Oz Racers around the World – September 2008

MotoGP, Motegi

Valentino Rossi has won the 2008 MotoGP World Championship by winning Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Rossi dropped from fourth on the grid to fifth after the opening turns of the 24 lap race, before hunting down race leaders - and title rivals - Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. Even if Stoner won, Rossi only needed to finish third to secure the crown, but when Stoner put a tight pass on Pedrosa on lap six, Rossi also demoted the Spaniard and then shadowed Stoner before making a victory pass under braking on lap 14.

Rossi gradually pulled away from the Ducati star, who clinched the 2007 title at Motegi last season, and enjoyed a one second advantage by lap 17, before winning his fifth race in a row - and eighth of the season - by 1.943secs at the chequered flag.

The Fiat Yamaha rider thus has an uncatchable 92 point championship lead over nearest rival Stoner with just three rounds and 75 points remaining. A perfect day for Yamaha, at its home event, was made complete by also wrapping up the 2008 manufacturers' and teams' championships.

Rossi celebrated his return to the top with a big wheelie over the line and was instantly congratulated by Stoner, before doing a burn out at the side of the track and being greeted by his waiting fan club. Rossi was given a special t-shirt with the words "sorry for the delay" in Italian on the front and a picture of a clock, with a cartoon image of Rossi 'cooking' his world championship victory - and the names of those who have played a part in it - on the back. Valentino then sat down at a desk to sign some sort of contract!

Rossi won five consecutive 500cc/MotoGP World Championships from 2001 to 2005, and becomes only the second rider in history - after Giacomo Agostini - to regain the premier-class crown after two successive defeats. Agostini is the only rider with more premier-class titles than Rossi, having won eight.

Rossi is the first rider to win the premier-class title on four different types of motorcycle: A Honda 500cc four-cylinder two-stroke (2001), Honda 990cc five-cylinder stroke-stroke (2002, 2003), Yamaha 990cc four-cylinder four-stroke (2004, 2005) and a Yamaha 800cc four-cylinder four-stroke (2008). The 2008 MotoGP World Championship is Rossi's eighth across all three grand prix classes, having also won the 125cc crown in 1997 and 250cc title in 1999, but his first ever with Bridgestone tyres.

Rossi and Stoner were joined on the podium by Pedrosa, who survived last lap contact with Lorenzo to hold third position - marking his first rostrum with Bridgestone tyres and the pneumatic-valve RC212V. Team-mate Nicky Hayden, who had qualified third, finished his final Japanese Grand Prix for Honda in fifth position - 18 seconds behind Lorenzo - with Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi holding sixth place for the entire race, most of which was spent under pressure from Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards and Gresini Honda's Shinya Nakano. JiR Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, who will replace Hayden at Repsol Honda in 2009, mounted a late charge to finish a fraction behind Nakano's factory spec machine, with John Hopkins completing the top ten for Kawasaki. Hopkins hounded James Toseland for most of the race, before making a late pass. Toseland crossed the line just 0.4secs behind Hopper, with LCR Honda's Randy de Puniet in turn 0.4secs from the rookie M1 rider.

Stoner's team-mate Marco Melandri was one of a number of riders to run through the gravel at the end of the back straight, leaving him 13th at the finish, while Sylvain Guintoli (Alice) and Anthony West (Kawasaki) completed the point scoring positions.

Capirossi was the only GSV-R rider to finish, with wild-card Kousuke Akiyoshi completing a disappointing weekend by crashing on the opening lap while Chris Vermeulen retired from 13th with technical problems on lap 17.

Round 16 of the MotoGP World Championship takes place at Phillip Island in Australia, next weekend.

World Superbikes - Vallelunga - Italy

Race 1: Noriyuki Haga won his fifth World Superbike victory of the season after resisting intense race-long pressure from home favourite Max Biaggi at Vallelunga. A tense race as Biaggi kept Haga honest from lights-to-flag, the pair were never separated by more than half a second.

From the start, pole sitter Bayliss got the best getaway, the Aussie sweeping across the circuit to take the initial lead from Biaggi, Haga and Corser. Haga was on a charge though and after dispatching of Biaggi at the hairpin on the first lap, he swept past Bayliss for the lead at the start of lap two. Bayliss did not look comfortable though and he soon found himself behind Biaggi by the end of lap two, before Corser followed through a lap later.

Up at the front, Haga, Corser, Biaggi – Corser and Biaggi having swapped places - and now Carlos Checa made up the leading group, while Bayliss was keeping a watching brief in fifth.

