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 Magny
Cours is in the middle of France, about 150 miles South
of Paris. It's an interesting circuit, rather reminiscent of
a Scalextric track designed to get as much distance as possible
into a small space. It's highly technical, doubling back on itself
and having very few actual straights, and has some very nice
gradients, off camber bends and seriously hard braking areas.
In short, it's a circuit that the riders need to work at.
Coming here there are many changes happening in
the paddock and the pressure is really on several people to do
well - either to keep their rides or, in several cases, to advertise
their desirability for any potential new bosses out there. Andrew
Pitt, for example, is currently out of a job having been replaced
at Yamaha by Troy Corser who himself has found himself replaced,
or at least sidelined, by Max Biaggi at Suzuki. Karl Muggeridge
is currently looking for a ride after a disappointing season, as
are Lorenzo Lanzi (we think) and Chris Walker.
So qualifying was slightly more tense than usual,
especially as things opened with a dry session and continued with
something really rather unpleasant. And Magny Cours doesn't seem
to be very grippy in the wet. It's no surprise, then, that second
qualifying added nothing to the timesheets other than the disappearance
of Reuben Xaus. The popular Spaniard broke a foot last week at
Imola and crashed heavily again in Saturday morning practice while
the track was still damp and slippery as anything. Nori Haga made
the running in Friday qualifying, just ahead of James Toseland.
Lorenzo Lanzi - riding for his job, remember - just outqualified
Andrew Pitt, riding for any job going. Troy Bayliss, newly crowned
World Champion, cruised around taking it easy. And who blame him,
either?
Superpole was full of surprises as Regis Laconi
made the most of finding a crowd that actually like him to turn
in a very stylish but not especially fast lap, eventually qualifying
 fifteenth, just ahead of Michel Fabrizio. Sebastian Gimbert made
his best qualifying effort of the season in front of his home crowd
to make it into twelfth, ahead of a somewhat off the pace Barros
and just behind Chris Walker. Walker was running second for a while
but gradually got edged just out of the top ten. Fonsi Nieto beat
his team-mate by just a three hundredths of a second while Pitt
came in a surprisingly lowly ninth. Yukio Kagayama, normally so
good at qualifying, dropped to eighth while Max Neukirchner made
a great end of season effort to take seventh. Troy Bayliss really
was cruising, showboating around in sixth place while Nori Haga
ended up exactly where he didn't want to be, on the second row
in fifth. Karl Muggeridge rode the wheels off the Ten Kate Honda
to take a fabulous fourth on the grid, behind an equally impressive
- and surprising - third place start for Lorenzo Lanzi. James Toseland
did his championship position no harm at all with a very solid
second, but honours for the day went to Mr Superpole himself, Troy
Corser.
Race day gave us the delight of sunshine and a
gentle, warm breeze to see out the season in possibly the nicest
way. Warmup passed without incident, Bayliss and Corser proving
the people to beat with Haga, Toseland and an on-form Muggeridge
nipping at their heels. Of course, there's no real pressure in
warmup, and only psychological gains to be made. So as the riders
lined up for the start of race one it was still
Corser and Toseland on the front row with Haga behind. Though not
for long, as a blinding
start by the Yamaha rider saw him slice through to the lead going
into the second corner and hold it for the whole lap. Right behind
him, Troy Corser and Karl Muggeridge chased hard to make up for
the fact that Haga had passed both of them on the way round. All
for nothing, though, as towards the back of the pack wildcard
Ivan Goi highsided his Fireblade exiting the 180 hairpin (that's
what it's called - not a description) and dumped a load of oil
on the track . Out came the red flags and in went the riders for
an enforced break
and a restart. And what a difference it made, too. Troy Corser
made the running off the line, taking full advantage of his pole
position and this time Toseland made the sort of start we expect
and slotted into second behind him. Bayliss and Muggeridge followed
behind, with Lanzi and Haga trailing them. Seven laps of frantic
action saw Andrew Pitt crash out, remounting at the back of the
field and absolutely riding the wheels off the slightly second
hand looking Yamaha for the remaining laps. Nieto crashed out as
the leading group of Corser, Toseland and Bayliss pulled
away from the pursuing Muggeridge and Haga. Up at the front, Toseland
muscled past Corser in a firm but fair overtake while further back
Haga started to turn the wick up, passing Muggeridge and starting
to reel in the leading group who were slowing each other down.
Kagayama passed Muggeridge, who sadly crashed out a couple of laps
later. Muggeridge tries so incredibly hard and is such a resolutely
positive bloke that it's really saddening to see his luck change
for the worse so often.
