Daryl Glen Beattie (born 26 September 1970) is an Australian former motorcycle racer.
Motorsport career Beattie posted several good results at the beginning of the 1992 500cc Grand Prix season then teamed up with Wayne Gardner to win the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in Japan. His performance earned him a place on the Honda factory team alongside fellow Australian Mick Doohan for the 1993 season. He won his first Grand Prix that year at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheimring and finished the season in a promising third place behind Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey. After the season, he was inexplicably released by the Honda team.
Beattie had a lackluster season in 1994 on a Team Roberts Marlboro Yamaha. During the 1994 season at the French Le Mans circuit, he crashed and lost all the toes from one foot after his foot was caught between the chain and rear sprocket. He had his best year in 1995 with the Suzuki factory team, leading the championship for the first part of the season before his crash at Assen allowed Doohan to win the championship with Beattie finishing in second, 33 points behind Doohan.
Beattie's career took a blow in 1996 when he crashed in pre-season testing and suffered serious head injuries. He returned only to suffer another crash at the fourth race of the season in Spain. He then crashed again at the sixth round in France. He struggled through the 1997 season but never regained his previous form and announced his retirement from competitive racing at the end of the season.
In 2002, Beattie took up V8 Supercar racing in Imrie Motor Sport's Holden VX Commodore VX at the Queensland 500 and Bathurst 1000. He placed 25th at Queensland Raceway and did not finish at Bathurst.
Television In retirement, Beattie took up a role as a specialist commentator with Network Ten on broadcasts of motorcycle racing, initially calling the 125 cc & 250 cc races and then taking over from Barry Sheene to call the MotoGP races after Sheene died from cancer. He was subsequently added to the presenters on RPM. Beattie now works as a commentator on Network Ten's partially sports themed channel 10 Bold. As of 2015 he is the co-host of Ten's Formula One coverage alongside Matthew White and expert F1 commentator, World Champion Alan Jones.
In an interview on The Project in 2015, Beattie commented on the 1994 Le Mans motorcycle accident where he lost the toes of his left foot in the motorcycle chain.
Grand Prix career statistics
Points system from 1988 to 1992 Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points 20 15 12 10 8 6 4 3 2 1 Points system from 1993 Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points 25 20 16 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year Class Team Machine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Points Rank Wins 1989 250cc Honda NSR250 JPN AUS USA ESP NAT GER AUT YUG NED BEL FRA GBR SWE CZE BRA 4 35th 0 1990 250cc Honda NSR250 JPN USA ESP NAT GER AUT YUG NED BEL FRA GBR SWE CZE HUN AUS 13 22nd 0 1992 500cc Rothmans Honda NSR500 JPN AUS MAL ESP ITA EUR GER NED HUN FRA GBR BRA RSA 18 14th 0 1993 500cc Rothmans Honda NSR500 AUS MAL JPN ESP AUT GER NED EUR RSM GBR CZE ITA USA FIM 176 3rd 1 1994 500cc Marlboro Yamaha YZR500 AUS MAL JPN ESP AUT GER NED ITA FRA GBR CZE USA ARG EUR 44 13th 0 1995 500cc Lucky Strike Suzuki RGV500 AUS MAL JPN ESP GER ITA NED FRA GBR CZE BRA ARG EUR 215 2nd 2 1996 500cc Lucky Strike Suzuki RGV500 MAL INA JPN ESP ITA FRA NED GER GBR AUT CZE IMO CAT BRA AUS 24 18th 0 1997 500cc Lucky Strike Suzuki RGV500 MAL JPN ESP ITA AUT FRA NED IMO GER BRA GBR CZE CAT INA AUS 63 11th 0
Suzuka 8 Hours results Year Team Co-Rider Bike Pos 1992 Oki Honda Racing Team Wayne Gardner Daryl Beattie Honda RVF750 RC45 1st
Complete V8 Supercar results Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Final pos Points 2002 Imrie Motor Sport ADL PHI ECK HDV CAN PTH ORP WIN QLDBAT SUR PUK SAN 74th 16
References
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