Troy Bayliss took both heats of yesterday’s end of year meeting to cap a great career in bike racing. Leading from the front in both heats, no one came close to his pace except for Haga who retired with a mech gremlin in the first race and jump started the second. You could see the emotion on his face as he toured around the track with his helmet off after the last race – surely all greats feel the same on their last outing. Including Michael Schumacher who was prowling around the start line at the beginning of the race.
Talking about the track, what a great effort by the Portuguese and this is certainly a meeting to look forward to on the calendar. Kudos to Haslam for taking 3rd in the second race – this certainly bodes well for his participation next year in the premier class. He just has to do something about those failing legs on the entry to corners. Fabrizio had one bad race knocking Biaggi off first time around, and then came second for the last race – hot and cold you might say.
Cal Crutchlow put in 2 good efforts as well with Corser picking up 2nd in the championship with 2 reasonable efforts. It was great to see Brendon Roberts take the Stock 100 championship but you have to say that Xavier Simeon through it away with his front end slide. Sofoglu got back to his winning ways in the Supersport race but I have to say his remonstrations half way through the race were not quite suited.
Anyhow, great season of racing and can’t wait for next year. What with newcomers BMW and Aprilia, and Haga on the Ducati, it’s going to be very interesting.