Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner are tied on points after six MotoGP rounds

MOTOGP
It’s been replayed on national news time after time this morning, but the sensational battle to the wire between Fiat Yamaha teammates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo at the Catalan Grand Prix in Spain will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time.

Rossi was back to his brilliant best with a last corner passing manoeuvre on a section of the circuit where it’s simply not possible, but The Doctor made room and rode his YZR-M1 up the inside of local favourite Lorenzo to deny him victory at home.

The pair had gone back and forth for the entire race in front of over 90,000 fans, with warm temperatures reducing the life of the Bridgestone control tyres, leaving Rossi and Lorenzo to battle it out with minimal grip for the second half of the 25 lap affair.

As the laps wound down the duo began to get increasingly closer, fighting for the all important advantage heading into the final lap as one rider would attack before the other counter-attacked, with Lorenzo eventually leading into turn one on the last lap.

Rossi made his move past early in the lap but ran wide, allowing his teammate to sneak back up the inside before the memorable last corner pass of Rossi was inch perfect and too late for Lorenzo to respond to.

The victory was the 99th of Rossi’s glorious career, with the Italian clearly happy at him triumph in Lorenzo’s backyard, while Lorenzo was disappointed in his loss after going head-to-head with Rossi for the first time for the entire race – which was a startling effort as he matched Rossi on equal equipment in only his second season of premier class racing.

Sunday’s battle between Rossi and Lorenzo comes as a brutal warning that the pair’s rivalry is about to reach boiling point in the quest for MotoGP supremacy.

Young gun Lorenzo has challenged eight-time world champion Rossi like no other teammate of his ever has before, not only on track but also off the track in the fight for the biggest fan base, where Lorenzo is rapidly building himself a huge following amongst the younger legion of MotoGP spectators.

Meanwhile Rossi is ever the favourite after growing of age as a champion in front of the motorcycling world. He had the most recent laugh on Sunday with a win, which was his 99th grand prix victory.

The Rossi and Lorenzo battle is about to reach boiling point

An interesting moment after the race came when Rossi took the opportunity to point at Lorenzo’s number 99 racing number as a signal for his success, which won’t sit well with the 22-year-old title contender at all.

In third place was Casey Stoner, the Ducati Marlboro rider exhausted after fighting off the effects of not feeling “quite himself” and also having to hold off a hard-charging Andrea Dovizioso, who also continues to improve.

The result sees Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner tied for the series lead with 106 points apiece after the six of the 17 rounds set to run this season, setting up a thrilling title fight between the trio.

It looked as though Casey would have been able to stay with the Yamahas if he was feeling better, although it must be said that he’s done a miraculous job this year to be tied on points so far considering the battle of Europe’s best this year.

Fifth place finisher Loris Capirossi deserves an honourable mention even though the new Suzuki engine was a disappointment to the team after six months of development, leaving Queenslander Chris Vermeulen languishing down in 11th after a bad start.

Nicky Hayden had a breakthrough weekend for a top 10 finish, but his result isn’t quite indicative of his form over the weekend where he credited test rider Vito Guareschi for changing “everything but the grips” on the Desmosedici.

A new electronics system on the Ducatis of Stoner and Hayden was also cutting in much more often than previous versions, which is believed to be in a bid to stop the violent pumping from the rear suffered by Ducati riders in the 800cc era.

Hungarian former 125cc World Champion Gabor Talmacsi made his shock debut in the MotoGP World Championship with Team Scot Honda in Barcelona alongside Yuki Takahashi.

Talmacsi split with the Aspar Aprilia team on the eve of the Le Mans Grand Prix following a contractual dispute, and rumours quickly circulated that he would be on a Scot Honda in MotoGP at the following round.

But that move never happened and the rumours had since blown over, leaving the paddock puzzled when it was announced late Thursday evening in Spain that Talmacsi would be competing on Takahashi’s spare bike in Scot colours.

The move had to be approved by Honda bosses before it was finalised, and that approval came through over the weekend, allowing Talmacsi to make his premier class debut on Friday before making his race debut on Sunday.

Talmacsi circulated in the race to 17th place as the final finisher, gaining valuable experience on the bike and bringing even greater sponsorship dollars to the team that was reportedly in danger of collapsing without the Hungarian’s funding.

It’s now been said that Takahashi could be on the way out of Team Scot if extra money isn’t sourced, which would be a massive blow to Honda, which always likes to have at least one Japanese rider in its stable.

Talmacsi was on a Scot Honda at Catalunya

Impacting the uncertainty for Takahashi was a devastating opening lap crash, exactly what he didn’t need when coming under the pressure of a rider with sponsorship dollars hunting for his spot on the team.

The hot rumour doing the rounds at Catalunya on Sunday was that defending 250cc Grand Prix World Champion Marco Simoncelli had signed with the Gresini Honda team in a lucrative two-year deal for MotoGP starting next season.

Italian star Simoncelli, who is a close friend of Valentino Rossi, denied the rumours stating that Yamaha is his first choice, although he did admit that if there wasn’t an option there then Honda would be his second choice in his switch to the premier class.

It has long been rumoured that Simoncelli would be automatically in with Monster Tech 3 Yamaha due to his ties with Rossi, although a firm offer with factory opportunities from Honda would also be a very appealing option for the current Gilera rider.

Simoncelli did rule out a move to Ducati as a rookie, stating that the bike looked extremely difficult to ride as a rookie in MotoGP and that it wouldn’t be the correct move for him to make his MotoGP debut with.

There are many interesting times ahead!

