Bayle Has Break from Triple Crown Quest : Motorcycles: Supercross, 250cc outdoor champion rides in U.S. 500cc Grand Prix.

The way Jean-Michel Bayle, the world’s premier motocross rider, looks at life is that everything from here on out in 1991 is frosting on his championship cake.

Bayle came from Manosque, France, last January to carry out his personal mission of winning the Supercross championship, which he considers the most difficult and rewarding motocross title in the world. He did that with relative ease, winning eight of 18 races on his Honda and becoming the first foreign champion of America’s stadium series.

That accomplished, he decided to become the sport’s first triple crown champion by adding the 500cc and 250cc outdoor championships of the American Motorcyclist Assn.

He got the first one--the 250cc--by displaying restraint rare in a 22-year-old motorcycle racer. He did not win any of the seven races, but managed to put together a series of high finishes that enabled him to edge Jeff Stanton and Damon Bradshaw for the title. Stanton won four races, but Bayle had 277 points to 251 for Stanton and 210 for Bradshaw.

Now his sights are set on the national 500cc title. Two weeks ago he won the first race. Five more remain.

This weekend, for a diversion, the 6-foot-1, 150-pound Bayle will compete in the U.S. 500cc Grand Prix, the final event of the World Championship series, at Glen Helen Park.

It will be Bayle’s first world 500cc ride, although he is no stranger to either the 500cc or world championships.

He has won two AMA 500cc races, the first in 1989 at New Berlin, N.Y., and the other last Aug. 11 at Milleville, Minn. And he has won two world titles, the 125cc as a teen-ager in 1988 and the 250cc in 1989.

“The 500 (Sunday) is just another race, not very important, really, but any time I’m in a race, I’m out to win, as a matter of pride,” Bayle said. “It would be nice to win--it is always nice to win--but winning the 500cc national (championship) ranks higher.”

Riders from 11 countries, among them world champion Georges Jobe of Belgium, will practice and qualify today on the Glen Helen track, a few miles northwest of downtown San Bernardino. The first of two 40-minute championship motos will start at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. There also will be two 125cc motos.

“I think you will find that the riders I beat in Supercross will be better than most of the riders in the World Championship,” Bayle said. “That is why I came to America, to ride against the best. I knew in my mind that if I truly wanted to be the best in the world, I had to beat the Americans because whenever they come to Europe, they are the best.”

Bayle had planned to ride the inaugural 500cc race last year at Glen Helen, but he suffered a broken arm two weeks before the race and returned to France for surgery.

“I have tested there several times and have gone there for practice rides, and I found it very hard, dry and dusty,” Bayle said. “I am sure Roger (DeCoster) will have it well watered for the Grand Prix, so the conditions will be quite different.”

DeCoster, a five-time world 500cc champion from Belgium, is the promoter, manager and track designer for Sunday’s event. And as consultant of the Honda motocross racing team, he is also Bayle’s coach.

“DeCoster has been very important in my development,” Bayle said. “He was the one who talked me into coming to the United States, and when I got here, he was the one who helped me with my English. It was very bad. I could speak almost nothing. But now I get along fine.”

Bayle, says DeCoster, is at least as good a driver as were American superstars Bob Hannah and Rick Johnson before they retired.

“Watch him closely. You will wonder why he is so much faster than the others because he does not seem to working as hard,” DeCoster said. “He finds lines others don’t see, and there is no wasted effort in his style.”

Which is what they used to say about DeCoster when he won world championships in 1971, ’72 and ’73 and again in 1975 and ’76 while riding for Suzuki. Perhaps someday, Bayle will be compared to DeCoster, but he says he is not staying around motocross long enough to accomplish the same things his mentor did.

“I will ride next year in defense of my Supercross championship, and then I hope to make the switch to road racing, in the 250cc class,” he said. “Whenever I get the chance, I take my Honda Grand Prix road racer to Willow Springs and test myself. I am satisfied I can go fast enough.”

When Bayle returns to Supercross next year, it will be the first time he has defended a significant championship.

“Once I win something, I find the challenge lessened, but I am going to try for two straight Supercross championships in 1992 while I continue to prepare for a career in road racing,” he said.

“I would like to ride my road racer more, but it seems as if there is a motocross nearly every week. Once the American 500cc season is over, I will go to France and Japan and race all winter. Then, in January, I will be back to start the Supercross.”

Bayle has a unique method of training that other riders might find difficult to follow. He has built a wall in the back yard of his Redondo Beach home to simulate the rocky mountain climbs near his home in the south of France.

“I do not enjoy riding my bike between races any more than I need to in testing, so I spend a lot of time climbing on my wall. I climbed a lot in France and enjoy it very much. It is a good exercise for motocross as you walk with your arms and fingers a lot and they become very strong.”

Bayle has also settled into the lifestyle of a Southern California beach boy, riding a skateboard, surfing and flying kites on the beach with his French girlfriend, Edwige Malysza.

“I have enjoyed living in Southern California,” he said. “It is a fun place, but it is quite different from France. France is fun, too, but in a very different way. I love them both, but when I finish racing I will return to France. But I will be back next year.”

Probably as this country’s first triple champion and--if he wins Sunday, as expected--the 500cc Grand Prix champion.