Early career

His career began with production and Superbike racing, at home in Australia and also in Japan. He gained early notice racing the Bob Brown Ducati in Australian Superbike races and then joined Mike Dowson at the Warren Willing-managed Yamaha Dealer Team to race the then premier Production race series as well as the growing Superbike series. In 1986 he gained international attention when he and Dowson scored a second place in the Suzuka 8 Hours Formula One race on a lower-spec Superbike.^[1] His Grand Prix debut was delayed after he broke his leg crashing at the Arai 500 race at Bathurst when, leading by a clear margin, he was confused by his pitboards and thought another rider was closing in on him. At the end of year big-money Swann-Series he was given the opportunity to ride a Yamaha factory Grand Prix bike and distinguished himself by winning two of the six races.

Grand Prix

In 1987, he got his break in the 500cc world championship with three wildcard appearance on the Kenny Roberts Yamaha team. Crashing in the opening Japanese Grand Prix, he earned a point in the rain-affected Dutch TT before scoring an impressive third place in his third ever Grand Prix at the Portuguese Grand Prix round. Having teamed up with Martin Wimmer to win the 1987 Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, and having also won the 1987 round of the now-defunct Formula 1 motorcycle championship at Sugo, he became the only rider to stand on the podium of three different World Championships in a calendar year.^[2][3]

Magee (left), battling with Alessandro Valesi at the 1989 British Grand Prix.

In 1988, he was awarded Randy Mamola's place in the Kenny Roberts team, competing as teammate to Wayne Rainey for the next two seasons. He also returned to the Suzuka 8 Hours race, teaming with Wayne Rainey to claim another win.^[4]

Magee won his first Grand Prix at the 1988 Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix at Jarama and the future looked bright for the young rider. However, at the 1989 United States motorcycle Grand Prix, he was involved in a terrible crash with Bubba Shobert on the cool off lap after the race, wherein Shobert drove into the back of Magee's motorcycle. Magee stopped his motorcycle in the middle of the track and performed a rear-wheel "burnout", presumably due to frustration that dwindling fuel had cost him 3rd place in the race.^[5] The wreck occurred while Shobert was congratulating racer Eddie Lawson and it ended Shobert's career. Ironically, Magee would crash at the same spot during the 1990 race, suffering head injuries that put him out for the season. In 1991 he appeared a couple of times for Suzuki and once for Team Roberts, along with another wildcard Grand Prix appearance in 1993.

Magee also entered a few Superbike World Championship races, winning twice at his home race at Phillip Island in 1991 and 1992. He also raced in the AMA Superbike series in 1994, for the American Honda team before announcing his retirement.^[6] Magee was never able to capture the early brilliance of his career after his accident with Shobert.