Shawn Giles
The titles, the crashes and the comebacks
Archive note: This profile was written following Shawn Giles’ retirement from top-level Superbike racing in early 2011. Ages, team roles and contemporary references reflect that period.
After nearly three decades experiencing the highs and lows of motorcycle racing, Shawn Giles has decided to hang up his leathers and retire from Superbike racing.
From a CR500 to the Australian Championship
Unlike a lot of today’s younger racers, Shawn didn’t start road racing as a career, but instead found that he liked it after sliding around for a bit of fun on a slick-shod CR500 back in 1989. The Sydney boy had made his competitive debut in dirt-track three years earlier but after hitting the tar in 1989 on the CR500, Shawn was hooked.
He started out dabbling in some short circuit work followed by some club days at Amaroo and Oran Park before jumping into the road racing lark with both feet by purchasing an RS250 Honda GP bike to compete in the Australian Championship. It didn’t take long for Shawn to discover how much the tar could hurt. A big fall in his first championship outing followed by a debut season plagued with machinery problems was not an entirely auspicious start.
He switched to four-stroke machinery the following year after getting hold of an RC30 for the 1991 season. Shawn was starting to get noticed at this point in time and Tony Hatton arranged for Shawn to do some riding in Japan. The bike he rode there was the Moriwaki Zero, an RC30 engine housed in a Moriwaki frame.
Japan taught Shawn a lot and he went back for more in 1992, finishing 2nd in the Suzuka 200 behind Yamaha factory pilot Nagai. This boosted his confidence even further. The practice of racing four-stroke 600s was just getting off the ground in Australia that year and Shawn won the new championship that was then known as “Junior SuperStreet”.
Factory Yamaha, Bathurst and Ducati
1993 looked like being very rosy with a two-year factory Yamaha contract in his pocket. But it proved to be one of Shawn’s hardest years as the team struggled to get on top of the (then) new YZF750. Shawn spent much of the season bruised and sore as the Yamaha developed a tendency for spitting him off with alarming regularity. One of the highlights for the year was a 9th place finish at the Suzuka 8-hour with Yoshikawa. They ran under the banner “Yamaha Superbike Development Team”.
Then the Yamaha team folded, leaving Shawn out in the cold for the second year of his supposedly two-year contract. He bought the YZF from Yamaha and ran it himself with some success, winning “The King of the Mountain” at Bathurst and setting a new lap record in the process. He then scored a wildcard entry at the Australian round of the 1994 World Superbike Championship and rode a Fraser’s Ducati to 7th in race one, and 8th in race two. He also returned to Japan for his fourth Suzuka 8-hour, aboard a Yoshimura Suzuki teamed with Briton Niall Mackenzie.
Ducati Australia had Shawn on board their bike in 1995, and he rewarded them by winning the 2+4 Australian Superbike Series.
1995 also saw Shawn have another major crash. Chasing Mat Mladin towards Phillip Island’s Turn Four, Shawn was setting up for a pass when Mladin’s tyre delaminated. The resulting rubber shrapnel took the front wheel of Shawn’s Ducati out from underneath him. This sent him sliding along the ground at well over 200 km/h before slamming him into a tyre wall (which has now been moved to a safer position).
Shawn remained with Ducati for 1996, but halfway through the year headed to Europe to help the Alstare Corona Ducati Team develop the new Pirelli race tyres. He also recorded six World Superbike race starts in 1996 on the Ducati.
A Supersport title with Honda
Honda put Shawn on a CBR600 in the 1997 Australian Supersport Championship, which he duly won for them. Funnily enough the second place rider that year was the then-current Motologic Team Honda Manager, Paul Free.
Shawn also raced an RC45 in Australian Superbike to a 3rd place finish that year, and piloted a Fireblade in Formula Xtreme. After winning 12 out of 15 FX races Shawn struck some bad luck in the final round with a broken exhaust costing him the win. He ended up losing the FX Title by a single point to Yamaha’s Benn Archibald.
1998 saw Shawn again on a Honda Team, but this time the effort was a little more low key. This showed in the results, 4th in Superbike.