 Haga was really on a charge now, passing Bayliss
to close up further on the leading duo while Corser passed Toseland
to retake the lead for a matter of seconds before the Englishman
returned the compliment. Then Haga joined in the fun and, before
we knew what had happened, both Corser and Haga had passed Toseland,
Haga taking the lead. But Toseland is made of sterner stuff than
that, and he regrouped and barged back past Corser, running second
for a while before comprehensively duffing Haga up to retake the
lead. The next few laps were real heart-in-the-mouth stuff as the
leading pair swapped places and Corser just sat at the back waiting
to pounce. Toseland rode an absolute stormer of a race, making
some extremely good passes and blocking some brave tries as well,
all without losing momentum. Then the battle moved back as Corser
and Haga started to scrap for second, but the whole front group
were split by less than half a second as they crossed the line
for the last time, Toseland taking the penultimate win of the season
by a tenth of a second from Haga. Bayliss came in three seconds
behind, with a slightly spread out field before Lanzi and Barros'
race long scrap for seventh crossed the line, decided in the Brazilian's
favour. Local hero Laconi came in ninth - the second Kawasaki by
a long way as Chris Walker brought his green machine home sixth.
So going into race two, Toseland had a slight but distinct points
advantage and real psychological one.
 Race two got emotional even before it started,
as Carl Fogarty came over to Frankie Chili to pay his respects,
this being the loveable Italian's last race. The end result was
that both of them ended up hugging and crying, which started half
the press room off as well... Anyhow, lights out and a near carbon
copy of race one ensued, Corser taking the lead from Toseland and
Haga with Muggeridge riding the Ten Kate Honda as though he'd stolen
it in fourth place, right up on Haga's back. Five laps in and Toseland
made his move, stuffing the Honda down the inside of Corser's Suzuki
to take the lead. He immediately set about extending a little,
though it wasn't proving at all easy as Corser wasn't about to
give up. Further back, Bayliss was hounding Muggeridge but it took
until half distance before he could get past and set off after
Haga. The Petronas pairing of Martin and Jones had clearly been
told to ride as hard as they possibly could, and if they broke
the bikes - so what? I've never heard them revved harder or seen
them ridden with more commitment. And for a while both riders made
some pretty good progress before both expired - Steve Martin making
it back to the pits while Jones got a ride back on a marshall's
scooter after coasting to a halt on the approach to Adelaide a
couple of laps later. Frankie Chili was riding really well, certainly
showing the class and pace that made him the legend he is, though
as the race wore on fatigue got the better of him and he dropped
off the pace slightly.
 Up at the front, Bayliss closed on Haga, passing
him several times before finally managing to make it stick and
go after the leading pair. Corser and Toseland were swapping places
too, slowing each other down while still setting a pace that only
Bayliss seemed able to better, closing in on them inexorably until
he finally caught and passed them both, getting repassed almost
immediately. A major battle then took place between the two Troys,
only decided in the new champion's favour with three laps to go
when he also managed to slip past Toseland and take the lead. Then,
the next lap, Corser managed to pass Toseland for second, though
the Englishman soon redressed the balance before losing the place
again at the end of the penultimate lap. And so it stayed, Bayliss
crossing the line a yawning one and a quarter seconds ahead of
Corser who in turn was one and a tenth ahead of Toseland, with
Haga a full five seconds back. Muggeridge rode a fantastic race,
losing fifth to Pitt with just four laps to go, while Frankie Chili
picked things up a bit to finish fifteenth for the last championship
point available this year.
So James Toseland secured second place in the
World Championship, the second time for Ten Kate (who, incidentally,
tied up the Supersport championship today as well, courtesy of
Sebastien Charpentier). Several people did their prospects for
future employment no harm at all and the best pair of races this
year must have had a million people on the edges of their seats.
All in all, a good weekend's work.  Race One
1 James Toseland (Honda)
2 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
3 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
4 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
5 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
6 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
7 Alex Barros (Honda)
8 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
9 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
10 Sunichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
Race Two
1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
3 James Toseland (Honda)
4 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
5 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
6 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
7 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
8 Chris Walker (Kawasaki)
9 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
10 Alex Barros (Honda)
Championship Standing after
twelve rounds:
1 Troy
Bayliss 431 (World Superbike Champion, 2006)
2 James
Toseland 336
3 Nori Haga 326
4 Troy
Corser 254
5 Andrew Pitt 225
6 Alex Barros 246
7 Yukio Kagayama 211
8 Lorenzo
Lanzi 169
9 Chris Walker 158
10 Fonsi Nieto
139
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