When Corser attempted to snatch the lead off Haga, it instead invited Biaggi back through into second place. Corser remained close up until lap twelve when an attempt to pass Biaggi down the back long-straight caused him to run wide at Campagnano and allow Checa up into third place. However, the Spaniard's hopes of holding the position ended just a few corners later at Semaford when he too ran wide and allowed Corser back through. Although back to third, Corser had lost a lot of ground to the leaders. As such, it was left to Haga and Biaggi to dispute victory, but while the Japanese rider looked typically leery at times, Biaggi's best efforts could only ever see him get slightly alongside.

Building up to a grandstand finish, Biaggi – cheered on by the raucous home crowd – tried everything he could to force a mistake from Haga, but to no avail. Biaggi's hopes were dashed by the re-emergence of Corser into the equation with just a handful of laps remaining, the Aussie doing a superb job to catch up again after losing a couple of seconds with his error. Latching onto Biaggi, the Italian was distracted enough to allow Haga to edge the win by a meagre margin, followed closely by Biaggi and Corser.
Further back, fourth place eventually fell to Max Neukirchner, who had been enjoying a quiet race up until the final stages when Bayliss, up to fourth after overtaking Checa, made a mistake and slowed up both himself and the Honda behind him. Neukirchner duly took advantage to leap up from sixth to fourth, while Checa managed to capitalise by claiming back fifth.

Bayliss' sixth means his lead over Corser is down to 95 points, making it more likely that the title will be decided in France. Still, victory in the second race would almost do it for Bayliss! Meanwhile, beyond Kiyonari, other notable retirements included Kenan Sofuoglu and Karl Muggeridge, the duo coming together in the early stages of the race.

Race 2: Noriyuki Haga won his second World Superbike race of the weekend at Vallelunga, but the big news was Bayliss' failure to score when he came down just three corners from the chequered flag – and the title! Up to that point, Haga and Bayliss had been embarking on one of their legendary tussles, potentially a fitting final fight that these two will enjoy before Bayliss retires four races from now. Just as he had done in the first race, Bayliss got the better start, sweeping in front of his fellow front row starters, but the first few seconds were marred by a horrifying accident involving Max Biaggi and Kenan Sofuoglu.

Although it isn't clear what caused Biaggi to get out of shape around the sweeping left-hander that follows the home straight, the Ducati dramatically high-sided, spitting the Italian off the bike but also collecting Sofuoglu at high-speed, the Turk being catapulted over the handlebars of his Honda.

While race one podium sitter Biaggi was seemingly unharmed as he hobbled away, marshals attended Sofuoglu, already carrying a shoulder injury this weekend, at the side of the track before taking him away to the medical centre. We will have more on his condition when we receive it.

Bayliss, eager to put in a better performance than he did in the first race, continued to lead, ahead of Haga and Corser, all three riders putting in lap record breaking pace as they pulled away from the pack.

Despite Corser's continued presence, the race was always about Haga and Bayliss, the Japanese rider making his first move for the lead on lap five when he drafted past on the home straight and into the sweeping left-hander, a thrilling high-speed move made all the more spectacular by the minimal distance between them.

Bayliss eventually snatched it back, but Haga assumed the lead again on lap six when he slipped past on the back straight. Despite dropping back slightly, Bayliss kept the pressure up and was soon back on the Yamaha's tail. Line-astern lap after lap, Bayliss was back through at the final turn on lap 12 when Haga ran ever so slightly wide, before resisting his attempts to come back at him straight afterwards.

The pair weren't done yet though, Haga passing again on lap 15, but while Bayliss dipped beneath him at the hairpin, Haga switched back up the inside to re-take it.

With Corser third, Bayliss needed to win to secure the title, as second place fell just one point short of what he needed for victory on Ducati's home turf. However, his cause was being aided by team-mate Fabrizio, the Italian having battled his way up to fourth before putting in a series of superb lap times to catch Corser with only a couple of revolutions to go. By this point, Haga and Bayliss had passed and re-passed each other again, but Fabrizio's crucial pass on Corser coming down the back straight on the final lap was all Bayliss would need to call himself champion once again.

However, this was unbeknown to him and as he continued to push over the final few bends, the bike came away from him at the slow hairpin, sending him crashing to the ground. A surprising end to what had been a stunning head-to-head between himself and Haga, Bayliss got going again but would cross the line 16th and out of the points.

As a result, Haga crossed the line for his second win of the day and his sixth victory of the season, a result that even keeps him in with a shout of the title. Corser's third place, behind a jubilant Fabrizio, ensures that he remains Bayliss' closest competitor, although the 79 point gap between himself and his countryman means the title remains very much in Bayliss' hands.

