MotoGP: Valencia Testing Roundup

The two day post-race test at Valencia is now done and dusted. The riders lapped on the first incarnation of the Bridgestone control tyre. Day 1 was dry, while day 2 was wet and most riders didn't bother going out on track. Here are the main points of interest.

The usual suspects were fastest. Stoner, then Pedrosa, then Rossi. That's no surprise, you could be racing supermarket trolleys around a car park and these guys would still come out on top.

The control tyres were pretty good. There are only two compounds available, and the riders were happy with the pace and endurance. This confounds the purists, who claimed that the riders would be appalled when they found out what the single tyre rule really entailed. The Michelin runners were delighted with their switch to Bridgestones, especially the super-grippy front tyres they'd all been hearing about. I'm sure there will be whingeing later on in the testing season when they're casting about for excuses, but it was a good start on the tyre front.

Nicky Hayden seemed to get along well with the Ducati GP9. He was around 1.5 seconds off Stoner's blistering pace, but lapped faster than Marco Melandri did in the Valencia GP with a year's experience of the bike and 2 years on Bridgestones. Legend has it that when Melandri first rode the Ducati GP8, he came back to the pits ashen-faced, already knowing that he had made a huge mistake. Hayden is far more optimistic, and has started well. He was fastest in the wet on day 2, although most of the top guys didn't bother going out and getting wet so there isn't much to compare him against. It's looking cautiously optimistic for the Kentucky Kid.

Speaking of Marco Melandri, he showed signs of still having a pair during the race at Valencia, and those signs seem to be confirmed by his times on the Kawasaki. With just a few hours of experience on the Kwaka, he lapped just 0.02 seconds from John Hopkins' best time. It's not clear whether Melandri tested the Green Machine in secret earlier in the season or whether he just said that to shut up Loris Capirossi. Either way, Marco did extremely well, and may even be able to help Kawasaki turn their green pile of junk into a racing motorcycle. I think his reputation is going to be healed next year and we'll see the old Macho Melandri back again.

Sete Gibernau was slower than Hayden on the Onde 2000 Ducati, sponsored by a vicious dictator who pockets his nation's oil money while his people die in abject poverty.

New boy Mika Kallio is settling in well to the Pramac Ducati team, saying he was pleasantly surprised by the rideability of the Bologna Bullet, and its outstanding engine.

Andrea Dovizioso reports that he is already being blanked by his new Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and his overbearing manager Alberto Puig. You're nobody in Honda until you're having a feud with Puig. Dovi was happy with the factory bike, though. The Italian was 7th fastest in the dry and 2nd fastest in the wet, just fractions behind Hayden.

Chris Vermeulen was faster than Loris Capirossi, with the pair lapping 4th and 5th fastest in the dry, but that doesn't mean much. Suzuki always flatter to deceive in test sessions.

MotoGP: Sete and his Shady Sponsors

Sete Gibernau is returning to MotoGP after an absence of two years to ride a Ducati for the Onde 2000 team. The bike was unveiled bearing two names, those of a convicted fraudster and a small African country ruled by one of the world's worst dictators. Has MotoGP taken a step too far in its search for financial backing?

The name of the first sponsor is Francisco Hernando, who owns the Onde 2000 property development company. He is known in Spain as "El Pocero" which translates as "The Well Digger". This is a reference to his origins as a manual labourer digging wells and sewers. Despite being virtually illiterate, he owns the grandest yacht in Spain and is the mastermind of huge property developments. [El Mundo (Spanish)]

Hernando's rise from poverty to boss of a multimillion Euro property empire would seem like a marvellous rags to riches tale, if it were not for the controversy which has dogged him. "El Pocero" was convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2007, but managed to stay out of jail by paying the tax man 3 million Euros. [El Pais (Spanish)]

His grandest property development is at Seseña, just outside Madrid, where more than 13,500 apartments were built. Of course, the Spanish property market crashed hard this year, with Seseña being described as a ghost town by a BBC reporter who visited. The number of residents is estimated at less than a thousand, with people trying to sell the apartments at a loss. [BBC]

So how is a Spanish property developer finding the cash to sponsor a MotoGP team, when his flagship development plan lies in tatters?

Now is when our story turns sinister.