Alvaro Bautista won the 250cc Grand Prix race at Catalunya in comfortable fashion, stretching the points lead in the class over second place finisher Hiroshi Aoyama, with Hector Barbera third. Reigning world champ Simoncelli crashed out of the race in the early stages.

The 125cc race was an intriguing affair when Julian Simon though he won one lap before the chequered flag, sitting up and waving to his home crowd too early and allowing Andrea Iannone to win his third race of the year. Second was Nicolas Terol ahead of Sergio Gadea, while Simon had to settle for fourth.

You can’t help but feel sorry for Simon after a photo finish also ruled him out of third place and off the podium even though he was already in parc ferme. The question is, was it a rider or team error that cost him the victory? It looked like the team’s fault to me, being a mix up with the pit board and counting down the wrong laps, but despite that, any racer should know that you never stop until you see the chequered flag!

MOTO2
As seen in our News Releases section over the weekend, total of 41 riders on 27 teams have been selected to compete in the Moto2 World Championship when it makes its debut in 2010, with Dorna and the FIM releasing a statement last weekend in Spain confirming the news.

Team Roberts could be joined by many sattelite MotoGP teams in Moto2 next year

After receiving massive entry numbers from 47 teams it was decided to provisionally offer entries in the class to 27 of those teams, while a further 10 teams were placed on a reserve list and 10 other teams were refused entry.

The teams provisionally accepted will have until the Portuguese Grand Prix in October to confirm the details of their entry including the team structure, machines to be used and riders contracted, and those provisional teams will be finalised on the Estoril weekend.

It’s believed that many of the top MotoGP satellite teams including Tech 3 and Pramac Racing were on the list despite having to use the Honda control engines in Moto2, while Honda-supported MotoGP teams like Gresini, Team Scot, and LCR were also believed to have been on the provisional entry list.

One interesting team making a return is Team Roberts, which fielded a MotoGP squad until the end of 2007 when they hit financial troubles, but they’ll be back in the new category next year.

ROAD RACING
British Supersport star Steve Plater won the Senior TT race at the Isle of Man TT, capping off a hectic week of real road racing action where John McGuinness won the Superbikes, Michael Dunlop and Ian Hutchinson won the Supersport races, and Hutchinson also won the Superstock race.

It was a very eventful year this year after Cam Donald was injured early on before the racing after getting a new record, while the Senior TT was dramatic because McGuinness unfortunately broke a chain as the favourite for victory.

Despite his disappointment, McGuinness broke Donald’s outright fastest lap of the circuit by setting an impressive 131.578mph lap before he went out of the race on lap four.

The presence of MotoGP hero Rossi stole most of the limelight though, but he’s since told the European press at Catalunya that he’d never race the Isle of Man no matter how much money he was offered.

Boyd has been on fire in Oz MX, but has a 30 point gap to leader Marmont

AUSTRALIAN MOTOCROSS
The race for the 2009 Australian MX Nationals Championship may become very interesting soon as CDR Rockstar Yamaha’s Cheyne Boyd took a clean sweep at Murray Bridge in South Australia on Sunday, winning the Pro Open class ahead of teammate and series leader Jay Marmont.

Marmont still holds a very secure 30 point lead in the series with three rounds to go, but Boyd made 12 points up on him over the weekend as is gaining confidence quickly after four moto wins in a row.

Boyd dedicated his victory to the late Bronte Holland, who passed away last week and was a close friend of Boyd and many identities in the Australian motocross racing industry.

Kawasaki’s Craig Anderson was third in his first podium of the year for Team Green, and a mention has to go to American Josh Hansen who did a great job by finishing sixth in moto one and 17th in moto two after a first turn crash for 13th overall.

In the Pro Lites it was Shift Motul Suzuki’s series leader Matt Moss who proved too strong with a double victory, absolutely dominating the day to take victory ahead of Luke George and Tye Simmonds – stretching his points lead to 20 points in the process.

AMERICAN MOTOCROSS
Australia’s Chad Reed won his first ever AMA Motocross National in the 450 class at High Point Raceway over the weekend, the Suzuki star taking over the championship lead after winning ahead of Honda riders Ivan Tedesco and Andrew Short.

With Mike Alessi and Ryan Villopoto out of the running now the series looks like it’s Reedy’s to lose, but he can’t rest by any means because he has those two Honda Red Bull Racing riders breathing down his neck and looking to pounce.

Queenslander Michael Byrne had his best result of the season with fourth overall, narrowly ahead of Kiwi Cody Cooper. Dan Reardon suffered a big crash and didn’t feature in the top 10, while Jake Moss’ TLD Honda team didn’t enter the round.

The 250 class was won by Frenchman Christophe Pourcel on his Monster Pro Circuit Kawasaki, who had a perfect weekend to take over the lead in that class, taking over the series lead once again from Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey – the pair are separated by just two points in the title hunt.

Josh Hansen won the Moto X at X Games last year

X GAMES
The invited athletes list to compete at X Games 15 in Los Angeles, California, on 30 July-2 August has been slowly updated throughout the last few weeks and it features a star studded line up of action sports personalities.

In the Super X there’s the likes of Chad Reed, James Stewart and Jeremy McGrath just to name a few, while the Freestyle Motocross athlete lists feature all the big names – click here to check them all out.

Racer X reported last Friday that we may even see Reed in a rally car this year, which would be great to see him up against American champion Travis Pastrana, and in other crossovers it seems that James Stewart will race Supermoto because his Twitter page said he was going to practice the discipline this week in Cali.

It’s going to be huge this year, and we can’t wait!