The MotoGP World Championship is building towards a gripping climax and there can be no better stage for the grand finale to begin at than Phillip Island this weekend. This is truly one of the greatest circuits in the world and all of the top four riders go well here. To be honest I have never heard a rider in any class say they don’t enjoy it and this Sunday’s racing should be extremely interesting.

This is the time in the season where championships are won and lost and Valentino in particular will be looking to bounce back and re-establish himself as the man to beat after his disaster in Portugal. Valentino still has that magic touch and for me he is still very much the best rider out there but he got whipped last week by three riders. However, Estoril is something of a bogey track for him and he would have probably finished fourth there last year too if it wasn’t for the camera coming off the back of Casey’s bike, so there’s no reason to suggest he won’t be back to his best this weekend.

His problem, of course, is that Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner are at such a high level that anything less than perfection in terms of set-up and performance makes it impossible to win. Estoril was a drab race, settled by a couple of tenths here or there, and the most intense part of it was watching Casey trying to close the gap to Lorenzo at the front, but for the championship it was the perfect outcome and now there is every likelihood it will go down to the last race at Valencia.

Even though Phillip Island is a much better track for Valentino he didn’t have his best race there last year. I remember him battling for a lot of laps with James Toseland, who had a great race and will be desperate for a similar performance this time around. Even though he is heading for World Superbikes he will want to prove himself before the end of the season and stake his claim for that coveted seventh place in the championship.

I’m still finding it hard to get over the fact that we’re losing James and indeed Chris Vermeulen to World Superbikes. I pointed out in my last column that these guys are not far off the pace – we’re talking about guys who are just outside the top ten of the world’s premier series being allowed to leave and go to another class. The fundamental reason is not that they are not competitive enough but because there aren’t enough bikes on the grid. It stems back to the fact that MotoGP is currently not cost effective for the teams, but that’s a column for another day!

Having said that, I’m really looking forward to seeing how Ben Spies gets on and in moving to MotoGP a year early he has absolutely made the right decision. It is going to be ‘Team Texas’ at Tech3, which to me sounds like some kind of university fraternity! It would be awesome if we could also have ‘Team GB ‘on a pair of Yamahas, with James and Cal Crutchlow. If Honda can put six bikes out there then why can’t Yamaha?

Going back to this weekend, all eyes will be on Casey Stoner, who wants to show that he really is back by winning his home race for the third year in a row. Personally it was a big relief to see Casey make such an impressive return to form. I was holding my breath – simply because of the respect I have for him as a racer and what he has achieved in such a short time in MotoGP – because the press were ready to pounce on him again had he shown any sign of vulnerability. Nobody of his stature should be heckled and it’s great to see him silence the doubters. He isn’t to everybody’s taste because of the way he conducts himself in the press but the mark of the man is the respect he has earned from Valentino, who rates him as one of his toughest ever rivals.

So Casey will be going for it in front of his home crowd whilst Lorenzo has no other option but to attack. The racing is usually fantastic at the island and even if there is a split like in Portugal, the intensity of the battle will make it essential viewing. Right now every tenth of a second counts and if you want to put one of these bikes on the podium there is no letting up and no time for rest. It’s going to be another enthralling weekend.

Randy