Francisco Hernando is maintaining his property empire by building in foreign countries. One of the countries he has linked up with is "Guinea Ecuatorial", or Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony in Central Africa. This tiny country has a population of around half a million, and is ruled with an iron fist by Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who appears in 11th place in Parade Magazine's list of the World's Worst Dictators (having dropped out of last year's top ten position.) [Parade Magazine]

Although Equatorial Guinea holds "democratic" elections, Obiang's party wins every time (with 97% of the vote in the 2002 election). His rivals do not stand against him, as the system is so corrupt that they cannot possibly win. [BBC] Opponents of the ruling regime risk torture and death. This gives Obiang god-like powers over his countrymen, and crucially, total control over the country's oil and gas reserves.

Equatorial Guinea's annual income from selling oil is estimated at more than 4 billion US dollars. With a population of just half a million, this means the country is theoretically one of the wealthiest in Africa, with a GDP per capita close to that of Portugal and nearly twenty times that of neighbouring Cameroon. In fact, the discovery of oil has led Equatorial Guinea to record the second highest growth in GDP per capita in the world for the period 1975-2002. However, the people of Equatorial Guinea are among the world's poorest, subsisting on around one dollar per day. [BBC]

Obiang and his family, on the other hand, are rich beyond most Westerner's wildest dreams. At one stage, it was discovered that Obiang had deposited $700 million of oil money in a bank in the United States, where he was educated. More than $2 billion is hidden in foreign bank accounts. [IRIN] His son Teodorin, who is known for his flashy lifestyle, owns a record label in the US, and has splashed out millions on fast cars. [London Times] Western governments, particularly the United States, stay out of Equatorial Guinea's affairs because they benefit from the country's oil boom. [Slate] A group of bungling British and South African mercenaries recently tried to overthrow Obiang, not because he is evil, but because they had been promised oil contracts if they succeeded. [The Independent]

Less than half of the people in Equatorial Guinea have access to clean water. A simple visit to a doctor would cost many weeks' wages, and is therefore impossible for most people. [IRIN]

The country's infant mortality rate is terrifying. Twenty percent of Equatorial Guinea's children die before they reach five years old. [UNICEF]

Why is Equatorial Guinea sponsoring a MotoGP bike when its children are dying in their thousands? How low will MotoGP sink to ensure there is another bike on the grid in 2009?

MotoGP: Stoner Snoozes to Valencia Victory

The final MotoGP race of the season at Valencia, Spain, was won by Casey Stoner. Dani Pedrosa could only manage second, while Valentino Rossi took the final podium spot after starting from the fourth row of the grid.

Qualifying had been held in dodgy conditions, starting off slightly damp, getting damper, then drying out a bit. Casey Stoner took pole position on his Ducati ahead of Repsol Honda "team-mates" Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden. The Tech 3 Yamaha duo gave everyone a shock by qualifying on the second row, with Colin Edwards fourth and James Toseland fifth. Caught out by the changeable conditions, Valentino Rossi could only put his FIAT Yamaha in tenth spot at a circuit that has been cruel to him for the last few years.

Race day was warm and dry, meaning that most teams had to make an educated guess for their setups and tyre choice. The Repsol Honda bikes appeared in a retro white livery to honour their title sponsor, while Jorge Lorenzo's leathers and bike were plastered in the flags of each nation where he has won a race.

Dani Pedrosa made his usual blistering start, thanks to having a power to weight ratio close to that of an ant riding a Saturn V rocket. Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden were in hot pursuit. Stoner had no intention of letting Dani Pedrosa do his usual race winning act of disappearing into the distance for another boring victory. No, Stoner wanted to do that stunt himself. A couple of corners into the race, Stoner passed the teeny Spanish hero, turning the race from a typical Pedrosa snoozefest into a typical Stoner snoozefest.

Stoner's cracked wrist refused to make things interesting by flaring up as it had in Malaysia, so he pulled out a few seconds in front of Pedrosa. The pair circulated a few seconds apart for the remaining twenty-eight laps. So far, so snoozy.

Valentino Rossi charged through the field as expected. It took him just six laps to pass Hayden for third place. Then his charge ended. He was lapping faster than the riders behind, but could not get any closer to Stoner and Pedrosa in front. The trio circulated a few seconds apart until the end of the race.

Still, tedious as the non-battle for the podium positions was, there was some interesting racing for the positions that nobody really cares about...

Read the rest of my review of the MotoGP race at Valencia at Motorbikesport.

