MotoGP Season Review

The MotoGP season got off to a start in the pitch black desert of the Losail track in Qatar at night time. Fortunately, somebody had the presence of mind to erect enough floodlights to illuminate most of the planet, and the bikes looked magnificent as the light glinted off them. The first surprise was that Yamaha had locked out the front row, the second surprise was that FIAT Yamaha's Valentino Rossi wasn't riding any of them, as he was way back in 7th on the grid, struggling with setup in his first race on Bridgestone tyres. His rookie team mate Jorge Lorenzo had incredibly taken pole in his first ever MotoGP qualifying session. In the race, Ducati's Casey Stoner took his time getting to the front, but then disappeared as usual. Jorge Lorenzo trailed him across the line in second place, with Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa third. Andrea Dovizioso elbowed past Rossi to grab 4th place on the privateer Scot Honda, while James Toseland finished 6th on the Tech 3 Yamaha after ricocheting through the pack. Despite his Ducati team-mate winning the race, Marco Melandri was miles off the pace...

Jerez came next, the Southern Spanish track giving Jorge Lorenzo another pole position. Colin Edwards hit the headlines in qualifying after avoiding a lowside crash by digging his knee and elbow into the track and lifting the Tech 3 Yamaha back up. It was save of the season. When the red lights went out, Dani Pedrosa headed off into the wide blue yonder for a boring victory. Valentino Rossi took 2nd ahead of Lorenzo in 3rd. Stoner could only manage 11th after spending half the race flying off into the gravel, but still beat Melandri. Toseland took 6th place after bouncing off half the field again, annoying Dovi in particular...

Read the whole MotoGP Season Review at Motorbikesport.

WSBK Season Review

This has been a vintage year for the World Superbike championship, with Troy Bayliss bidding farewell to motorcycle racing by winning the WSBK title for the third time.

The season started in the desert at the bland, featureless Losail track in Qatar. It was a great start to the year, with Max Biaggi on the Sterilgarda Ducati immediately getting into a battle with Santander Yamaha's Noriyuki Haga. The battle ended when Max chopped Haga's nose off into a corner. The furious Japanese star lifted his left hand from the bars to remonstrate and promptly highsided, landing on his head. Troy Bayliss was riding like a madman, never using the same piece of astroturf twice, causing his team boss Davide Tardozzi to have kittens on the pitwall. The Aussie fought to the end with Max Biaggi, the Italian passing but running wide in the last corner, allowing Bayliss to cut back inside, taking a long look over his shoulder at Biaggi before taking the chequered flag. The second race saw Fonsi Nieto winning thanks to the sheer speed of his Suzuki on Losail's long straight, beating Ducati duo Ruben Xaus and Max Biaggi into second and third places...

Read my whole World Superbike Season Review at Motorbikesport.

BSB Season Review

The 2008 British Superbike Championship season was as exciting as ever, with crashes, controversy and some great racing.

The year did not start at Brands Hatch. Well, it partially started at Brands, but when everybody woke up for race day there was a thick blanket of snow covering the track. Snow at Brands Hatch? That's global warming for you. The round was postponed until later in the season.

Thruxton became the first race of the year. The GSE Ducati squad showed up despite claiming that they were pulling out of the BSB series due to the technical rules, which would supposedly make the new 1098R too dangerous to race. The GSE hokey-cokey would continue through the year. Shane Byrne was completely unfazed by the rules controversy, storming to victory on the GSE Ducati in race one. Race two was the scene of a monster crash. Tom Sykes, riding the Rizla Suzuki, clipped the back of Leon Haslam's HM Plant Honda, and was thrown off the bike. The errant Suzuki then continued its trail of destruction by smacking Rob Mac Yamaha rider Karl Harris in the head. Incredibly, once Harris was extricated from the air fence he was able to walk to the ambulance, albeit with some help. This would set the scene for Karl's year. He's incredibly tough, but seems to have no luck at all. HM Plant Honda youngster Cal Crutchlow managed to win the restarted race.

Read the rest of my BSB Season Review at Motorbikesport.

WSBK: Bayliss Bows Out With Portimao Double

Troy Bayliss ended his glittering career at the top, with a crushing double victory in the final World Superbike meeting of the year at the new Portimao track in Portugal, having started from pole position.

The Portimao racetrack is so new that grass has not yet grown on some of its earth banks. However, it has all the character of a decades-old British or American track. There are twists, turns and elevation changes everywhere, making this track seem like a tarmac rollercoaster. Troy Bayliss described Portimao as being "like Oulton Park with runoff", with other riders comparing it to Brands Hatch. With the modern tendency towards building "Formula One tracks", i.e. boring, flat, featureless circuits built in the vain hope of making F1 cars overtake, it is astonishing to see that the Portuguese have gone against the trend to build a truly magnificent bike track. Virtually all of the racers heaped praise on the new circuit, and it brought us some brilliant racing. How appropriate that such an all-action track should have a corner named after Craig Jones.

Race One
Bayliss made a perfect start on the Xerox Ducati, leading into the first corner and disappearing into the wide blue yonder. The track was greasy after the previous day's torrential rainfall, and although some riders started to beat Troy's lap times towards the end of the race, the Australian was long gone. There is little to say about his race except that it was a display of utter dominance from the newly crowned champion. While Bayliss lapped alone in front, the real action took place in the chasing pack.

Wildcard rider Cal Crutchlow made an excellent start on his HM Plant Honda, but tried to challenge Bayliss for the lead and was pushed a little wide in the first turn. This allowed Hannspree Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea, Sterilgarda Ducati's Ruben Xaus and Santander Yamaha's Troy Corser to surge past the Englishman. Michel Fabrizio had made a respectable start on the second Xerox Ducati bike, and was challenging Sterilgarda Ducati's Max Biaggi when the pair tangled and went down just a few corners into the race. The tiny Roman Emperor was furious with his young compatriot, and there was a hilarious moment when Max charged over to Fabrizio, grabbing him by the crash helmet and shaking it angrily.

It would be impossible to give a detailed account of the race for second place as the pack was shuffled on virtually every lap, but here are the highlights. The leading pack of Xaus, Corser, Rea and Crutchlow beat each other up like their lives depended on it. Xaus was especially vigorous in overtaking the young British riders, leading to some real hair-raising moments. Crutchlow moved to the head of the pack and seemed to be pulling away, but only for a few corners before he was hauled back into the scrum. All of this was slowing the riders down, and the next group of HM Plant Honda wildcard Leon Haslam, Hannspree Honda veteran Carlos Checa and Santander Yamaha nutter Noriyuki Haga caught up to make an insane seven bike freight train.

Rea and Crutchlow were both riding very aggressively, and both made small mistakes that lost them several places. Crutchlow would eventually drop out with a destroyed rear tyre. Checa and Haga were the men on the move. Leon Haslam was holding second place when Haga arrived. The Japanese star showed his young rival no quarter, elbowing him off the racing line onto the greasy area of the tarmac, where he would lose a few places before finding some grip. Haga was then enveloped in a fight with Checa and Corser, but the Japanese Samurai of Slide was forced to retire with a gearbox problem. Checa was now the fastest man in the race, but even with a badly worn rear tyre, Bayliss held an insurmountable lead to the chequered flag, and the Spaniard had to settle for second place, with Corser third...

Read the rest of my Portimao WSBK report at Motorbikesport.