2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

MotoGP Race

Valentino Rossi had taken the first psychological victory of the weekend with pole position at Estoril ahead of team-mate Colin Edwards and championship leader Nicky Hayden. This marked the first time that two Yamaha men had qualified together on the front row this season and for only the second time this year the front row starters all wore Michelin tyres. Estoril had never been a happy hunting ground for Bridgestone as the only podium the Japanese tyre manufacturer ever scored in Portugal was when Tamada came second to Rossi in 2004.

Hayden was the only rider capable of wrapping up the title at Estoril. If Hayden was to win the race and Rossi to finish lower than fifth then Hayden would be crowned champion. But the chances of Rossi finishing lower than fifth at any race are extremely slim, let alone one where he was starting from pole position. From the 13 occasions he has started from pole position since joining Yamaha the Italian went on to victory 11 times. While this was the first time Rossi had scored pole at the Portuguese circuit he has four victories to his credit and had never failed to at least score a podium in his six starts at the 4.18km circuit. In contrast Hayden has not enjoyed Estoril in previous season with a seventh place finish last year and ninth in 2003. The American did not race at Estoril in 2004 as he was sidelined with injury.

MotoGP rookies Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner were both to start from the second row of the grid and in the morning warm up before the race the pair put down the quickest times ahead of Edwards, Rossi and Hayden. If Pedrosa was to finish ninth or higher at Estoril he would amass the most points ever scored by a rookie and take away that record from Valentino Rossi who earned 209 points in his first premier class season back in 2000. Estoril is the venue where Casey Stoner enjoyed his first ever GP victory when he won the 250cc race at the circuit last year after starting from a lowly 12th place on the grid. Victory would be the best 21st birthday present for the young Aussie who celebrates that birthday on the Monday following the race.

Dunlop shod Carlos Checa continued his late season run of form and started from the third row at Estoril on what was the likeable Spaniard's 34th birthday. When Bridgestone shod last year Checa was the first man shod with the Japanese tyres to cross the line with fifth place. Checa scored pole position for Yamaha at Estoril back in 2002 onboard a Yamaha and went on to take second position in the race that year.

The grid had grown in number for Estoril also with the first competitive outing for the new 800cc Ilmor X3 machine. McCoy won on a Yamaha at Estoril in 2000 and the Australian is the only rider other than Rossi and Barros to have taken victory at the 13 turn circuit.

Colin Edwards got the holeshot off the line but allowed Rossi through to the lead as they tipped into turn one. Dani Pedrosa didn't score a similar invite but went past the Texan anyway at turn two to move up to second place, Hayden was in fourth, Stoner fifth, Capirossi sixth. Shinya Nakano went down hard a few turns into the race.

Nicky Hayden took third place from Colin Edwards early on lap two with an aggressive sideways pass under brakes. Stoner and Gibernau both went down making for a certain dampener on Stoner's 21st birthday celebrations come Monday.

Pedrosa started to look for a way past Rossi early on lap three and Edwards had done his team-mate a favour by pushing Hayden back down to fourth place. Edwards then went one better with an impressive move underneath the Spaniard in the tight flip-flop chicane and the two actually touched. Hayden and Pedrosa then also touched half a lap later as the American moved up to third place, the fact that the two team-mates touched would have caused some near heart failures in the Repsol pitbox.

Then the unbelievable happened! Dani Pedrosa lost the front after clipping the kerb or the white line and skittled into his team-mate which sent both riders tumbling through the gravel trap. Hayden punched the gravel in frustration while Rossi no doubt smiled under his helmet at his rival foes demise when he was shown on his pitboard the next time around that the Kentucky Kid was down and out. A diabolical blow to Hayden and the only positive to come out of the incident was that he escaped the tumble without injury. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Repsol Honda pitbox...

With nine laps of the 28 lap race down Rossi enjoyed a 1.2 second lead over his team-mate Colin Edwards who was starting to come under attack from Toni Elias while Kenny Roberts was also working his way into contention. Marco Melandri did some dirt tracking on lap 12 but managed to rejoin the race albeit well down the order.

