Daryl Beattie (born 26 September 1970 in

Charleville, Queensland Charleville () is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Murweh, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Charleville had a population of 3,335 people. Geography Located in southwestern Queensland, Australia, Charleville is west o ...

, Australia) is a former Grand Prix solo

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

road racer.

Motorsport career

Beattie posted several good results at the beginning of the 1992 500cc Grand Prix season then teamed up with

Wayne Gardner Wayne Michael Gardner (born 11 October 1959) is an Australian former professional Grand Prix motorcycle and touring car racer. His most notable achievement was winning the 1987 500 cc Motorcycle World Championship, becoming the first Aus ...

to win the prestigious Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in Japan. His performance earned him a place on the

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

factory team alongside fellow Australian

Mick Doohan Michael Sydney Doohan (born 4 June 1965) is an Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships. Biography Originally from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Doohan attended ...

for the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

season. He won his first Grand Prix that year at the

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix (german: Großer Preis von Deutschland) was a motor race that took place most years since 1926, with 75 races having been held. The race has been held at only three venues throughout its history; the Nürburgring in Rh ...

at Hockenheimring and finished the season in a promising third place behind

Kevin Schwantz Kevin Schwantz (born June 19, 1964) is an American former professional motorcycle road racer. He was the world champion of the 1993 FIM Road Racing World Championship. Early life Schwantz, whose parents owned a motorcycle shop, learned to ride ...

and

Wayne Rainey Wayne Wesley Rainey (born October 23, 1960) is an American former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he won the 500cc World Championship three times and the Daytona 200 once. He was characterized by his s ...

. After the season, he was inexplicably released by the Honda team. Beattie had a lackluster season in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

on a Team Roberts Marlboro

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

. 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 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

with the Suzuki factory team, leading the championship for the first part of the season before his crash at

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital (politics), capital of the province of Drenthe. It received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the ...

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 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

season but never regained his previous form and announced his retirement from competitive racing at the end of the season. In 2002 he took up V8 Supercar racing in Imrie Motor Sport's Holden VX Commodore VX at the Queensland 500 and

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most rece ...

. 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 Barry Steven Frank Sheene (11 September 1950 – 10 March 2003) was a British professional motorcycle racer. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing and was a two-time world champion, winning consecutive 500cc titles in 1976 and 1977 ...

to call the MotoGP races after Sheene died from cancer. He was subsequently added to the presenters on

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

. Beattie now works as a commentator on Network Ten's partially sports themed channel

10 Bold 10 Bold is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel owned by Network 10. It originally launched on 26 March 2009 as One HD with a focus on broadcasting sports-based programming and events, but rebranded to One in April 2011 to ...

. As of 2015 he is the co-host of Ten's

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

coverage alongside Matthew White and expert F1 commentator, World Champion Alan Jones. In 2015 in an interview on '' The Project'' he 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 Points system from 1993 ( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete V8 Supercar results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beattie, Daryl 1970 births Living people People from South West Queensland Australian amputees Australian motorcycle racers Australian racing drivers 250cc World Championship riders 500cc World Championship riders Supercars Championship drivers Motorsport announcers Superbike World Championship riders