Suzuki and the start of a title-winning partnership
The following year Shawn signed with Ansett Air Freight Suzuki and his now long-term association with master tuner Phil Tainton started taking shape. He finished 4th in Australian Superbike (1999).
In 2000 Shawn won the Australian Superbike Championship in convincing fashion from Adam Fergusson and Kevin Curtain. Some said this was simply because Shawn was on the field’s only FIM-specification Superbike (GSX-R750), but this was perhaps a little unfair as he was racing against production-based machines of up to 1000 cc in capacity.
Eight hours on a Hayabusa
Shawn also rode a GSX1300R Hayabusa to victory in the Formula X class at the Suzuka 8 Hour with teammate Osama Deguchi, finishing an impressive sixth outright.
Shawn Giles
“That thing was a weapon – we actually had to detune it for the race so we could ride it for the whole eight hours. I could pass any of the factory Superbikes in a straight line.
“I remember (Hitoyasu) Izutsu on the factory Kawasaki Superbike having his head buried under the screen and his arse on the ducktail and I went past him on the ’Busa sitting up and looking sideways at him. Izutsu couldn’t believe it.
“I remember having real bad blisters on my hands after the race from trying to hold on. Real bad…”
Three Australian Superbike titles in a row
Shawn then silenced his critics by backing up the 2000 Championship with a completely dominant win under the new Production Superbike rules in 2001 with the GSX-R1000 from Craig Coxhell and Jamie Stauffer.
He then added to that success again by wrapping up the 2002 Australian Superbike Championship from Josh Brookes and Jamie Stauffer. By doing so Shawn became the only rider in the history of the Australian Superbike Championship to wrap up the title on three successive occasions.
The following year Shawn relinquished the title to rising young gun Craig Coxhell who joined Team Suzuki that year. In June 2003 Shawn turned 33 and also celebrated the birth of his first son, Cooper, who joined his sister Kayla and mother Sharon to round out the Giles clan.
A fourth title slips away on countback
Adam Fergusson took the title for Honda in 2004 from a Yamaha YZF-R1 mounted Shannon Johnson with Shawn grabbing third place on the GSX-R1000. The final round that year was held in atrocious conditions at Phillip Island and stewards decided to award only half points. Counting the prematurely finished race back a lap demoted Giles from the race lead to third. Taree’s Damian Cudlin was Giles’ teammate at Suzuki in 2004.
The 2005 Australian Superbike Championship was a closely fought affair that went right down to the wire. Giles finished equal first with Honda’s Joshua Brookes on points but was denied his fourth title on count-back. Giles won three of the seven rounds on the all-new K5 GSX-R1000. Teammate Glenn Allerton took sixth in the series and won the Rookie of the Year award.
Injuries, setbacks and another comeback
The following year Shawn headed across the Tasman to contest the New Zealand Superbike Championship, placing second overall, but his Australian season was marred by injury. He missed many rounds, but rounded out the trying season on a high note with podium finishes at the Eastern Creek season finale. An altercation with a wall at Wanneroo Raceway was a particularly nasty incident in a season to forget.
Shawn was teamed with Craig Coxhell again for season 2007 and again the Shepparton youngster got the better of Giles by finishing second in the series to Giles’ fifth. Jamie Stauffer won the Championship with a round remaining and Team Yamaha dominated the series for the second year running.
The start of season 2008 saw Giles supremely fit and despite being in his late thirties looked to be in absolute peak physical condition. Lean, ripped and ready to do battle, Giles was on fire in the early parts of the season battling for wins with Glenn Allerton and Jamie Stauffer.
Heading into the round four and five double-header at Queensland Raceway Giles had topped the timesheets in testing and blitzed qualifying only to crash heavily when teammate Robert Bugden crashed in front of him during the opening race of the weekend. Giles was transferred to Brisbane’s Princess Alexandra Hospital with severe concussion and a badly fractured leg. Shawn remained in hospital for a fortnight and many predicted it would be the end of his career.
Shawn returned for season 2009, however, and helped mentor teammate Joshua Waters to the Australian Superbike Championship in his rookie season. Giles took fourth in the series and finished second to Waters at the Phillip Island season finale.
