about his same age racing at the front. But, again, for me, as I got older it took longer for me to get back up to speed. It's not that you don't always know what it takes to go fast, really fast, but when you have not done it for a certain length of time getting back to the top level day in and day out takes some time. In the end, if I were off for three weeks with an injury, it took double and maybe three times as long as I was off to get back to the top level of riding. So, if I were off for two, then it would take a month to get back to where you need to be. Not doing it week in and week out can have a detrimental effect.