MotoGP: Rossi Stars at Sepang

Valentino Rossi won his ninth MotoGP race of the season at Sepang, Malaysia. Dani Pedrosa was second, while Andrea Dovizioso finished third for his debut visit to the MotoGP podium.

The qualifying session had been an amazing spectacle, with the track starting out wet but becoming fully dry by the final few minutes. This resulted in a mad dash for pole position in the last moments of the session, with Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa snatching top spot ahead of FIAT Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Casey Stoner could only manage seventh position on the grid after failing to exit the pits in time for his last run.

Pedrosa made his usual rocketship start to the race, pulling out several bike lengths by the end of the start/finish straight. Scot Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso battled through to second place by the time the field had passed through the first right-left complex, just ahead of Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden on the second Repsol Honda, and Casey Stoner on the Ducati. Rossi was immediately all over the back of Dovizioso's silver bike, but the younger Italian was in the mood for a good result. The Doctor passed his countryman in the final hairpin, but ran wide, and Dovi grabbed the place back. However, Rossi's Yamaha eased past the underpowered satellite Honda machine down the start/finish straight to take second place and set off after Pedrosa's quicker factory Honda.

Casey Stoner was now battling to overtake Nicky Hayden for fourth place. The Kentucky Kid was already sliding his Repsol Honda, but Stoner was unable to use the Ducati's top speed to pass the American. The Australian soon to be ex-champion was not looking like his usual self, and had admitted that he had not found a good setup for his Bologna Bullet.

Englishman James Toseland only lasted four laps before lowsiding out of the race unhurt, blaming a hard compound tyre which he was struggling to bring up to temperature. Alice Ducati rider Toni Elias was given a jump start penalty.

At the front, Pedrosa was not breaking away from Rossi. The miniature matador's lightly loaded Honda was firing out of the corners and leaping onto the straights, but Rossi's tightly turning Yamaha was clearly faster through the swooping corners at the back of the Sepang track. The eight-times world champion was trying very hard, as evidenced by his left foot flapping in the breeze under heavy braking, the usual sign that Rossi is in a determined mood...

Read the rest of my report on the Sepang round of MotoGP at Motorbikesport.

BSB: HM Plant Goes All Aussie For 2009

HM Plant Honda will field two Australians in the 2009 British Superbike championship: Glen Richards and Josh Brookes.

There are two big teams in BSB that have won the last few championships between them. GSE Airwaves won this year's title with Shakey Byrne on a Ducati, but they are switching to Yamaha bikes next year, and most people expect them to take a few races before they get into the groove. For that reason, HM Plant Honda are favourites for next year's BSB title, so these two Aussies will be expected to win lots of races and challenge for the title.

Glen Richards is a relative veteran, having done well on a Kawasaki in BSB back when that was possible. Last year, he rejuvenated himself by dropping to British Superstock 1000 and winning the title. This year, he moved up to British Supersport 600 and won that title on a Triumph after a season-long battle with the South African Hudson Kennaugh on a Yamaha. There was a massive contrast between the two, with the laid-back, humble, down to earth Aussie becoming hugely popular while the quick but highly-strung, mouthy, bike-blaming South African got up more and more noses as the year went on.

Fans of the theory of karma will be nodding sagely as Richards has bagged the best ride in the paddock while Kennaugh has seemingly had a massive row with his team and disappeared back to Africa. The post-race interviews with Richards gave a lot of chuckles as he gave his rival a bit of needle, but the year will be remembered for an outrageous overtaking move at Oulton Park. Towards the end of a breathtaking last lap, Richards passed Kennaugh around the outside in the move of the season.

Glen Richards has become so popular among BSB fans that you get the feeling there would have been some kind of riot had he not ended up with a good seat on a superbike for next year, but there will be no need for that now.

Josh Brookes is an up and coming Aussie who is currently in third place in the World Supersport championship standings, and still in with a shout of second place. He is obviously very quick as they don't give away top three positions in the WSS championship table free in packets of rice crispies (I've checked.) Brookes made a one-off appearance for HM Plant in the final round of the British Supersport championship at Brands Hatch. He finished third behind Richards and the blindingly fast, but almost wilfully erratic, Steve Plater. That ride seems to have sealed his contract for next year. As Tom Sykes, Leon Haslam and Shane Byrne have shown, winning races and fighting for the BSB title can get you a move to World Superbike. Josh Brookes will surely follow that path over the next couple of years too.