World Supersport Vallelunga - Race results.

1. Jonathan Rea GBR Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR
2. Broc Parkes AUS Yamaha World Supersport YZF-R6

3. Eugene Laverty IRL Yamaha World Supersport YZF-R6
4. Joan Lascorz ESP Glaner Motocard.com Honda CBR600RR
5. Barry Veneman NED RES Software Hoegee Suzuki GSX-R600
6. Robbin Harms DEN Hannspree Stiggy Motors Honda CBR600RR
7. Gianluca Nannelli ITA Hannspree Honda Althea Honda CBR600RR
8. Didier Van Keymeulen BEL RES Software Hoegee Suzuki GSX-R600
9. Mark Aitchison AUS Triumph Italia BE1 Racing 675
10. Josh Hayes USA Parkalgar Racing Team Honda CBR600RR
12. Joshua Brookes AUS Hannspree Stiggy Motors Honda CBR600RR
24. Jeremy Crowe AUS Yamaha Spain YZF-R6
27. Alex Cudlin AUS Triumph SC 675

Not Classified
28. Andrew Pitt AUS Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR 18 laps completed

AMA - News

AMA Pro Racing announced today that the appeal of the disqualification of Mat Mladin on the #6 Suzuki from the Superbike races at Virginia International Raceway on August 16-17, 2008 has been deemed without merit and has been denied. The original penalty remains as previously announced and becomes final with this decision.

Ben Spies is expected to announce a switch to the World Superbike Championship in 2009 after revealing he will leave both the AMA Superbike series and Suzuki. Spies rode in what could be his final AMA race at the weekend, concluding the season with a record 95 point victory margin at Laguna Seca.

Spies ends his AMA tenure with three consecutive titles to become only the fourth rider to ever complete that feat. A total of 28 Superbike wins, including ten in 2008 alone, puts him third on the all-time winners list, while his 90 per cent career podium rate signals a remarkable amount of consistency.

AMA – Laguna Seca - 28 lap Final

Mat Mladin concluded the current era of AMA Superbike competition with a convincing victory at Laguna Seca on Sunday afternoon. While far from a nail-biting dogfight to the checkered flag, his conquering ride was perhaps a fitting finale with a series overhaul due in 2009.

After all, the Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki ace is the leading race winner (72) and pole sitter (55) in series history, and he upped his tally in both categories this weekend. The Australian also orchestrated yet another inch-perfect, lopsided victory from pole as he'd done so many times over the years.

The contest was also an appropriate final chapter to the great rivalry between Mladin and teammate Ben Spies. The two have proven to be almost perfectly matched adversaries, but somewhat surprisingly, they rarely duked it out on the track. One rider typically tore off from the start with the other failing to recover from a less than ideal launch. Such was the case again today, as three-time class champion Ben Spies suffered a poor start and spent the early laps dicing up past the likes of Yamaha USA's Eric Bostrom, American Honda's Neil Hodgson and Miguel DuHamel, and finally third works Suzuki rider Tommy Hayden. Once Spies had made his way up to second, Mladin had already cleared off, so the champ picked up yet another top-two result as he's done with unprecedented frequency during his historic four-year run in the AMA Superbike class.

Mladin took the checkered flag with a 12.581-second margin of victory at the conclusion of the 28-lap race. "It was a good race for us," Mladin said. "Obviously we had a good start and put our heads down and put in some good laps. I understand it's Ben's last race here so I certainly wanted to send him off with a win. I tried hard and it's good to get the win here at Laguna, a track he does very well at. We maybe got this place sorted out finally, after 13 years."

Runner-up Spies remarked, "We made a lot of passes so it was pretty fun. I just didn't get off the line that great. By the time we got into second, I could see the pace he was running, and the gap we had -- I'm not superhuman so there is no way that was going to happen. We just made it out Sunday farewell cruise. It was a good race and I had a lot of thoughts. I actually had a lot of fun riding out there. I'm looking forward to everything that's coming up."

Hayden did his part in the sendoff as well, claiming his ninth podium of the season and underlining the factory Suzuki team's overwhelming dominance in recent years.

Hayden passed Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates with two laps to go when the Georgian slowed as he struggled with a broken footpeg. Yates managed to hold on for fourth.

Hodgson completed the top five on his American Honda CBR1000RR, followed by Bostrom and DuHamel and Bostrom's teammate, Jason DiSalvo.

Spies finished the 2008 AMA Superbike Championship campaign with 652 points to secure his third consecutive title victory. The Texan is widely tipped to be headed overseas next season with an announcement expected in a matter of days. Mladin finished as the runner-up at 557.