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I've heard on the grapevine that WSBK are trying to get Rossi on an R1 and Bayliss back on 1198 for a one off race, possibly the Quatar round ?

Anybody heard about this?

WSBK: Bayliss Accepts Rossi Challenge for the “Duel in the Desert”
Written by: Dennis Noyes
12/17/2008 - 01:04 PM
Borrego Springs, CA

It is a promoter’s dream. And it is looking more real all the time!

“The Duel in the Desert!” February 14, 2009, Losail, Qatar! Reigning World MotoGP Champion Valentino Rossi takes on reigning World Superbike Champion Troy Corser in the battle for World Roadracing Bragging Rights…and with Max Biaggi on the new Aprilia RSV4 looking for vengeance and the world’s best Superbike riders, including AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, all in with a chance. Be there!”

Valentino Rossi was never kidding when he said he wanted to have a go at Troy Bayliss, reigning and now retired Superbike World Champion. In fact, he tried to convince Yamaha to prepare an R1 for him in time for the final race of the 2008 season at Portimao, Portugal.

I talked to Yamaha officials at Portimao and found the usually cooperative Yamaha Europe racing boss, Laurens Klein Koerkamp, to be evasive and even nervous. When I asked what his comment was on the Moto Sprint story he almost ran away, saying, “I can't comment. I haven't read the story.”

Rossi has since used almost every interview opportunity to talk about how much he enjoys watching World Superbike racing, how much more exciting it is than MotoGP, and how much he would like make a World Superbike ride.

Now Moto Sprint is reporting in Italy that Rossi will ride an R1
at the second round of the World Superbike Championship in Losail, Qatar, on March 15th and that Troy Bayliss, with the full blessing of Ducati Corse, has agree to come out of retirement to make one final ride on the 1098 against Rossi, who would ride one of the new “Long Bang” R1 Yamahas, the bikes that will be campaigned this year by reigning AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies and Tom Sykes of Great Britain.

This sounds like an Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” of 1974 in Zaire, and I am giving notice that the patent for “Duel in the Desert” is mine.

The British press, caught off-guard, is playing down the story today, like they always do when they miss one. Spain’s Motociclismo and Solo Moto, closer to the Italian scene, are giving more credence to the Moto Sprint story with affirmations by Rossi, Bayliss, and Davide Tardozzi than to the denials coming from Yamaha’s GP Racing Boss Lin Jarvis.

Jarvis says that there are no plans for this to happen, and that is probably true… no plans that Yamaha and Jarvis know about, but Rossi, who has tested a Ferrari F1 car and taken part in World Rally events, appears to have almost absolute freedom to do what he wants outside the confines of the MotoGP season. And, as Honda learned at the end of 2003, what Valentino wants, Valentino gets -- or he walks.

Is this a mid-winter Italian firestorm to sell magazines, or is this a real possibility?

How much would TV rights to the Qatar World Superbike race suddenly become worth on February 14th?

Mind boggling stuff!

Bayliss might prefer to have this be billed as the “Duel Down Under” at the opening round of the WSBK season in Phillip Island on March 1, a track that might suit the Australian better and certainly give him a home track advantage. Bayliss, however, won the opening round of the 2008 season at Losail in his first race on the new 1098, although he was beaten back to fourth in race two (won by Fonsi Nieto on the Alstare Suzuki). Bayliss then won both races in Phillip Island, which was the second round last year.

Rossi has had mixed fortunes at Losail. In 2004 he has famously penalized when his Yamaha team cleaned his grid slot the night before, in violation of FIM regulations. He started from the back row and crashed while charging
back through the field in the early laps. Then he won on the Yamaha in 2005 and 2006, was beaten and repeatedly passed on the straight by winner Casey Stoner on the Ducati Desmosedici in 2007, and in 2008 he was a dismal fifth, complaining of Michelin problems at Qatar.

