Finally the new MotoGP season is upon us and there are so many things to look forward to about it, starting off with the excitement of racing under floodlights for the first time in Qatar this weekend. The whole event will be something special but when it comes down to the nitty gritty of dishing out the points I think the only person who can beat Casey Stoner is Casey himself.

If anybody is going to challenge the reigning World Champion in this opening race I think it will be a Michelin rider and not Valentino Rossi. It is well documented that the tyre restrictions worked against Michelin last season but they still have the capacity to react quickly and make tyres to order, as they always did in the past, and over the past five days they will have been using the data from the Qatar test to come up with something more suited to the cool nighttime track conditions at Losail. The humidity also seemed to affect Bridgestone more than Michelin in the test and the Japanese won’t have had time to go back and make new tyres so they’ll be stuck with the same compounds.

HRC are still struggling to make their new engine work and they don’t seem to be able to get any grip with the new chassis, to the point that Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa are getting consistently outpaced by the satellite Honda riders. Nicky thought they’d found something with the chassis at Jerez but he was so despondent in Qatar that he didn’t even want to talk to the press, which is most unlike him.

So, it seems that the Michelin riders most likely to be nipping at Casey’s heels are the four rookies, who have been impressive throughout the winter. Jorge Lorenzo and James Toseland showed the potential in the Yamaha-Michelin combination with strong performances in the last test and I’m really anxious to see if they can reproduce that same level in the race. They might get a reality check when we return to more normal conditions at Jerez and Estoril but this unusual start to the season gives them a great chance to make an impression and they are both mentally prepared to take it.

For the British fans there is also the mouthwatering prospect of a podium challenge from a trio of teenagers in the 125cc class. Bradley Smith, Danny Webb and Scott Redding were all lapping within the top six on the opening day of the test at Qatar and I believe Danny shaved something like four seconds off his best lap from last year. That is a great sign and I’ll definitely be amongst their paddock supporters cheering them on from pit lane. Bradley looks particularly good and by finishing testing on top of the time sheets he has really added to the excitement.

I don’t want to jinx him and I don’t want him to read this and feel as though I’m putting any pressure on him but he clearly has the talent because he’s doing the lap times. The problem in the 125 class is that he is up against a few riders who are more mature and have more experience; also, the closeness of the racing means you can easily lose five places on the last lap.

At the moment he is having fun and probably feels like a kid with a new video game, who keeps setting the highest score. Whilst that feeling continues he will be very successful and he’s definitely in with a shout of winning races, but let’s just take it one step at a time.

There will be a slightly bitter taste in my mouth in Qatar, however, with Team Roberts the most notable absentees from a travelling circus that changes in shape and size with every passing year.

Team Roberts have been around for over 20 years and it doesn’t seem that long since we used to call them the ‘Roberts Empire.’ I remember a newspaper in England doing a two-page spread with Wayne Rainey and Luca Cadalora with the headline: ‘All The King’s Men.’ The reasons they are not in the paddock make it all the more harder to swallow and as a close friend of many of the team members, not just Kenny, it will feel sad to be without them.

Kenny’s vision when he decided to start his own project was that if he stayed with Yamaha he would always be dictated to about how to race and which way to go with development. By creating his own motorcycles, and then eventually leasing engines to go in his own chassis, he maintained the spirit of competition and the essence of racing.

With the likes of Kenny and Erv Kanemoto eventually being squeezed out, what we are effectively left with is five manufacturers (four of them Japanese) controlling the sport. Whatever the FIM or Dorna might think it is still the factories who have the power and it is tantamount to allowing the top four football clubs in England to run the Premier League. Unfortunately MotoGP is a harsh world that moves very quickly and for most people it will be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind.

It was great to see the first real competitive road race action get underway with the first couple of rounds of the World Superbikes in Qatar and Phillip Island, which provided intrigue and great entertainment. I was delighted to see Fonsi Nieto get his first win – he’s a kid I know well from his Grand Prix days and he has had a lot of unfair stick over the years. In a strange way that was a good win for Ducati and Paolo Flamini too, even though Fonsi is on a Suzuki, because it stopped a lot of fingers being pointed in their direction.

However, there were still three Ducatis in the top four in race one and five of the top six in race two at Qatar, before Troy Bayliss did the double at Phillip Island, which will be of some concern to Mr Flamini. The rules were changed to accommodate Ducati this year but it is important that they are also adjusted to ensure that nobody has an unfair advantage and I think it was wise of Flamini to give himself that option. It is good to see the organisers constantly working to level the playing field.

Now it’s time for the truly elite racers to go head to head under floodlights in Qatar and I can’t wait. Let’s go racing!

Randy