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.