The second round of the 2016 GP Juniors at Morgan Park on June 18-19 will feature a famous name when Oli Bayliss, the son of three-times Superbike World Champion, Troy Bayliss makes his road racing debut in the 12-16 year old class, on an 80cc machine.
It seems only natural that one of Troy’s three children would have a crack at racing and the youngest, Oli has embraced the sport with gusto. The 12-year-old from the Gold Coast is a very enthusiastic learner, and has competed on the dirt tracks of Australia for a few years and now wants to have a crack of the bitumen.
“He is really looking forward to it and has been on to me for a while about getting out on the bitumen,” explained Troy. “Morgan Park isn’t too far away from us, so it is easy to get to and we would like to be a part of GP Juniors Australia. It’s a great concept and provides a great foundation to start with.
“He is super excited but we are not expecting too much so we will be going out there for him to have a ride and go out and have a bit of fun.”
Oli will be up against teenagers with a few years experience on the tar so it is going to be an intense learning curve for him this weekend as the likes of Victorians, Scott Nicholson and Ben Bramich as well as Joel Kelso from the NT, are now in their third season of road racing.
The GP Juniors are split into two age groups and three classes, two of which are Australian Championship classes.
12- Under16 year old age group can ride up to 85cc two-strokes or 160cc four-stroke machines. Whilst not a part of the Australian Championships classes 9 to Under 12 year olds are allowed to ride 70cc two-stroke machines in separate support class.
This weekend at Morgan Park the youngsters will get four races as well as practice and qualifying providing plenty of track time over the weekend.
70cc ROUND POINTS
1 Travis HALL 20 20 25 65
2 John LYTRAS 18 17 20 55
3 Joshua HALL 17 18 18 53
4 Ben BAKER 25 25 0 50
5 Taiyo AKSU 15 15 17 47
6 Thomas BROWN 16 16 0 32
85cc ROUND POINTS
1 Scott NICHOLSON 25 20 25 70
2 Joel KELSO 18 25 20 63
3 Peter NERLICH 20 18 18 56
160cc ROUND POINTS
1 Ben BRAMICH 25 25 25 75
2 Ned FAULKHEAD 20 20 20 60
Australian GP Juniors Calendar
18-19th June – Morgan Park
06-07th August – Wakefield Park
30th – 02nd October – Winton