I think I'd like it better if they put the production WSB effort in a K1 fairing, though. Just for laughs. Especially if it was the red-and-yellow colourscheme...

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

WSB came from Brno, which is a bit of an odd track. Despite being wide, swoopy and quite fast - and rather fun to go around on various PlayStation racing games - it often ends up with some quite processional racing. Sunday wsn't as bad as some I've seen, nor as good as others, a rather businesslike affair. Bayliss, back on winning form, took a fairly measured double victory, coming through near the end of both races to pull out a bit of a gap by the flag. Surprisingly, the recently-resurgent Corser followed him home in the first and narrowly missed the podium in the second, having put in quite an aggressive effort throughout. Word is that he may have a sorted suspension unit under him now, so perhaps he'll be on it for the rest of the season. Even more of a surprise: the self-styled "Wizard" - or is it "Hurricane" now? - and usually rather-pointless Fabrizio pulled off two podiums. Biaggi did better than he has done recently, Haga did worse and Kiyonari put in a proper appearance (at last). Nobody's going to touch Bayliss, but the best of the rest competition is hotting up between Neukirchner, Corser, Checa and Haga. Brands next - if I was a betting man, I might put some cash on Nitro Nori...

In Supersport, Rea took his maiden victory. Just a personal opinion, but I think he's an overrated and undercontrolled rider who always appears perfectly happy to let other people share in his accidents. Unlucky for Jonesy, anyway, who was leading him when his Honda unexpectedly stopped working...

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Elsewhere at the 'Hatch: Kiyonari lifted a brace of victories, perhaps aided by plenty of BSB experience around the track. Bayliss and Biaggi followed him home in race 1 - Biaggi in particular coming from way back and far faster than either man in front of him. Two more laps and Max could've been on the top step. Not so good in race 2, though where he was lifted up and shot off track early on, eventually coming back from about 20th to 12th. Meanwhile, Kiyo defended against a persistent Haga for the entire race, Bayliss pedalled backwards into 11th and Corser made a showing for the final podium spot.

Would have been a great day's racing were it not for poor Jonesy.

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Pretty much a war of attrition, this one, with the conditions catching almost everybody out at times. As Whitham pointed out in commentary, a surprising number went down with the back end coming around on a closed throttle: signs of extremely unpredictable grip.

Felt sorry for Sykes, who was on for a certain race 1 victory until it was red-flagged after several crashes on oil, then just lost out on aggregate result to Bayliss. Lord knows what race control were up to, refusing restarts to everybody even remotely in title contention: I always though it was only refused for riders who had caused a red flag through their own mistakes, not because somebody left an oil slick there for them. Even more annoying for Xaus, who crashed after the red flag went out, took the restart and then was disqualified from third place for not having got back to pit lane quickly enough after the red flag. He was not happy - Sterilgarda have since had to apologise for his language and behaviour!

Race 2 was less controversial. Kiyo took the desserved victory after having been a pure delight to watch getting sideways everywhere all weekend. Crutchlow came in second (we like Crutchlow) and Bayliss stuffed it into the grass. Top marks to Walker grass-tracking all the way down Craner and getting back on to the track at the bottom without collecting anyone on the way.

Also top marks to Josh Brookes, who really earned his first Supersport win in several years.

A pretty good day's racing, all in all. Oh, and the news is Haga to take Bayliss's Xerox ride next year, with Biaggi turned down by the team.

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

It could have been the day Bayliss sealed the championship, but that wasn't to be. In fact, it was a day for Bayliss to stay off the podium altogether. With qualifying being hit by a biblical deluge, everyone lost dry track time and it certainly looked like a few teams suffered with not having the best set-up come race day.

Haga, who never seems to care much whether he's got a set-up or not, made off with a hard-fought double victory. Always great to watch, a brilliant racer. If only he could manage a few less crashes per season, he'd be a real contender. Even now, there's a mathematical possibility for the 1 plate.

Biaggi suffered mixed fortune with a second in race 1 and a particularly unlucky crash in race 2. Looks like he was clipped into turn 1, almost got his frantically-bucking Ducati back in line and then was collected at high speed by the rather pointless Sofuoglu (who hasn't transitioned well to superbikes). Definitely out of the title hunt now and equally definitely going to Aprilia next year, who are returning to the WSB paddock.

