JANUARY 18, 2014
OLD BAR/TAREE, AUSTRALIA
FLAT TRACK
P86
TROY BAYLISS CLASSIC
Bayliss leads the pack on the opening lap.
the event, Bayliss said he wanted
to crawl up and die.
This year, he wanted to live
a little. With the weight of the
weather off his shoulders, Bayliss knew his KTM was extremely
fast and very well sorted. It was
good enough to best Kirkness
first time out. He was the fastest rider in the lead-up to the finals. Victory was achievable, and
he knew it. You don't win three
World Superbike Championships
without incredible dollops of selfbelief and desire and, even at 45,
Bayliss still has enough of both to
drag Ducati out of its World Superbike mire. Seriously.
While the Bayliss-KirknessHerfoss volcano was set to erupt
at any minute, the American duo
of Halbert and Wiles came with
its own dynamic. Halbert and
Dani Pedrosa share similar dimensions and the same cool
demeanor. He strikes you as an
unlikely looking a dirt tracker in
the Australian sense. He's not
grizzled, sun-beaten, or ready
to explode at the slightest provocation. When asked about the
standard of Australian riders,
he seems to misunderstand the
question. When asked what his
plans are, he replies matter-offactly, "To win."
Kawasaki rider Wiles is more
outgoing than Halbert, but again,
hardly fits the stereotypical Aussie dirt-tracker mold of say a
Luke Richardson. But those two
guys rode like hell and used every ounce of their professional
experience to conjure some incredible performances that were
only thwarted by Bayliss.
One thing that Bayliss had in
his favor was that it was very unlikely that the Yanks would gang
up on him, for they also have a
history. Halbert has 12 Grand National wins to his name, including
an epic win in the Lima Half Mile
when Wiles ran into him as they
were battling for the lead. Halbert
managed to stay upright and beat
Wiles to the line, flipping him the
bird as he crossed the stripe.
When the pair crossed paths at
a function the night before the