BSB: James Ellison to GSE Yamaha

The BSB silly season is galloping merrily along now that the racing is over for the year. The latest news is that James Ellison has been officially confirmed alongside Leon Camier to ride for GSE Yamaha next year.

Hopefully his return to the Yamaha stable will be happier than his time at Tech 3 in MotoGP. You might remember that Yamaha's first attempt at a chassis that year was atrocious, and Valentino Rossi quickly progressed to a new chassis. However, Ellison was stuck on the old one for the whole year. Add that to the abysmal Dunlop tyres he was saddled with and it was a real year to forget for Ellison. (TV commentators might be apologists for the US-owned Anglo-Japanese company, but they made a pretty pathetic attempt at joining the big two tyre companies in MotoGP. Anyway, Michelin make tyres in Britain too.)

However, next year he will be with the all-conquering GSE team, who have mostly spent this year throwing their toys out of the pram and complaining about the rules when they weren't too busy winning the championship with Shakey Byrne and Ducati. They'll be on snazzy big-bang Yamaha R1's, with technical help from Yamaha Italia. The new Yam should be a missile, and I'm talking Exocet rather than Scud. Ellison has had some excellent showings this year, especially in the early and late races of the season. Now he'll be on an excellent bike with an excellent team behind him, and we'll see the real Ellison. There'll be nowhere to hide if he has a bad day, and he should win races if he has a good day.

May as well yap about the rest of the silly season goings on while I'm at it.

Rizla have withdrawn their sponsorship from Crescent Suzuki, giving no reason but there are mutterings that the move to British Eurosport TV coverage (and Channel 4 in the middle of the night a couple of days later) has reduced the viewing figures too far for the investment to be worth it. They'll just have to sell their wacky baccy wrappers elsewhere.

Perhaps not unrelated is the news that Atsushi Watanabe has transferred to TAS Suzuki (who ran Michael Laverty this year). Atsu is a hero in Japan due to his Suzuka 8 hour results and All Japan Superbike title. He's less of a hero in the UK as he keeps getting beaten by the privateers in BSB. However, nobody goes well at Suzuka unless they have a serious pair of stones. (I mean Bridgestones, of course...) Maybe he'll do better next year. I dunno.

HM Plant Honda have lost both of their riders to world championship racing, and the current rumours are that they'll replace one of them with the hugely popular, so laid back he's horizontal, Australian Glen Richards, who won this year's British Supersport title on a Triumph. The other seat may go to scouser Steve Brogan, who has been impressive in British Superstock 1000 and Supersport this year. He revealed on TV that he has been re-signed by Honda UK, and people are predicting that this will mean a move up to BSB. We'll find out soon enough, but the silly season silliness continues.

BSB: Shakey Doubles at Brands

With the British Superbike title sewn up, Shane Byrne was able to relax for the final round of the year at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, taking a magnificent double victory. Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow tied up second and third places in the championship. Michael Rutter made history with his 300th superbike race start, and ran the number 300 for the weekend to celebrate, while Karl Harris was forced to withdraw and was replaced by John Kirkham.

Race 1
The riders were held for a long time on the grid when one of the back row starters stalled, but when the lights finally went out, Cal Crutchlow made the best start to lead into Paddock Hill bend on his HM Plant Honda, with the rest of the pack managing to miss each other and slot in behind. Airwaves Ducati's Shane Byrne also started well, as did James Ellison, running higher on the Hydrex Bike Animal Honda than he has done for most of the year. Crutchlow's team-mate Leon Haslam was in fourth place, riding injured after a dopey-looking crash in qualifying when he looked over his shoulder and immediately highsided into a gravel trap, dislocating his collar bone. Byrne's team-mate Leon Camier was in fifth, while the long wait on the grid had caused Tom Sykes to damage the clutch of his Rizla Suzuki and make a poor start, running in sixth.

Coming into Druids for the second time, Shane Byrne was able to take a wide, swooping line on his Ducati to pass Crutchlow for the lead. After that, the top six pretty much held station until the end of the 30-lap race. The gaps opened and closed, but nobody managed to pass anyone else. Seventh placed Michael Laverty on the Relentless Suzuki was closing in on Sykes, but he dropped back and eventually retired with a technical problem. This promoted NW200 Ducati veteran Michael Rutter to eighth. Gary Mason was the leading privateer on the Quay Garage Honda.

