Moto GP – Valencia 29^th October 2006

Nicky Hayden has broken Valentino Rossi's five-year domination of the MotoGP World Championship by dramatically overturning the Italian's title lead in a Valencia showdown won by 2006 WSBK champion Troy Bayliss!

Having suffered the agony of losing the world championship lead when he was torpedoed by team-mate Dani Pedrosa last time out at Estoril, Hayden entered the final round eight-points behind Rossi.
The Italian superstar had gained a further crucial advantage over the American by qualifying on pole position at Valencia, with the Marlboro Ducatis of Bayliss and Loris Capirossi, plus Shinya Nakano's Kawasaki, separating the title contenders on the grid. But Rossi's pole and eight-point advantage would count for little if he suffered a poor start.

For the majority of the season, Hayden has fought clutch problems with his RCV - resulting in poor starts and corner entry slides - but those were finally improved after Motegi and when the red lights disappeared it was Rossi who stumbled, leaving the red Ducatis to rocket past before the title contenders collided on the charge down to turn one!

The contact wasn't intentional, Rossi had plummeted backwards at such speed that Hayden didn't have time to avoid him, and was ultimately of no consequence as both kept control. Hayden was initially ahead, but Rossi was able to outbrake the Repsol Honda rider. Hayden was quickly on the attack, passing Rossi then aiming his Repsol Honda at the fellow RCVs of Casey Stoner and Pedrosa directly ahead. Rossi's M1 had looked a race winner for most of the weekend, but the Italian was only eleventh fastest in morning warm-up and just couldn't make progress in the early stages of the most crucial race of his career.

By contrast, the Repsol Honda plan was working perfectly - Pedrosa had overtaken Capirossi for second behind Bayliss before the end of lap one, with Hayden also passing the Italian a lap later. Pedrosa, having glanced back to check on Hayden's location, then raised his left leg on the approach to turn two on lap three and let Hayden through to second. Pedrosa, a double 2006 race winner, had promised to do all he could to make amends for his disastrous Estoril error and, to his credit, was true to his word on Sunday.

But the championship deciding moment occurred on lap five of 30 when Rossi, who had been stuck in seventh from the end of the 1^st lap and was coming under pressure from Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen, made a mistake that ultimately cost him the 2006 world title: As he applied the power at the apex of the slow turn two, Rossi - a winner of 58 premier-class grands prix - lost the front wheel of his M1 and spiraled, at agonizingly low speed, into the gravel.

The 27-year-old rushed to his feet and remounted his machine, but the fall had left him 20^th and last. Valencia, and the MotoGP world, was stunned. Whether his M1 wasn't handing as he expected, or if the pressure of a title decider had proven his downfall, is open to speculation - but a human error had put the title back in Hayden's hands. Nevertheless, the Kentuckian was far from assured championship glory, since he soon came back under attack from Capirossi - who retook second on lap eight - meaning that Rossi now only needed eighth place. Retirements ahead had raised 'Vale' to 14^th by lap 12, but it was already clear that, for whatever reason, the Italian didn't posses the speed needed to reclaim the title.

Nicky's pit board had immediately informed him of Rossi's downfall and as the race entered its closing stages he was reminded that third position was 'ok' since, combined with Rossi's 13^th place, he would take his first world title by five points. The faultless former AMA Superbike champion thus settled into a safe pace that left him equidistant between second placed Capirossi and fourth placed Pedrosa right to the chequered flag, which he crossed slumped on the tank as the shock, emotion and excitement of achieving a lifelong dream was released. It was also Honda's first title since Rossi left the team at the end of 2003.

To put Hayden's amazing achievement into perspective, he had become only the second rider ever to come from behind and win the title at the final race - and on the only previous occasion, in 1992, Wayne Rainey had been just two points behind Mick Doohan, who was also still recovering from serious injury.

Among those to congratulate Hayden was Rossi, who sportingly reached out to shake his former team-mate's hand as he rode slowly past. Hayden then removed his helmet, as he has done in his three previous race victories, and carried an American flag before stopping and lighting the traditional end-of-race fireworks. Meanwhile, Bayliss had sensationally led the race from start-to-finish - responding to late pressure from Capirossi to take his first ever MotoGP victory as Ducati celebrated its first ever MotoGP one-two.

It was an incredible ride for the 2006 World Superbike champion, who spent two seasons with Ducati in MotoGP before being sacked at the end of 2004. The Australian veteran had then moved to Camel Honda, where his season was prematurely ended by injury, before moving back to Ducati and WSBK for 2006 with immediate title success.

Bayliss had never ridden a 2006 Desmosedici, or Bridgestone tyres, before this weekend - when he stepped in to replace the injured Sete Gibernau - but the Australian immediately adapted to the new machinery, underlining just how talented he is. MotoGP probably never saw the best of Bayliss during his full time career and, having signed to spend another two seasons in WSBK, the 37-year-old may never line-up on the grand prix grid again, but he can be immensely satisfied at having joined an exclusive list of MotoGP and WSBK race winners.

Meanwhile, second for Capirossi gave the Italian third in the championship by a single point over Melandri, fifth on Sunday, whose team-mate Toni Elias completed the top six. Shinya Nakano took seventh place on his final ride for Kawasaki, ahead of a poor qualifying Kenny Roberts Jr, with Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards crossing the line one place higher than he had started, in ninth. Carlos Checa, in his final ride for Tech 3 Yamaha, finished tenth with John Hopkins the only Suzuki finisher after Vermeulen fell on 'unlucky' lap 13.

