Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Bayliss, Lanzi To Ducati World Superbikes t's out with the old, in with the new at Ducati. Despite the fact that he won the World Superbike Championship just a year ago, Brit James Toseland has been cast aside by the Ducati Xerox team for 2006. Ditto for his teammate Regis Laconi, the Frenchman who won 10 races for the team. And in comes former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss and young Italian gun Lorenzo Lanzi to spearhead the two-rider team for next year's World Superbike Championship. The 36-year-old Bayliss rode as replacement rider on the factory Ducati team for the injured Carl Fogarty in 2000, then joined the series full time the following season and won the championship. After finishing second to Colin Edwards in 2002, Bayliss went to MotoGP for two years with Ducati. This year, he rode a Camel Honda in MotoGP. Now the Australian is back where he started, and he'll be aboard the Ducati Xerox 999 when the series starts again next year in Qatar on February 2S. "The biggest thing is that it feels like I'm coming home... and I don't mean to Australia," Bayliss said in a Ducati release. "I'm really looking forward to hopping back on a Ducati Superbike. Even though the bike has changed quite a lot, the engine is still very similar and has been much improved since I've been away. so it's a built-in package already waiting there for me. I have a lot of good memories from the I past, and I cUm to continue having more of them. I've been there and done it before, and it's still all in the memory bank, so hopefully I can come back and have a good season next year. It's going to be awesome, and I just can't wait to start. The championship is looking strong now; all the manu- facturers are back, and it's going to be great to be there with Ducati and challenge all the other guys for the title." The other rider in the Ducati Xerox Team will be Lanzi, the 23-year-old Italian who became a World Superbike race winner in his rookie season this year. Three years in I 2S and 2S0cc Gp, from 1999 to 200 I, were followed by Lanzi's first experience with four-stroke machines and Ducati in the 2003 European Superstock Championship, in which he was runner-up. He then finished fifth in the 2004 World Supersport Championship with the Breil-sponsored factory Ducati 749 and was promoted to World Superbike the following year with the satellite Ducati SC Caracchi team to race a customer 999RS bike. As replacement for the injured Laconi, Lanzi then stepped onto the factory 999 FOS machine in the Ducati Xerox Team and scored a win at the Eurospeedway in his first attempt. He followed that win up with another in the final race of the season at Magny-Cours in France. "I am really happy to join the factory Ducati Xerox Team in the W 0 rid Superbike Championship, because it was an aim I had fixed for myself in 2003, when I was racing in Superstock," Lanzi said. "Now that it's happened, I am so happy, because it is the dream of so many Italian riders to race for the Ducati factory team. I have arrived in the team at the right time. I know everyone in the squad and have already won two of the last races of the season, so my motivation is high. In addition, I will have a true maestro at my side like Troy Bayliss, who will help me for sure. Now I just can't wait to start the new season with my new Ducati Xerox Team." Ducati Corse Superbike director Paolo Ciabani added: "Next year, we will be taking part in the World Superbike Championship with an exciting new rider lineup and the F06 version of the Ducati 999. We warmly welcome Troy and Lorenzo into the team and believe that this combination of experience and youth will Ducati's World Superbike team for 2006 will be made up of Troy Bayliss (above) and help us to contin- lorenzo lonzi (left). ue our winning years - James winning the 2004 title and tradition in World Superbike. Regis scoring 10 wins with us. I would like "Rider changes are always a to thank them for everything that they have hard choice to make," he done for Ducati in this period and wish added, "and it was particularly them all the best for the future." difficult on this occasion, Ciabatti's words do little to bolster because James Toseland and rumors that Toseland will be the man to Regis Laconi have both made a replace Eric Bostrom on the AMA fantastic contribution to Superbike team. Ducati's success in the last two Montclair Yamaha Sweeps 24-Hours of-Glen Helen For the fifth time in six years, the Ty Davis/Montclair Yamaha team - made up of Davis, Nathan Woods, Bobby Garrison and Andy Bakken - won the HYR H Hours of Glen Helen, October 15-16. Davis actually fielded two teams this year, and the "number-two" team made it a one-two finish for the Montclair Yamaha squad. The runner-up team consisted of Willy Musgrave, Casey Johnson, Kris Keefer and Nick Foister. The Pro Circuit team of Andrew Short, Jeff Northrup, Tim Weigand and Terry Fowler spent most of the race playing catch-up after losing about an hour on Saturday afternoon, but the team forged on and finished out the event in third place. The team that many predicted would give the Montclair Yamaha teams the strongest fight was knocked out of top contention just a few hours into the race. The Honda team made up of Johnny Campbell, Steve Hengeveld, Robby Bell 8 and Kendall Norman suffered a major engine failure when a rock pierced the side case, which ultimately destroyed the engine. The team rejoined the race after a four-hour pit stop to rebuild the motor. Travis Pastrana formed a team for this year's race, but Pastrana didn't get a chance to ride much. On the third lap, Pastrana crashed and broke his collarbone. He was taken to the hospital, where he had surgery to install a plate and screw into the collarbone. Pastrana returned to the track the next morning to watch his team, made up of Ryan Morais, Brian Deegan and Greg Godfrey, take the checkered flag in fifth. John Bethea (From left to right) The winning team: Ty Davis, Nathan Woods, Bobby Garrison and Andy Bakken. oaOBER 26, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS •

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