He was a man who stayed under the radar for the majority of the year, but after a turbulent final round at Rainbow where the stars failed to finish – Roydn Bailey was one who stood tall.
Finishing the year with the SXS Turbo class title and an outright runner-up, 2019 was definitely a special year for Roydn, who shared his thoughts on it with the BFGoodrich Motorsport Australia Off Road Championship.
Roydn, a class win and an outright second place. 2019 was a big year for you wasn’t it?
RB: It was, but I have to say last year we got a bit lucky. It was our second year in the class and the first year we did the whole championship, so it was a bit of a breakout year. We had just as many problems as everybody else but we were lucky enough to pick up the pieces and get some good results.
You guys must have been really thrilled you were able to finish so well in just second year.
RB: We really were. We are over the moon with all of the results throughout the year. We knew we would probably be there in the class and we were hoping for a top five finish but to get to where we eventually finished up, the credit really goes to my team who worked hard all year.
Speaking of your team, who would you like to thank?
RB: I would like to thank our guys at Ronco Powersports- Keke Falland and Tyson Warner who were also my navigators throughout the year. Of course, my family too. Everybody has helped along the way.
Were there any unforgettable moments from the year?
RB: Hard to pick a number one moment to be honest. I think the run down to Finke was really good. I enjoyed it a lot. We had no problems and had a good run back to Alice Springs until we burst a tyre, broke the driveshaft and a gearbox – somehow managing to limp home. But that first leg down to Finke was outstanding.
What about moments you would want to forget?
RB: A really bad moment was at Rainbow when we realised how well we were doing only for the driveshaft to break again. We were sitting on the side of the track for 10 to 15 minutes trying to work out how we’re going to get to the end of the race. At the same time though, we did fix it and we did manage to get home okay and secure the class title, so I suppose it worked out in the end.
Plans to go round again and defend the class title?
RB: We are definitely going again. We are already entered the Championship for 2020. We have built a new car – an updated model of the SXS Turbo we had last year. It may be few bits of pieces extra, but it’s essentially the same car.
Our plan is to do all five rounds, starting with St George and then see we will how we go. If we have a bad three or four rounds, we will then have to assess the Western Australian round, but at this stage I really want to go to all of them.
