The crash that sank Daniel Falzon's MotoGP hopes

WHEN Daniel Falzon watched his motorbike get written off, he saw his MotoGP dreams go up in smoke.

DANIEL Falzon couldn't budge his eyes from the blur in the background.

Through all the carnage - the carbon fibre floating like confetti on grand final day and human bodies slapping onto the bitumen - the 19-year-old was fixed on that blue and green machine no one else would have even noticed.

"Then we saw my bike go flipping in the air and I just looked at Dad, he looked back at me and we just knew," Falzon shrugs.

"That was it. There goes my opportunity to show what I can do.

"At first you always think 'is everyone okay?', because it was horrific to watch. But once we got confirmation everyone was all right, it was straight back to looking at the bike.

"Well, to be honest, I couldn't help but look at the bike the whole time. That was my entry to the world stage - blown up right in front of me."

YOUTUBE: SEE THE MOTO2 MALAYSIAN SMASH HERE

This was Sunday night, as Adelaide's newly crowned Supersport Superbike national champion Falzon watched the Malaysian MotoGP's undercard race, the Moto2, on his loungeroom TV.

The motorbike he saw thump into a competitor's fallen machine, hop airborne then nosedive into the track was the very bike he was booked to race this weekend at Phillip Island in his international debut.

Falzon was invited to ride the second Moto2 entry for Team Technomag-carXpert as a substitute for injured regular Randy Krummenacher during this weekend's Australian MotoGP carnival.

It was the chance of a young lifetime, secured only after Falzon fast-tracked international licence credentials that would allow him to race in the category a step down from the MotoGP pinnacle scaled by his boyhood hero Casey Stoner.

One catch. The bike just had to leave Sepang in one piece.

Instead, the machine - with a price tag nudging $200,000 - was a write-off; collateral damage in a first-lap prang so spectacular it made those TV news "play of the day" loops.

Compared with the initial smash that cannons one rider into a double front-flip landing on his back, Falzon's bike appears to escape with little more than a scratch and a dent.

"But the damage that would've done, we knew there was no way they could rebuild it in a week," Falzon says.

"My heart completely sank. We were all huddled around the TV and unfortunately my bike was just destroyed.

"But they've asked if we still want to come over to Phillip Island, they've given us pit passes so we can meet the team.

"We would never have had got to do that if we hadn't got the offer in the first place, so I'm really grateful for that."

Despite this week's heartbreak, Falzon's yarn is not one of setback so much as success.

The Hazelwood Park uni student's prized call-up was reward for a his championship triumph in this year's Australian Supersport category - his maiden season in the nation's second-tier circuit-racing class.

Amazingly, this year's title followed a similar storyline to last year, when Falzon topped the Superstock leaderboard, one step lower.

Not bad for a kid who only started racing motorbikes in 2008.

"I didn't actually ride or race dirt bikes when I was young at all," he says.

"I'd say 90 per cent of my competitors have come from a dirt bike background.

"When we started in 2008 it was a really big stepping stone for me because I was jumping straight into the big leagues without any experience of racing close.

"So, yeah, we shocked ourselves by winning the national title in our second year."

Yet winning has quickly become standard practice for Falzon, who rides under his family's Jon Daniels Racing banner.

The name combines his brother, Jon, with Daniel's first name, and until 2011 the operation was funded almost exclusively by his parents, Joe and Kylie.

It remains a close-knit show, with Jon serving as the team's mechanical engineer, Joe playing Mr Fixit in the garage and Kylie taking charge of the off-track and administration side.

"They're the most loyal sponsors you're ever going to get - they're not going to ditch me or whatever, they're here for the long haul," Falzon says.

These days, Falzon has the backing of Yamaha, whose badge he represents as a development driver, and a rare out-of-industry sponsor in Caterpillar plus a handful of equipment brands.

Just as well, given the bike he rode this year carries a $17,000 price tag on the showroom floor, before $5000 in modifications to get it race ready.

Then there's $2500 burnt in tyres for each of the five meetings that make up a season. Another five or six grand on travel, accommodation and entry fees for every trip.

"And that's without breaking anything," Falzon says.

"If you ditch the bike down the road, well, you don't even want to know how much that is.

"I had a crash at Phillip Island last year at hayshed corner - we take it at flat out, fifth gear, at 210kmh.

"I lost the front wheel and as I was sliding towards the gravel all I could do was watch my bike flipping no less than 3m in the air. Written off completely."

But don't for a second think this is a case of rich boys playing with expensive toys.

"Nope, Mum and Dad are both full-time workers," Falzon says.

"Mum manages an interior design business for my aunty and Dad manages my uncle's business that deals with landfill gas as a renewable energy.

"The good thing with that is that they're both able to get time off work to come racing. They put in a lot of time at home - I always see Mum doing extra work because they have to take a lot of time off."

And so with another season gone and another championship in the trophy cabinet, where to now?

"That's the golden question," Falzon says.

"It's a bit up in the air at the moment. Right now, we're just trying to live up winning the Supersport but I'd love a factory ride in 2014 on a really competitive bike - that would be in a perfect world.

"I'm not so keen on going to (top-tier) Superbikes just yet, I think that's a bit further down the road. I'd love to get back-to-back Supersport titles, maybe with a bit more Yamaha factory backing.

"But as long as it keeps progressing each year, I'll be happy."