Oli Bayliss, son of three-time WorldSBK Champion Troy Bayliss, will follow in his father’s footsteps at the upcoming WorldSSP opener at Australia with a wild-card outing on home soil.
The 16-year-old will line-up on the international grid for the first time on February 28-March 1 aboard a Cube Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 alongside his Australian Supersport Championship commitments.
His debut comes 23 years after his father Troy made his WorldSBK debut at Phillip Island as a wild-card, scoring a pair of fifth place finishes aboard a Suzuki. With his 52-time race winning father now in his corner, Bayliss is keen to make an impression fitting of his lineage.
“I’m really excited and grateful to have this opportunity to race at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in the World Supersport Championship for the first round as a wildcard rider. It’s going to be really tough with how fast them guys have been going over the years and it’s going to be a great opportunity to ride with some of the fastest guys in the world and see how I can place amongst them.
Bayliss made his ASSP debut in 2019 and impressed en route to fifth in the overall standings. The series champion, Tom Toparis, will compete in the European rounds of the WorldSSP Championship this season.
“I’m going to be training very hard coming up to that round to stay fit. My best mate and former teammate, Tom Toparis has previously done a wild card ride for the past two years and this year he’s racing for a team over there just doing European rounds and I thought, ‘I’ll give it a go’.
“We had quite a few battles last year and I think it will be good to step it up a notch and see how we go, maybe it will take me somewhere.”