Rossi, according to Italian sources, was angry that Italian readers of Moto Sprint had chosen Troy Bayliss as winner of the prestigious “Golden Helmet” award and that he, Bayliss, and Ducati race boss Davide Tardozzi got together at “Golden Helmet” award ceremony over the weekend and worked out the conditions.

So far this is a Moto Sprint exclusive and there has been no official comment either from Paolo Flammini of In Front Motor Sports (the World Superbike promoters) or Carmelo Ezpeleta (Dorna CEO) although in the interview by Juan Pedro de la Torre posted on this site, Ezpeleta made the following comments, which, given the breaking news in Italy, now seem more significant.

Ezpeleta: “I’ve known that about Valentino for a long time.”

Reproduced here is the relevant part of the Ezpeleta interview.

Juan Pedro de la Torre : And Valentino says he wants to have a go at racing in Superbike.

Carmelo Ezpeleta: “I think that is great. I’ve known that about Valentino for a long time. I don’t consider World Superbike an enemy in any way….in any way! I am not going to get into a discussion about whether Superbike is more entertaining or not. So they have more overtaking there. OK, they have more overtaking. But there were 112,000 people at Cheste (the location of the Circuit of the Community of Valencia) and they will be delighted to come back next year. (Here Ezpeleta does not need to mention that the crowd at the same track for World Superbike was 40,000, because Spanish readers know this.) This is the greatest championship in history and we are continuing the history of a championship that was, for sure, less entertaining in the past
than it is today. Of course it should be more be a lot more entertaining than it is! But we should always remember that this is the championship where all kids who start riding motorcycles when they are little want to be! You take any kid in any country in the world and ask him where he would like to end up racing and he will say “Where Valentino is racing!” And this is the real issue. Not whether there hasn’t been an overtaking on the last lap for so long…. MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing. There are other levels of racing like Superbike and I am delighted that they are popular too. For me, if Valentino goes and does a race there the only thing I want is for him to win! Two years ago Bayliss came here and won a MotoGP race. What conclusion am I supposed to take from that? That Bayliss is better than all the MotoGP riders? That all the other riders here are no good? I wouldn’t say that. Because it turns out that they all want to come here and they only leave MotoGP when they no longer have a

Rossi is Free as a Bird

Obviously this is not something that Ezpeleta really thinks is “great.” In the Spanish text he actually replied with the words “Me encanta” (more or less meaning it is an exciting idea, I approve, and literally meaning “I am charmed by the idea). The truth is that the MotoGP contracts, at least the last time I saw one (they are confidential) prohibits MotoGP riders from riding a MotoGP bike “or any bike said to be a MotoGP bike” at any non-MotoGP races.

But that would not be the case here. It cannot be argued either that Rossi could be denied permission to ride at another World Championship event because Rossi has ridden and won the Eight Hours of Suzuki, the Japanese round of the FIM Endurance Championship.

And, finally, why would Yamaha want to stop this (assuming they could)?

Perhaps the corporate fear that the legendary Italian could be beaten in what would unquestionably be the “Race of the Century” by a 39-year-old Australian on a twin cylinder Ducati. Although Ben Spies has been very quick on the R1 in the opening tests both in Portugal and South Africa, the new Yamaha has been down a bit on top speed even compared to the 2008 R1 that was taken to second and third in the final points table by Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga.

But the second real attraction of a Rossi ride in World Superbike would be the prospect of a match-up with arch rival Max Biaggi on the new, sleek, and very fast Aprilia RSV4.

This “Duel in the Desert,” whether Yamaha really wants it to happen or not, may just be too big to stop.

Wow I would love to see this

been talk for a while now .wont happen as Bayliss is apparently asking for 2mil behind the scenes

Blurr wrote:been talk for a while now .wont happen as Bayliss is apparently asking for 2mil behind the scenes

Dont think that Rossi wont have his hand out either?


