Tuesday 9th October 2012

Champion by half a point!

PH2 belatedly catches up with one of the most exciting WSB finales ever!

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After the slight snore-fest of a MotoGP season, what a cracking finale to a topsy turvey WSB season. So, did anyone actually want to win the title this year?

Heading into the final round at Magny Cours, Max Biaggi on his Aprilia looked a sure-fire certainty to secure his second WSB championship to add to his four 250GP titles. All he had to do was stay out of trouble...

Race on and on a damp track the unthinkable happened, Max hit the deck on lap two, surrendering a stack of points and with home-town hero Sylvain Guintoli taking the win with Marco Melandri second and Tom Sykes third. It was all to play for in the final race of the year.

Fair play, you have to hand it to Sykes. He has been the man of the 2012 WSB season and if it wasn't for a blown engine at the last round what could have been? Knowing it was win or bust, Sykes stormed to the front and through sheer determination kept his Kawasaki there all race, putting the title's fate in Biaggi's hands. The Italian needed to finish fifth or higher and there was a stack of riders who wanted to stop him doing this.

One of the most fascinating races for years unfolded as each time someone overtook you were left calculating what that would mean to for the championship. Unfortunately for Sykes a huge highside by Melandri and Haslam also hitting the dirt, not to mention the terrible top speed of the two Ducati riders, allowed Max to squeeze into fifth with a handful of laps to go, a place he held onto to finish the race. Champion by just 0.5 points from a gutted but magnanimous Sykes - what an awesome season of racing.

[cadoganpier]

It's a shame Tom Sykes is often over looked. His performance on the ZX10 has been incredible. He has massively over performed and on pure pace is as quick as any Brit rider including Crutchlow. I would love to see him get a chance on a MotoGP bike as I think his style would suit the new 1000cc bikes well.

[moanthebairns]

thanks for that, I had recorded and was going to watch it during the week.

its ruined now.

[Fleegle]

moanthebairns said:

thanks for that, I had recorded and was going to watch it during the week.

its ruined now.

Your luck strikes again

[Biker's Nemesis]

Fleegle said:

moanthebairns said:

thanks for that, I had recorded and was going to watch it during the week.

its ruined now.

Your luck strikes again

I hope his Mam and Dad didn't record it for him.

[moanthebairns]

why the sudden interest in moto gp and wsbks. the reviews are normally up monday morning.

I never really see anything about the F1.

I cant be the only one who tapes loads of motorsport at the weekend then works his way through it during the week?

[moanthebairns]

Biker's Nemesis said:

Fleegle said:

moanthebairns said:

thanks for that, I had recorded and was going to watch it during the week.

its ruined now.

Your luck strikes again

I hope his Mam and Dad didn't record it for him.

[MrKipling43]

Sorry Moan, we'll just put the internet on hold for you while you watch your races.

[neelyp]

moanthebairns said:

I've not watched it yet either.
For once I agree with my gormless son.

[srob]

neelyp said:

I've not watched it yet either.
For once I agree with my gormless son.

How did you know who'd won by half a point, unless you opened the story and read it?

[ianwayne]

The photo shows the podium but with an interloper on the left with a little goatee. The only reason he'd be there is if he's the overall champion, bit of a giveaway. (Unless he's 'doing a John Terry' and put his leathers back on after being excluded!)

[sprinter1050]

Yep- there's a clue to possible spoiler in the thread title.



Perhaps unlike some videos you've mistakenly viewed.



or in Dad's case-starred in :

[neelyp]

sprinter1050 said:

Yep- there's a clue to possible spoiler in the thread title.



Perhaps unlike some videos you've mistakenly viewed.



or in Dad's case-starred in :

I'm just hoping I was the star!

[996 sps]

Yep great weekend of racing and Lowes and Linfoot on the podium in WSS.

Keep putting the reviews up - its all over the net anyhow.

[Broccers]

Forget the bleating.

Amazing couple of races and great season.

Really enjoyed it.

WSB is far more exciting than MotoGp even Lorenzo thinks so as he went to watch

Cant beat BSB for a day out on home soil tho

Edited by Broccers on Tuesday 9th October 13:05

[D200]

moanthebairns said:

thanks for that, I had recorded and was going to watch it during the week.

its ruined now.

When it’s the last round of the season I would make sure to watch the races ASAP if recorded and avoid internet until I have seen it

I was watching highlights on Eurosport and just before the show started there was a 15min motorsports round up on, which gave the results!

The highlight show as on late too, so I had to half glance with one eye to see when it started, I saw a brief clip but it didn’t ruin it for me, thankfully.

So I feel for you!


Some advice:

Be sure to watch the last round of BSB this weekend on as soon as you can and avoid PH on other sites as you don't want the same situation to arise!

I prefer the ITV4 highlights show to Eurosport coverage of BSB so I have to avoid certain internet pages, PH2, MCN paper [ I can’t even look at the shelf in a shop as they results will be on front cover lol] until Wednesday at 8pm or so.

But I think this week I will have to watch it on Eurosport as its the last round, triple header - should be great - remember last year.


MotoGP may be the pinnacle but the racing in WSB and BSB are so much better.

I hope Tommy Hill, Lowes, Byrne & Brooks [or a couple of them anyway] get a competitive ride in WSB [and don’t go to MotoGP on a CRT bike] then it would be even better than this year

[996 sps]

graphene said:

Top five places - five different manufacturers:

Max Biaggi	Aprilia	358
Tom Sykes	Kawasaki	357.5
Marco Melandri	BMW	328.5
Carlos Checa	Ducati	287.5
Jonathan Rea	Honda	278.5

Great championship, I bet Rea is kicking himself for that highside with a 10 second lead on the others.

[Johno]

It was a great weekend to be there, the crowd were not happy with Max winning and to hear a majoritively French crowd applaud Tom more than the polite applause for the new champion was very interesting.

The French National anthenm rang out for 4 of 5 races during the day so the wine ran freely and the atmosphere was brilliant.

It's such a shame since Brands Hatch was dropped from the WSB calendar we do not have a single round that now rivals the European rounds for atmosphere ..... We were between Adelaide and Chateaux D'eau and the view was excellent, plus big screen, plus voical crowd. So much better than Donington or Silverstone.

Gutted for Tom, but he'll have learnt a lot this year and his ride in tthe 2nd race was fantastic ...

[Fleegle]

Johno said:

It's such a shame since Brands Hatch was dropped from the WSB calendar we do not have a single round that now rivals the European rounds for atmosphere

I'm with you on this one.

I still remember the day I rocked up with over 100,000 other people for wsb. You won't be getting that at Donny or the other sthole

[Broccers]

Fleegle said:

I'm with you on this one.

I still remember the day I rocked up with over 100,000 other people for wsb. You won't be getting that at Donny or the other sthole

Maybe not for wsb but been to Donington with massive crowds and its great. Hope to see it back there soon.

[RX7]

If only this could be recreated in MotoGp.

Everything they have tried has failed

Good on Biaggi though, i know he is massively talented but that must take some doing at his age.