It had been Shakey Byrne's first win for months, having had to carefully nurse his championship lead for the last few rounds. He celebrated with a Valentino Rossi style sidesaddle wheelie and a rolling burnout.

Read my full report, including the much more exciting race 2, of the second Brands Hatch round of the British Superbikes at Motorbikesport.

Engine Strategies for 600cc GP Class

The replacement of the 250cc 2-stroke GP class has been announced as a truly bizarre 600cc 4-stroke class. The engine rules will be relatively open, although there is talk of a rev limit, but there will be a ludicrous "claiming rule" meaning that anyone can buy another team's engine for 20,000 Euros. (About 15 and a half thousand quid, 27,000 US Dollars, or 40,000 Aussie Dollars.) I have come up with a few strategies for teams to find a supply of decent engines for €20,000 or less.

1. Economy of Scale
Just build loads of €100,000 engines and the price will come down to €20,000. That means you'll end up supplying most of the grid as they all queue up to claim your engines, but you could still make a few quid due to the economies of scale.
Pro: Brilliant engines for a knock-off price.
Con: Large amount of capital required to make engines for half the grid.

2. Steal Road Bike Engines
If you steal the 600cc engine from a Honda CBR600 or Yamaha R6, then it's free. That means you can spend €20,000 on engine tuning and still break even when somebody claims the engine.
Pro: Free engines leave loads of money for tuning.
Con: The police might get a tad suspicious by the number of thefts in the area of your race team.

3. Commit Murder for Road Bike Engines
Instead of sneaking around at night to steal the engines, you could wait in a country lane until you hear a 600cc sport bike howling towards you, then string up a chain at throat height. The decapitated rider will be helpless to stop you stealing his bike.
Pro: Free engines leave loads of money for tuning.
Con: Engine may be damaged by inevitable crash, will spend 20 years in prison if caught.

4. Infiltrate Ten Kate Organization
Everyone knows that Ten Kate are the best engine tuners in World Supersport, so their factory would be a great place to steal 600cc engines. There are many possible Prison Break-style strategies for the infiltration. My choice would be to dress up as legendary engine tuner Gerrit ten Kate. He's a big lad, so there should be space for an engine inside your fake belly.
Pro: Fantastic engines for free, just pocket the €20,000 when somebody claims them.
Con: Dutch is a tricky language.

5. Impersonate Marshals to Steal WSS Bikes
Staying on the World Supersport theme, it should be possible to nick bikes from WSS races. Just dress up in some mucky orange overalls and hang around a slow corner waiting for a wildcard, or Danish nutter Robbin Harms, to cause a huge pileup. Grab the best bike that's lying on the floor, wheel it behind the tyre wall, into the back of your van and drive off.
Pro: Free, highly tuned engines.
Con: Have to hang around all day drinking coffee from thermos and eating dog-eared sandwiches, may have to help rescue bikes of wrong engine size, may have to visit several races before suitable crash.

Now, I can't be sure which of these strategies will be used by the teams when the 600cc engine rules come in, but I'm pretty sure it will be one of the ideas above.

WSBK: What Snobs Don't Get About World Superbike

There has been a great deal of wailing from the MotoGP snob crowd lately on the issue of their new single tyre rule. One thing that has often left their lips is the plaintive cry: "But it's just another step towards World Superbikes!" This is usually followed quickly by "Not that there's anything wrong with World Superbikes, of course." (Meaning that there is.) So here's what the hardcore MotoGP snobs just don't get about WSBK.

World Superbike has a control tyre. But that's all. No control electronics. No control engines, or gearboxes, or chassis, or suspension. Nothing. Just the tyres.

Listening to the snobs, you'd think WSBK was some kind of single make series, which completely misses the point. World Superbike is all about keeping a connection with the road bikes that the general public buy. Each WSBK machine starts out as a road bike, or at least all the components of a road bike. (Full factory teams like Ducati, and next year Aprilia and BMW, take a chassis and engine from the production line, while semi-factory and privateer teams start with an actual road bike, removing the lights and all that stuff.)