Joining the Australian on the DNF list were Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet, Honda LCR's Casey Stoner - who will ride alongside Capirossi at Ducati next season

Those retirements helped Garry McCoy and the new Ilmor team to bring its 800cc machine home in fifteenth place, replicating their debut result at Estoril, and claim another world championship point despite again suffering late race technical problems.

From the 2007 season, all teams will field 800cc machines.

World Superbikes – Magny-Cours 8^th October 2006

Troy Bayliss took the last win of the year for his Xerox Ducati team at Magny-Cours, a circuit he has never raced at until now. "You are only as good as your last race and my last one was alright!" beamed Bayliss." Second place went to Troy Corser on the Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki with James Toseland riding the Winston Ten Kate Honda in third place. "Great way to finish the season and great way to finish with Suzuki," said Corser indicating his imminent move to Yamaha. "Francis and Patricia Batta have been great to work with and they have done so much for the championship in terms of sponsorship," Corser continued, "I'm looking forward to my new challenge and I want to win the World Championship next year. The racing is getting more competitive, I mean we have five world titles amongst us (motioning to Bayliss and Toseland) and it is hard to find that in any form of motorsport."

Toseland's two podium finishes have secured him second place overall in the championship during his first year with a new team. "I enjoyed that one!" he enthused after race two, "Second place in the championship is the icing on the cake for the Winston Ten Kate Honda team. They welcomed me when I moved from Ducati and to finish runner up in the Championship is great. Charpentier is the World Supersport Champion and I'm runner up in the Superbike championship which is testament to the team."

The action was fraught on track as Toseland explained, "It was a pretty close race and I saw the front wheel of the Ducati a few times. It was a great round and a great race. Corser has two World titles, Bayliss has two, I've got one – think it is my turn next."

Frankie Chili was emotional on the grid for his final race before retiring, there were a few tears shed as the veteran has decided to hang up his leathers and move into team management with the DFX Treme Honda team.

Snippets

Having been ousted from Alstare Suzuki by the arrival of Max Biaggi, double World Superbike champion Troy Corser has now been officially confirmed at the Yamaha Motor Italia team for the 2007 season.

Alex Barros' surprise decision to return to the MotoGP World Championship, on a d'Antin Ducati, for 2007 has left the Klaffi Honda Team seeking two new riders for next season. Despite the Barros loss, Klaffi remains focused on expanding into a two rider team for 2007, and is now in 'serious talks' with several leading riders - with Neil Hodgson and Andrew Pitt likely to be on his list.

Team Bertocchi's Josh Brookes got his first taste of a Honda Fireblade, since he finished seventh at this year's Suzuka 8 Hours. Brookes and Bertocchi are switching to Honda from Kawasaki for next season and, in only a short amount of time, the young Australian managed to cut half a second from his best lap time on the ZX10R, set during Sunday's season ending races.

World Supersport

'I still can't believe it!' - were the words of Sebastien Charpentier after overturning title rival Kevin Curtain's generous points lead during Sunday's dramatic Magny-Cours season finale.
Defending champion Charpentier and Winston Ten Kate Honda team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu were expected to dominate the race, but Yamaha Motor Germany rider Curtain needed only an eighth place finish - even if Charpentier won - to secure his first world title.

But disaster struck the Australian when he fell from fourth place on lap eight of 22, meaning that Charpentier now 'only' had to finish second or better to overturn Curtain's 18-point pre-race lead. Aided by Sofuoglu riding shotgun, Charpentier duly won his sixth race of the twelve-round season to become the first ever back-to-back World Supersport champion.

Speaking afterwards, Charpentier was both emotionally exhausted and elated by his championship success, which had been expected when he won the first three races of the 2006 season - but then appeared almost impossible after Sebastien lost points due to a broken pelvis, sustained during testing at Brno in June, then a bizarre non-score in Germany which occurred after he ran off track and became jammed between a tyre wall in the escape road.

"I almost didn't believe it," admitted Charpentier, when asked for his thoughts when the team told him 'number 11' was out of the Magny-Cours race. "For a couple of laps I was really emotional, I was seeing the objective closer and closer, but I knew the race was still long."

"I knew we had to work together in the race and so when Sebastien came through I did not try to re-pass him," said Sofuoglu. "When I learned that Curtain was out I realised that I could push again and go for the win, and Sebastien would still be champion, - but it was a risk, and I still had (Curtain's team-mate) Parkes behind.""I still can't believe it! It has been much harder to overcome the psychological barriers than to come back from injury. For this I have to thank my wife Cathy who has been close to me in the many hours between the hospital and the physiotherapist."

Unlike previous Supersport champions who have used their success to move into the premier Superbike class, Charpentier has already signed to stay with Ten Kate Honda for the 2007 season.

"No," replied the Frenchman when asked if he had considered a new challenge for 2007. "I have found a fantastic team and together we want to reach many goals. I think I owe them a lot and I hope that next year I will make it as fun as this year. Surely, between the two titles, this is the most emotional - because I won it just like this, suddenly. I really want to thank everyone who has supported me."