Elias ran in way too deep into a left hander on lap 14 but somehow managed to collect it up and still stay in front of Edwards but the Texan got him a couple of corners later and Roberts had joined the party to make the tussle for second place into a 3-way affair. Elias took the advantage again on lap 15. Meanwhile Rossi was unflustered out in front and enjoying a two second buffer over his pursuers.

Elias finally managed to break away from Edwards on lap 16 and the Honda man then started to haul in Rossi hand over fist. He reduced the Italian's lead to less than a second in a single lap while Kenny Roberts upped his level of attack on Edwards. The clouds then also started to really throw some dark shadows over the Estoril circuit, a downpour would really throw a soggy cat among the pigeons in this truly amazing race.

Garry McCoy entered the pits on the Ilmor machine after making a fairly encouraging debut with their 800cc prototype during the course of the weekend. McCoy went back out for some more testing time on the new privately built machine. Nothing like ironing out the bugs in a new machine in front of 60,000 spectators!

Elias was riding with maximum aggression, the back wheel of his Honda stepped out sideways under brakes at virtually every turn and with nine laps to run was only a couple of bike lengths adrift of Rossi. Edwards and Roberts were not too much further behind with the Texan maintaining a very slim advantage over the Californian.

At the end of the main straight Elias came from half a mile back to go underneath Rossi completely sideways into the first turn and somehow still made the turn. Words can't do justice to that amazing move. Absolute jaw dropper. The leading quartet had suddenly closed right up and Rossi was not going to have the easy run to the flag that he was expecting only a few laps earlier...

Rossi went back underneath Elias a lap later with a tidy inside move after the Spaniard ran a fraction wide. Edwards and Roberts watched on from close astern. Roberts got Edwards for third with five laps to run making it Honda's in second and third putting more pressure on Rossi. Roberts then went underneath Elias later on the same lap to move up to second place. Could he do his fellow American the ultimate favour by taking some points off Rossi? Less than a second covered the top quarter with four laps to run but Rossi had half a second on Roberts and was looking determined to hold onto his lead.

Roberts inched closer and closer at every turn and with three laps to run was right on the tail of Rossi as they went down the main straight while Elias and Edwards tussled over third place. Roberts looked to be able to go in harder under brakes than the Italian but Rossi looked to have the advantage on exit.

As they started the penultimate lap Roberts went through to the lead for the first time. Never before would the Repsol garage have cheered so hard for a Team Roberts rider. Elias also got right onto the tail of Rossi also.

Then as they crossed the line to start the last lap Rossi pulled alongside Roberts but then Elias shot to the lead at the first turn, Roberts second, Rossi third but Rossi then got second place from Roberts at the next turn to set up an exciting final lap. Half a lap to run and it was Elias, Rossi, Roberts, Edwards with very little separating them. Rossi through on the entry to the flip-flop to take the lead, into the esses Rossi has the advantage... Elias won the drag race to the line by a gnat's whisker in an exciting climax to an amazing race. An absolute nailbiter than went all the way down to the wire and even with top contenders like Hayden, Pedrosa, Stoner and Gibernau all going out early it will still go down in history as one of the greatest races of modern times.

So Elias the winner by two-thousandths of a second with Roberts rounding out the podium only a fraction further behind while Edwards just missed out on the podium. The podium for Roberts came six years after he took second at the Portuguese circuit on the two-stroke Suzuki in what was his only other podium finish at Estoril.

So the title goes down to the wire at Valencia.... The last time a title went down to the last race of the year was when Kevin Schwantz led over Wayne Rainey by 18 points back in 1993. On that occasion however it was already a fait accompli as Rainey had his career ending crash at the Italian GP two rounds earlier. Thus the last real time it had gone down to a final round nailbiter was the year before with Rainey and Doohan battling to the end at Kyalami. Doohan arrived in South Africa with a two point advantage carrying significant injuries sustained in a round eight crash at Assen which had allowed Rainey to get into a position to challenge at the final round. Doohan rode through pain to a brave sixth place but Rainey took a safe third to take the title. Interestingly this is the only occasion in history that a rider arriving at the final race behind on points has gone onto win the championship.

So history does not rate Hayden's chances too highly but as we saw tonight anything can happen... Rossi needs only second place or better to clinch the series at Valencia even if Hayden wins the race...