Former SBK World Champion Troy Bayliss Confirmed to AMA GNC Dirt Track

Former World Superbike Champion and MotoGP star Troy Bayliss will race the AMA Grand National Championship on Ducatis.

Three-time former World Superbike Champion and MotoGP star Troy Bayliss of Australia has confirmed that he is returning to America with the goal of adding an AMA Grand National Championship mile to his impressive resume.

The 45-year-old Bayliss, who started the year as a fill-in for the injured David Giugliano on the factory Aruba.it Ducati World Superbike team for the opening round of the series at Phillip Island, Australia, has signed on to contest five rounds of the AMA Grand National Championship aboard the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports Ducati team aboard the Lloyd brothers’ Ducati flat track machines. The Lloyd Brothers have been racing Ducati-powered machinery in the AMA Grand National Championship for several years and have fielded such top-notch talent as former series champions Joe Kopp and Jake Johnson and road racer Larry Pegram. Kopp rode a Lloyd Brothers entry to Ducati’s first AMA Grand National win at the 2010 Grand National season opener on the Yavapai Downs Mile in Prescott, Arizona on May 2, 2010.

Bayliss is clearly pleased with the opportunity to race in the Grand National Championship, although dirt track racing and racing in an AMA series are nothing new to him. Recall that Bayliss contested the 2000 AMA Superbike Series aboard a factory Vance and Hines Ducati before being called up by Ducati to race in World Superbike.

“Dirt and flat track racing are where I cut my teeth as a junior,” Bayliss said. “Everything I have learned on the dirt helped me through my career in road racing, and to find myself back where it all started makes me feel young again. To race the Grand Nationals will be a challenge, but to compete with the Lloyd Brothers on the Ducati had to be done. Flat track is on the up here in Australia. We have run the Troy Bayliss Classic for the past three years and mixing it up with Henry Wiles, Jared Mees and Sammy Halbert has been great. I really look forward to my time in the US of A.”

Bayliss is scheduled to race at the Memorial Day Weekend Springfield Mile on May 24, the Sacramento Mile on May 30, the Du Quoin Mile on July 4, the Indy Mile on July 11 and the Labor Day Weekend Springfield Mile on September 6. The announcement has met with positive reaction from Ducati North America, as evidenced by an official response from Ducati North America CEO Dominique Cheraki.

“I think Ducati fans around the world will be excited about this project, as you know anything can happen when Troy sits on a Ducati,” Cheraki said.
Bayliss will be teammates with talented American Johnny Lewis, who is new to the Lloyd Brothers Motorsports team but has extensive background in flat track from his earliest years as a top-level amateur and also as a Grand National-ranked professional. Lewis spent time as a KTM factory-backed rider in the defunct AMA Supermoto Championship as well.

”I couldn’t be more excited to join a program like Lloyd Brothers Motorsports,” Lewis said. “I feel the Ducati will be the best bike I have ever been given a chance to throw a leg over in the AMA Pro Flat Track Championship. With this team and their supporters, I feel we can look forward to some great performances this season. I have been working hard this off season, training on and off of the bikes in Florida and I know that the Lloyd Brothers have been making constant improvements to the bikes to provide me with the opportunity to once again be a podium contender at each race.”

Lewis will race the entire AMA Grand National Championship season with the Lloyd Brothers team, and he will also compete in the recently announced X Games flat track competition in Austin, Texas.