During 2015 he raced in British Superbikes for half the season, then competed in the Endurance FIM World Championship aboard a YART Yamaha YZF-R1, before being drafted-in to MotoGP on the ART machine for the last race of the season at Valencia, held on 8 November at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Spain.

He was born on 24 December 1981, and lives in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, resulting in the nickname 'The Boy From the Bush'. Parkes was originally inspired to race as a four-year-old, when he saw countryman Wayne Gardner winning a race. Gardner ultimately became his manager.

Parkes began racing on dirt tracks a year later, with great success. He also raced junior motorcycle speedway and finished second in the 1997 Australian Under-16 Championship in Adelaide. He then switched to circuit racing at the age of sixteen – the legal limit in Australia – going on to win the Australian 125cc title and Australian 250cc Production title in 1999, on Honda machinery.

Parkes then spent a season in Japan with the Moriwaki squad's Honda equipment, finishing third in the All Japan X Formula series. Parkes then moved to Europe to join the NCR Ducati team for the 2001 World Superbike Championship. He experienced a mechanical failure while running strongly in one race, but he took 16th overall. In 2002 he finished up 11th.

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