World Superbike is all about differences. The fact that the racing is close is because the donor 1000cc 4-cylinder road bikes are all fundamentally of similar performance (and since you can't compare apples with oranges, the 1200cc Ducatis are handicapped to be close enough to the 1000cc 4-cylinder machines with weight ballast and air inlet restrictors). That's what's special about WSBK, and that's why there will be 7 manufacturers in the series next year. Because they get the chance to demonstrate the actual machines that you can buy from the dealerships, not just a control chassis and engine with a badge slapped on. (Cough! Nascar! Cough!)

But these road bikes undergo major changes to turn them into racing machines. Engine modifications (racing camshafts, pistons, con-rods), racing gearbox and clutch, racing exhaust, racing brakes, suspension modifications (full race forks, rear suspension and swing arm are used, so long as the mounting points remain the same), carbon fibre fairings (the same shape as those of the road bike) and trick electronics (no restrictions whatsoever) are all allowed. The chassis, cylinder head and engine block must remain fundamentally the same as the road bike.

WSBK machines produce anything up to 220bhp and can top 200mph at a circuit like Monza. The main reason why they race so closely is that there is a control tyre. Yes, they race cool circuits that promote good racing, like Assen, Brands Hatch, Monza and Phillip Island. But the bikes are in no way identical, except for the black, rubbery things wrapped around the rims. The control tyre rule works incredibly well, considering how different the bikes are. There are generally two tyre compounds which are realistically usable on each circuit, and people manage to have a great race on one or other of them, even though the way a tyre is used on a thundering, torquey, 200bhp 1200cc V-twin Ducati is very different to a screaming, peaky, 215bhp 1000cc inline four cylinder Japanese bike.

The best teams and riders win, and that is partly because with a control tyre, the rider can make the difference, he doesn't have to vainly try to compensate for a set of tyres that are 8 tenths slower than the leader's. And it is partly because, with rules that are far more open than most people realize, teams and manufacturers can alter their bikes to get the most out of the tyres.

So say what you like about World Superbikes, but don't look down your nose. These are real race bikes, the rules are surprisingly open, and while the single tyre rule might not allow prototype tyres specifically made for each top rider, it just works.

MotoGP: Home Win for Stoner at Phillip Island

Casey Stoner won his home round of the MotoGP world championship at Phillip Island, Australia from pole position in bright, sunny conditions. Jorge Lorenzo and Nicky Hayden were the other front row qualifiers, while Valentino Rossi would only start from twelfth after a big crash in qualifying.

When the red lights went out, Stoner's Ducati leapt out in front to lead the pack through turn one, but Nicky Hayden was snapping at his heels on the Repsol Honda. His team-mate Dani Pedrosa was up into third, but had a bobble on the way into turn two and left the track, falling heavily on the grass but escaping with a bruised knee. Guintoli and Vermeulen also rode off the track at that turn but stayed upright and rejoined, a long way behind the pack.

James Toseland has won at Philip Island in World Superbikes, and he made an incredible start on his Tech 3 Yamaha to grab third place while the field was still shaking itself out. His Texan team-mate Colin Edwards was fourth, ahead of FIAT Yamaha's Lorenzo and LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet. Before the lap was over, Lorenzo would take fourth place. The front pair of Stoner and Hayden were already taking off into the distance.

Having fallen off a few too many times recently, Casey Stoner was back to his usual imperious form in the lead, but Nicky Hayden was all over the back of the local hero, trying to find a way round the red Ducati. Jorge Lorenzo stole third place from Toseland, but the Englishman was having his best race of the year, and stayed with his fellow Yamaha rider. Valentino Rossi was scything through the pack, but had a terrifying moment when Alex de Angelis crashed in front of him, his tumbling bike missing Rossi's by inches. The Doctor was unflustered, and soon made a stunning move as he drafted past both Edwards and Gresini Honda's Shinya Nakano on the main straight, outbraking them both into turn one.

James Toseland retook third place, passing Lorenzo into the frighteningly quick turn one, and the Spanish rookie had Rossi homing in on his rear tyre. It was now a three way Yamaha battle for third place, with Shinya Nakano and Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso closing in. Dovi had been dead last into the first turn of the race, having somehow been chewed up and spat out of the pack. Rossi passed Lorenzo for fourth place as they descended Lukey Heights, and now Toseland had the champion to deal with...

Read the rest of my MotoGP Phillip Island race review at Motorbikesport.