Corser got himself two thirds, not from lack of trying. He's made such an effort this season, it's a shame that it hasn't brought any wins. Still, second in the championship isn't to be sneered at.

Fabrizio (contract time, is it, Mr so-called Hurricane?) took second in race 2. Team-mate Bayliss struggled to sixth in race 1 and fell off in race 2 a couple of corners from the end whilst in a thrilling duel for the lead with Haga. Still 79 points to the good in the championship, but he must be annoyed not to have clinched it.

Amusingly, Pitt in the Supersports did a very similar thing, falling off without much reason and letting his comfortable title lead slip back within the grasp of others: notable Rea, who won again.

Terry Rymer filled in commentary duties for the absent Whitham and, it must be said, Too-Tall Tel did a pretty fair job on the microphone with co-host Jack Burnicle. Wish Eurosport'd get rid of all the filler stuff with that irritating ginger tw*t Tony Carter, though. He's OK as a written-word journo but comes across as a right pillock on TV - Lord knows why they put him on both WSB and BSB when there are far better anchormen around. On the same programmes, even!

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

No idea whether the overbored Ducati helped in the end, although there are four of them currently in the top 10 points placings, along with 2 each of Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda and Ducati have a clear lead in the manufacturer's championship. Still, after the very early season, the bike never looked to have an enormous or clear advantage - there again, it could be argued Bayliss pretty much won the championship in the first few meetings. I'd still prefer to see a level playing field, though.

Race 2 saw Bayliss and Haga wheel to wheel for most of it. unluckily for Nori, he made a succesful break just before a very light rainfall slowed everybody up and - once caught - he couldn't get away again. Bayliss eventually got past him with a few laps to go and kept the hammer down for his 50th career win. Corser made it a Yamaha 2-3, good result for the R1 boys and it's certainly a bike to be reckoned with. How well the team copes losing both its riders for next year remains to be seen...

Supersport saw Andrew Pitt take his second Championship title. Unless the first one, where he didn't win a single race all season, this one was achieved with a victory over a surprisingly determined Barry Veneman on board a horribly bent out of shape GSXR600. Good for the lad: you have to go back a long way (Chambon and Fujiwara, probably) to find really competitive Suzukis. Let's hope (as a serial Gixxer owner...) that trend continues!

>> ex silens nox noctis <<

Be sure, ride safe and enjoy

The finale for the WSB season was a good one. Spurning the Formula-1-by-numbers track at Estoril, the teams camped out in Portimao, in the very south of Portugal instead. Which, for a new track, was absolutely fantastic - fast, flowing, up hill and down dale and generally a bit of a return to form on the whole track design front. Maybe other countries (particularly you, Germany, will take note...)

Rain-soaked qualifying and practice, a new track to everybody (bar a couple of teams who had tested there the previous week) and green tarmac proved to be quite a leveller on race day, with all sorts of unusual folk getting their turn up near the front (behind Bayliss, of course - who was away with it both times). Plenty of BSB regulars wild-carding prior to their transfer to the world stage next year, with Haslam claiming third in race two. Checa, Corser and Fabrizio filled the rest of the winner's enclosures. Haga, after a jump start penalty in race two handed second in the championship to Corser - since it wasn't first place, it's possible he didn't care that much anyway! Next year, maybe, with the Xerox Ducati...but I do wonder if he might turn out to be the new Aaron Slight or Frankie Chili, both of whom arguably should have won a title but never did. There again, Haga, but for the rules lawyers, should have done in '98...

Don't know if it's just me, but I really have taken a dislike to Jonny Rea. There's a fairly narrow margin between riding hard and riding like an utter c*ck and to me he always looks on the wrong side of that, still looking for someone else to have his accident for him. People must be so grateful when he either gets past them and gets away or makes yet another mistake and drops back far enough to lose contact. I would hate to have the bloke within quarter of a mile of me anywhere on a circuit.

So, a pretty vintage year's racing, all in all - and I suspect that the loss of Bayliss, the new teams and the big lineup changes may well make next year even better. Hope so. Bring it on...

>> ex silens nox noctis <<