Chris Vermeulen: "Australia is definitely my home GP"

Vermeulen chose to pound the well-worn path from Australia to the UK to gain experience

"I would still think of Phillip Island as my home GP, first and foremost," said Chris. © Rizla Suzuki. Riders work their way into MotoGP in various ways, but few of them have earned a route into a prime berth like the Rizla Suzuki factory squad by such a well-travelled route as that taken by Chris Vermeulen, Mr 71.

Most people, except Australians, think that Australia is far away from most places. For generations of Australian riders the draw of competition beyond their shores has been a simple necessity in order to advance their careers, and thus it will be no surprise to hear that Vermeulen chose to pound the well-worn path from Australia to the UK to gain experience.

It may be more of a surprise to learn that Vermeulen, after an Aussie career of dirt tracking, followed by streetbike and two-stroke 250 racebike experience, also spent some of his young racing life lapping a 250GP machine in the Asian championship, in such places as Malaysia, Thailand, China and Indonesia. And he finished second, at only 17-years-of age.
Chris is first to say he has been helped on his way by not just the astonishing levels of support he has enjoyed from his family (parents Peter and Julie, sisters Sheree, Jessica and Renita) based in the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, but also none-other than a double 500cc GP champion, the late great Barry Sheene. Vermeulen made his move to the UK in 2000, running in the Supersport and Superstock classes on the recommendation of Suzuki-legend Sheene. Not bad for a 17-year-old kid.

After three seasons in the tough elbowing academy of World Supersport, full of brash hopefuls and wily old foxes on evenly matched bikes, all-comers were crushed by Chris in 2003, as he took the championship with gas to spare.
Two subsequent seasons in World Superbike polished many of the skills he would bring to MotoGP, and with ten race wins in two years, he had become royalty in that class, before entering the rarefied MotoGP Empire this season.

His first season of MotoGP life is well documented by now, with two poles to his credit already, as he approaches his home round at Phillip Island.
It's a special place with special memories for Chris, especially his first GP there in 2005, when riding as a wild card. He hopes it also carries the twinkling of some even better memories, and sooner rather than later. “Although I had ridden a World Superbike at Phillip Island before, and won World Supersport races in the past, last year was the most appreciated I had ever felt in PI as an Australian rider,” said Chris, still grinning at the memory of it all. “The support I got when I did the parade laps in the cars pre-race was incredible - as much as Valentino Rossi had - because I was the only Australian rider in the race. I knew I wasn't going to win and I'm sure many other people down there knew I didn't have the chance of even a podium, but the support they gave me was fantastic. This year, now I'm going back as a full-time rider on the Rizla Suzuki, we have already shown that we can be strong. So the chance to step on the podium would be great.”

The track in Phillip Island is an acknowledged modern masterpiece, and with real history to its name to boot. Vermeulen, for as much as any rider always loves their home track, has a bone deep, visceral passion for the place. “I guess it's to do with the trackside scenery, like when you really get your head down and top 300kmph staring right down the main straight... and all you can see is the ocean opposite. The whole circuit is pretty exciting to ride around and Australia itself is just an exciting country.”

To Europeans more used to considering Australia as one homogenous land, Phillip Island is about as local for Sunshine Coast resident Vermeulen (long-time European season address Andorra) as Mugello is for residents of Edinburgh.

“I guess PI is also a different experience for me because it's in Melbourne and not in Queensland - the difference between London to Rome - but it's still my home GP. I don't think it would matter if I spent 15 years in Europe, I would still think of Phillip Island as my home GP, first and foremost. I still rate the British GP as my second home race, given the amount of time I spent there, and how many friends I have there still. But Australia is definitely my home GP.”

And another GP he hopes to show the number 71 strongly at, this well-travelled MotoGP rookie of 24-years-of age, with a passion for young men's things - mountain biking, motocross, heavy metal music, and souped-up classic hot rod cars. His other listed hobbies of cattle farming and tractor driving? I guess you can take the Aussie boy out of the country, but not the country out of the Aussie boy.
(Rizla Suzuki)