WSBK: Magny Cours Goes Baylisstic

Noriyuki Haga and Troy Bayliss shared the spoils as the World Superbike championship visited Magny Cours, France. A podium finish in the first race was all it took for Bayliss to lift his third World Superbike title. Haga had taken pole position for the meeting, ahead of Fonsi Nieto, Bayliss and Carlos Checa. Troy Corser, who started the day with a mathematical chance of winning the championship, started 12th after falling in Superpole.

Race 1
Troy Bayliss made his usual "Baylisstic" start to lead the field into turn one on his Xerox Ducati, ahead of Alstare Suzuki's Fonsi Nieto, Noriyuki Haga on a Santander Yamaha and Carlos Checa on his Hannspree Ten Kate Honda. It was Haga who made the first move, snatching second place from Nieto just a few corners into the race. The Japanese star was on a mission to carry on his excellent run of form, having taken a double win at the previous round. He passed Troy Bayliss into the hairpin on the second lap to take the lead. With Haga now starting to stretch out a bit of a gap to Bayliss, his Santander Yamaha team-mate Troy Corser was storming through the field. The Aussie had started 12th after lowsiding out of his Superpole lap when he was on course for a front row start, and was already fighting for sixth place.

Haga's lead was shrinking slightly as Bayliss closed in on him, with Fonsi Nieto hanging onto the Aussie's coat tails. A little way behind, Carlos Checa was in fourth, holding off Max Neukirchner on the second Alstare Suzuki and Michel Fabrizio on the second Xerox Ducati. There was another burst of activity on the fourth lap. Carlos Checa went into the hairpin completely crossed up, but managed to make the turn and soon overtook his fellow Spaniard Fonsi Nieto for third place. Fabrizio passed Neukirchner then Nieto and Checa to slot into third place behind his team-mate, the young Italian Ducati rider seemingly having one of his randomly selected good races.

Spurred on by the fact that it is contract time and he has no contract, Fonsi Nieto was showing the kind of form that has eluded him for months. He passed Carlos Checa using the rocketship straight line performance of the Suzuki to re-take fourth place, then Fabrizio for third, and finally started battling with Troy Bayliss for second position. Nieto outbraked the Aussie at the hairpin, but the wily Ducatista cut back inside to hold his place. Nieto managed to make a move stick, and Bayliss settled for a podium position, unwilling to be taken out by a rider in "contract or straw bales" mode. To compound Carlos Checa's misery at being passed by his lesser-rated countryman, he was pushed back to sixth place by Max Biaggi. Although Roby Rolfo had qualified well (having no contract for next year either) he was racing poorly, and was forced to retire when his Honda started spewing smoke. Four laps before the end of the race, Michel Fabrizio departed in spectacular style from fourth position, sliding off in a shower of sparks in turn two.

Noriyuki Haga won the race comfortably, joined on the podium by Fonsi Nieto and Troy Bayliss. Third position was enough for Bayliss to win the World Superbike title for the third time, on a third type of Ducati.

Read the rest of my World Superbikes Magny Cours race review at Motorbikesport.

The Great BSB Exodus

People always like to think of the British Superbike Championship as a breeding ground for World Championship racing. Youngsters, and sometimes not-so-youngsters, develop their talent in a hard, competitive race series and are prepared for World Superbike and maybe MotoGP. In the late nineties and early noughties, Troy Bayliss, Shane Byrne, Neil Hodgson and James Toseland passed through the series, three of them moving to WSBK and becoming World Champions, and all four moving to MotoGP with varying degrees of success. Then there was a barren period of a few years, but at the end of this year will be a major exodus. The top four riders in the BSB are all moving up to World Championship level.

Shane Byrne is BSB champion on the Airwaves Ducati, and he will be moving to the Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati squad in World Superbikes. He has very limited WSBK experience, having taken a double at Brands back in the day, but has been in MotoGP for a while, riding awful bikes. (Well, the Team KR bike had a good chassis but a terrible KTM engine, to be fair, but the Aprilia seemed to be awful in most respects.)

Leon Haslam, currently running second in the BSB championship standings for HM Plant Honda, is moving to WSBK for Stiggy Honda. He has done a season of WSBK for Renegade Ducati, and needed to move back up because he is making a habit of finishing 2nd in the BSB title race. How good the Stiggy bike will be remains to be seen, but their WSS machine isn't too bad.

