By dean adams
While the near-incessant hype around a possible fight between two titans of the sport has lessened over the past few weeks, the one person standing in the way of such a race hasn't changed. Valentino Rossi has said he'd like to race against Troy Bayliss in World Superbike and has asked the former and reigning WSBK champ to come out of retirement to race him in a WSBK event in 2009. Bayliss says he's game, for a price. But will it happen?
All of the building blocks of such an event seem to be sliding into place. Initially, Yamaha told the press that they would not allow Rossi to race a World Superbike event that, knowing the free-spirited Italian's independent nature, was the absolute wrong thing to say. Rossi, in part, left Honda and HRC after the 2003 season with the multi-time champ miffed at HRC's controlling ways. Not long after their first quote hit the world, a second statement by Yamaha racing execs broke where they opined that such a grudge match, come to think about it, wasn't such a bad idea, after all. And from a lot of angles, it's not: Rossi racing an R1 makes a hell of a lot more sense than Rossi racing a MotoGP bike, especially if Yamaha has any interest in selling Rossi R1 replicas.
Ducati execs also weighed in to say that they hoped Troy would stay retired but, if he chose to do such a thing, they would have a bike for him. Troy Bayliss has long been, and will long be, the most popular Ducati rider with their fans, and Ducati learned a very important lesson when they cut him from their MotoGP team. Namely, any move seen as non-support of Bayliss may cause a near march on the Ducati factory by fans.
Bayliss himself has told reporters that he might be keen to race Rossi if a promoter can come up with between $1-2 million (US Dollars) for his portion of the deal. A proposal for a $2 million fee for three races at three separate venues in 2009 was rumored after the first of the year but has gone silent since then.
Bayliss would not be the first rider to "retire" and continue racing. Kenny Roberts raced Daytona, Laguna Seca, Suzuka, and even the Springfield Mile after he retired in 1983. Eddie Lawson did four one-off races at Daytona and Suzuka to support his then Indy Car career after he retired.
Regardless of all the tough talk from Yamaha or Ducati execs, in reality, they have very small roles in this proposed race between Rossi and Bayliss. If Rossi wants to race World Superbike on an R1, Yamaha is going to build him the best bike that they can. If Bayliss wants to race Rossi, he will quickly become job number one for Ducati Superbike engineers.
Yet, the person who may very well have the final say on whether this race happens or not isn't Rossi or Bayliss or any exec from Yamaha or Ducati.
It's Kim Bayliss, Troy's longtime wife and the mother of his three kids. One can scarcely blame her for wanting her husband's racing life to end. She and the family have been traveling around the globe and living out of a proverbial suitcase for more than ten years. A former resident of Monaco, she and Troy have now moved back to Australia. Logistical issues aside, like any wife, she surely wants her husband to live a long and happy life and is all-too aware of the potential for danger in racing.
Bayliss told friends in 2008 that he has reconsidered his retirement but joked that if he did continue to race "I'd probably get divorced."