Neil

so is rossi also going to ferrari to have a run with schewy as well ,,,,,sorry but i've had enough of rossi to last me a life time,,,,,,becoming too much of a wa#k

shinnynoggon wrote:so is rossi also going to ferrari to have a run with schewy as well ,,,,,sorry but i've had enough of rossi to last me a life time,,,,,,becoming too much of a wa#k

What would it prove? Rossi wins and it's because Bayliss has been relaxing since retiring and is getting a massive whack just for turning up, if Bayliss wins it's because it's a one off ride for Rossi.

If it was fair dinkum though, I paid plenty for front row seats.

Will anyone ever have a decent crack at both championships in the same year?

rossi just wants to do this because bayliss one an award at the end of the year for best ride of the year or best rider... an award which rossi owned for years, and one he thought he would probably win this year after winning the world title back...

rossi IS the kind of person to want to prove a point...

Bayliss send in an interview this was highly unlikely as he wasn't going to be cheap. Also the fact he has not been training in the off season so is unlikely to fit enough to compete.

Nick

Blurr wrote:been talk for a while now .wont happen as Bayliss is apparently asking for 2mil behind the scenes

Yeah its in motorcycle australia, that he told an english newspaper that it would need to be a million pounds b4 he gets back on a bike, and thats never going to happen, even though ducatti has 2 bikes for him and yamaha has 2 r1s for rossi

Naked Twin wrote:Bayliss send in an interview this was highly unlikely as he wasn't going to be cheap. Also the fact he has not been training in the off season so is unlikely to fit enough to compete.

Nick

I would guarantee Bayliss would be fit enough, even without full on training (you can bet he's done some, he loves his push bikes) he'd be fitter than many others out there

Grey Ghost wrote:

Naked Twin wrote:Bayliss send in an interview this was highly unlikely as he wasn't going to be cheap. Also the fact he has not been training in the off season so is unlikely to fit enough to compete.

Nick

I would guarantee Bayliss would be fit enough, even without full on training (you can bet he's done some, he loves his push bikes) he'd be fitter than many others out there

They were Bayliss' words, no doubt he will be fit but not at his normal peek if he hasn't been training. Word is he wants to spend time with his family and isn't that interested in riding competitively anymore. Supposedly he was offered plenty of cash to race this year.

Nick

Retired World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss has revealed he is planning to test a V8 Supercar in the coming months with a view to competing in a handful of races, but confirmed he will not be racing against Valentino Rossi any time soon.

The Australian biking legend has been out of action since the end of November when concluded his successful career with a pair of Superbike victories in Portugal, but admitted to Australian newspaper The Courier Mail that he is 'getting edgy'.

With this in mind, Bayliss is eager to get back into competition, albeit on four-wheels, when he takes to the track with a as-yet-unnamed team. Fellow South East Queensland-based team Triple 8 are widely tipped to be the ones in question.

Adding that it would be a dream to compete in the annual Bathurst 1000 driving a V8 Supercar, Bayliss hinted that he is targeting a full-time drive in 2010.

"Cars are something that I love and I've been watching the V8s for many years. Bathurst would be good. I've done my time there on a bike. It would be my favourite place," he said.

"I'm under no illusions how difficult it will be. I've been thinking about this for quite a while so [racing] is not an easy thing to pack it up and just stop."

By contrast, Bayliss is less keen to get back on a bike in a competitive capacity, the three-time World Superbike Champion confirming that he will not be tackling Rossi in a well publicised head-to-head any time soon.

"I won the last race in Valencia in MotoGP in 2006 and Valentino finds that a little hard to take.

"My team has now been assigned to [Noriyuki] Haga and they can't just pull that team away from him now just before the season starts. Superbikes has been growing the last few years and if [the Rossi challenge] had happened it would have been good for the series."

However, he did admit that he likely to test with Ducati through the season, although not as an official test rider.

"I might do a test at Mugello on the superbike and GP bike just to keep my eye in, but I won't be an official test rider for Ducati," he said.

Great to watch but it won't prove anything.