Tom Sykes is one of the kids who ran at the front of British Supersport and exploded onto the BSB scene 2 years ago. Sykes is currently 3rd in the BSB points table on his Rizla Suzuki. He has pulled off the biggest coup of all, landing a semi-factory bike with Yamaha Italia. (It may help that Sykesy's good friend and fellow Yorkshireman James Whitham used to ride for Yamaha Italia when they were still Belgarda, and as a TV commentator often gets to see his old pal Massimo Meregalli, now boss of Yamaha Italia.)

Finally, Cal Crutchlow, another of the BSS stars who moved up to BSB last year, has bagged a Yamaha seat in World Supersport. Being very, very quick in BSS isn't going to do him any harm at all. He should do well in WSS when he learns the tracks. He is generally less consistent than Sykes, but his WSBK wildcard showing at Donington proved his ultimate speed.

So is BSB going to be devoid of talent next year? Will it be a disaster?

No, of course not. Giraffesque Englishman Leon Camier will be staying with the GSE Airwaves squad for their move to Yamaha bikes. He has only just started to get the hang of Ducatis, but he is certainly quick on a Japanese four, so he will be one of the major contenders, providing he remembers not to tie his skeleton up in a knot over The Mountain at Cadwell. Camier is a quality rider, who is definitely going to end up in WSBK at some point.

MotoGP rider Sylvain Guintoli has reportedly signed for Crescent Suzuki next year. Sylvain might not be as quick as Elias and Stoner on near-identical machinery, but he's still a seriously talented rider. It's surprising that Sylvain didn't find a ride in WSBK, but with Bayliss leaving the series everything went a bit mad, and the music stopped before the Frenchman managed to sit down. Anyway, Guintoli is another proper rider who will ensure BSB will be excellent in 2009.

James Ellison is also a MotoGP reject, but he has done well this year on the Hydrex Honda. We can add him to the list of talented riders who will be in BSB. Karl Harris hasn't managed to win a race, but he's clearly very quick too.

Michael Laverty is another talented lad who will be there or thereabouts, especially if TAS Suzuki get additional factory support.

Australian Glen Richards has won this year's BSS title, and is surely on a lot of BSB team managers' lists, having speed and experience and being universally popular. There is also talk of talented scouser Steve Brogan moving up to BSB. Jason O'Halloran is another youngster who has impressed in his couple of BSB races. The Aussie must be on the radar for next year.

That isn't an exhaustive list, but it should be enough to show that although the British Superbike Championship is losing four of the top riders, there is a great depth of talent out there. Next year will be hard fought by a load of talented guys. As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to worry about. BSB 2009 will be as good as ever.

WSBK Silliness: Shakey and Spies, But No Sylvain

The latest update on the World Superbike Silly Season is that the series will have Shakey Byrne and Ben Spies, but will sadly be sans Sylvain Guintoli.

This year's British Superbike champion Shane "Shakey" Byrne has officially signed for Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati in WSBK next year. That should satisfy his desire to remain on a Ducati 1098R but move to the World championship, and I'll be expecting him to go very very quickly. Of course, he doesn't know all the tracks, but he knows a few of them from his MotoGP days.

Ben Spies has signed to partner Tom "Grinner" Sykes at the Yamaha Italia squad in WSBK. It's a bit strange for Yamaha to have two young rookies who don't know most of the tracks. Sykes knows Brands Hatch and Donington well, while Spies will know Miller Motorsports Park in the USA, and he's been round Donington too. Of course, Spies would have known a bit about Assen but he controversially refused to replace the injured Loris Capirossi in the MotoGP round there, an incident that may have helped seal his snub from Suzuki. Anyway, both these kids are extremely quick. The funniest thing about it may well be the first time that Sykesy beats Spies. We'll see how the Texan's ego copes with that.

Finally, according to a scoop in BikeSportNews, MotoGP reject Sylvain Guintoli will not move to WSBK on a Yamaha, but will actually move to British Superbikes to replace Tom Sykes on a Crescent Suzuki (currently Rizla Suzuki, but it's not known who will sponsor them next year). Sylvain is a really nice bloke, but there's no two ways around the fact that he's been outperformed on the Alice Ducati since Toni Elias got his groove back. Since the Frenchman lives in England, the BSB rounds will be much less of a commute than he's used to. He'll be looking to impress on a Superbike and score a switch to World Supers.