2010 was a particularly trying year for Team Suzuki with Waters unable to successfully defend his title after crashing heavily while testing with Yoshimura Suzuki in America. Giles had been in contention for a top three finish in the championship before fracturing his collarbone during the Superbike support races at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
“The time is right”
Giles recovered enough to ride with Joshua Waters at the Phillip Island 6-Hour in December, where the duo finished in third place. Giles announced his retirement early in 2011.
Shawn Giles
“I started my career in a 6-hour race with a podium finish, so I guess it’s fitting that I should end it the same way.
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, and it’s a hard decision to make as I still love riding and racing motorcycles, but my body just isn’t up to the demands of racing a Superbike at the highest level anymore.”
“I know how much Phil (Tainton) and the guys in the team put in week in, week out, and I feel I’d be letting them down if I wasn’t able to perform at the level I feel I need to.
“It’s been difficult to maintain full race fitness following the big accident at Queensland Raceway in July 2008, and the body just doesn’t want to do the things I demand of it. The time is right.”
“I feel very privileged to have raced for Suzuki Australia for so long. I have the utmost respect for Perry Morison (General Manager Suzuki Australia Motorcycles), who has always gone above and beyond to make both (my wife) Sharon and myself feel part of the Suzuki family.”
The title that meant the most
Giles lists his back-to-back Superbike championships in 2000 and 2001 as his career highlight, and in particular his 2001 win on the then-new Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Shawn Giles
“Winning my first Superbike championship in 2000 will always be memorable, but the second title is the one that’s special. There were some people that were saying the only reason I won in 2000 was that I was on a FIM-specification Superbike (Suzuki GSX-R750), so to win in 2001 in the first year of the Production Superbike rules on the GSX-R1000 was pretty special.”
Family, friends and the people behind the success
Shawn’s father Paul was a Honda dealer and a well-respected rider himself so it was only natural his passion for motorcycles rubbed off on his son.
Shawn Giles
“My dad got me started riding bikes around a paddock when I was four, so I’ve been around motorcycles pretty much all my life.”
“Motorcycling has brought me and my family a lot of enjoyment. I’m looking forward to spending more weekends with Sharon (wife) and my kids Kayla (9) and Cooper (7) – they’ve been so supportive of me and my racing.”
Giles acknowledges that there have been many people and companies throughout his long career that he owes thanks to, but is reluctant to single out individuals for fear he’ll inadvertently leave some out.
Shawn Giles
“I have to give special thanks to Phil and Lynne (Tainton) and the guys at Team Suzuki – Graeme, Warren, Hayden and Chris.”
“Phil and I jelled right from the outset and made a great team – we got straight down to the business of winning championships. Whenever I asked Phil for more horsepower he’d always find it.
“I’d also like to thank Tony Hatton, who got me my first big break with an overseas ride with Moriwaki in Japan. And also John Chiodo of Monza Imports, whose help and support has been very much appreciated throughout my racing career, as well as Suzuki Racesafe who I’ll always be indebted to in more ways than one. But there are so many others…”
Team Suzuki pays tribute
Phil Tainton
Team Suzuki Manager
“He’s an ambassador for the sport of motorcycle racing and has been an integral part of Team Suzuki for 12 years. You can’t put a price on the amount of knowledge he’s passed on to his young teammates Josh (Waters) and Troy (Herfoss), and the support he gave Craig (Coxhell) back in 2003 when Craig won the title, and again in 2009 when Josh won the title.
“Shawn’s a true professional in every sense of the word and will be sadly missed from Australia’s race tracks, although I can understand the difficult decision he’s arrived at. It’s a tough sport, and only the very best achieve the sort of results that Shawn has.”
Perry Morison
Suzuki Australia General Manager Motorcycles
“Shawn has not only been an ambassador for Suzuki, but an ambassador for motorcycle racing in this country. I’m confident he’ll continue to have an involvement with motorcycling and motorcycle sport in some way. From all at Suzuki Australia we wish him the very best in his retirement and congratulate him on an amazing career.”
Morison confirmed that Giles will continue to have an ongoing ambassador and promotional role with Suzuki Australia and Team Suzuki.
Shawn Giles
“I’m excited about continuing my association with Suzuki both on and off the race track, and trying to help the riders where ever I can.”
