Matt Battista
2007 Competition Details
Motorcycle: YZF R1 2007
Competing in: 2008 WA Superbike Championship.
Personal Details:
- D.O.B. 11/07/1976
- Place of Birth: Australia
- Lives: Perth WA
- Marital status: Married to Elyse
- Children: A son Jett and daughter Tiah
- Height: 164 cm
- Weight: 80 kg
- How do you relax: Going on holiday, spending time with his family and watching Foxtel
- Favourite food: Spaghetti
- Current Occupation: Parts/Sales Manager at 5 Star Yamaha
- First Job: Spray painter
- First Motorbike: Riding since 10 yrs old in Motocross. First production bike was a 250cc.
- Racing Hero: Jeremy McGrath - Supercross/Motocross champion
- Favourite Circuit: Doesn’t have one yet…
- Race preparations: Trains at the gym 3 mornings a week and rides motocross Thursday afternoon.
- Training hours per week: Approx 5 hours.
- Career Highlights:
25 times MX State Champion.
2006 Winner of WA “B” grade level at his first entry into the Superbike class.
2007 Winner of WA Superbike Championship and Local Lap Record holder. - Future ambitions: To win the 2008 State Superbike Championship and secure Local Lap Record. Ride again at a MotoGP.
Rider Background
Matt has been riding since he was 10 years old and has had more injuries than he cares to think about, but it has not stopped his passion in racing. Matt found Motocross to be “his” sport it was aggressive physically and created a motivation to WIN. Matt would not have achieved his success in the sport without the strong family support to give him the encouragement he needed. Another Win with MX was he met his wonderful wife Elyse a bonus says Matt.
During Matt’s extensive career he has succeed in winning 25 MX State Championships. With an incredible start to his career in MX he won in his first year the WA State Title and continued to follow this up with 24 more. Along the way he also picked up 2 Australian Junior Championship titles. MX gave him the opportunity to venture overseas to race in Indonesia and even raced in Motocross at the World GP. In 1997 he had the opportunity to race production 250cc although he had fun running at the top most of the time, except when he was on the ground (who in those days thought tyre warmers were important) his strength still lay with Motocross and he returned to his passion, however early 2005 he had a big crash which stopped him for most of the MX season.
Out of recovery by mid 2005 Matt had what you would call a WA wild card ride with a local race team. He rode an R1 in the Superbike class at the last round of the season and was phenomenal achieving times of 59 secs.
Newly founded WA racing team BHS Racing who had supported Matt in Motocross in 2004 approached Matt to ride for them in 2006 on an ’04 R1 which did not have the horsepower he needed, however he was able to Win the “B” grade series and came 4th in his first full season at Superbike level.
With a truly soft bike compared to the factory riders he managed 13th overall at his first Phillip Island ride in the National Support Race at Moto GP. Matt’s experience on MX has given him the riding ability to pick up any bike and ride it. Matt’s only fear is coming last!!
With this type of ability and dedication BHS Racing secured Matt for 2007 giving him everything that he needed to secure the 2007 State Superbike Championship and make a statement at National level.
With Winning always on his mind Matt has driven home every objective.
He is Exceptional and a Sport Star.
Summary:
Matt has achieved every team and personal objective in 2007 and is a highly competitive and motivational individual.
Matt works fulltime in the motorcycle industry at Five Star Yamaha WA, has a young family and also continues with his passion for motocross being a mentor to young riders traveling to various National and overseas events assisting in riding techniques, suspension settings and marketing.
Matt always has time to give advice or help at State and National events no matter what the situation and this stretches to his fellow competitors.
Matt’s dedication to his sport and team members was no more apparent than while riding in appalling conditions at Eastern Creek in the last YMF Loan Round 2007 and sitting 4th pushed hard to drive home a position in the top 3 when he crashed out in last lap.
Unknown to him he had sustained a broken scapula, however continued to train hard on his return to WA ensuring he was fit to ride for the team at the last round of the season in front of sponsors and family.
Still in discomfort his drive and ambition ensured he took a 3 from 3 win on the day, beating his own lap record previously set earlier in the year and was the outright state winner with 14 from 14 wins for the season with maximum points 350.
Matt is an exceptional athlete and is highly regarded amongst his peers in both Road Racing and Motocross.
He is extremely focused, understands the importance of his sponsors and looks at every marketing opportunity to ensure the best for the team.