Kyalami, about 20km North of Johannesburg in South Africa has it all. It's an interesting layout with massively improved safety, elevation changes and fantastically grippy tarmac. In fact even the normally treacherous red and white kerbs are grippy. It's got a delightful club circuit sort of feel to it, the normally ultra professional and slightly remote atmosphere of an SBK round giving way to a slightly more amateur and friendly environment. It's also a long way up, and the thinner air robs the bikes of maybe ten percent of their power. Add to that a distinct lack of long straights and the playing field has the potential to be evened out somewhat. But that grippy surface, combined with the heat which one can reasonably expect in South Africa, plays havoc with tyre life, reduced power or not.

Practice and the first qualifying sessions showed that Michel Fabrizio, who got two close second places here last year, hadn't forgotten his way around as he dominated the first two sessions, coming second behind the perennial good qualifier Jakub Smrz in the third. Cal Crutchlow, too, was doing well after his excellent Supersport ride here last year, as were the usual crowd of Biaggi, Rea, Checa and Haslam despite both Checa and Biaggi enjoying excursions into the gravel trap in different sessions.

But of course these sessions are simply the preamble to Superpole, where the final grid positions are decided. So if you're in the top twenty at the end then you're still in with a shot at a decent start. And the first session of Superpole saw, surprisingly, Max Neukirchner, Shane Byrne, Chris Vermeulen and Broc Parkes fall by the wayside to make up the fifth row of the grid. Session two, fourteen minutes long, was even more surprising. We ended up with a fourth row of Troy Corser, ahead of local hero Sheridan Morais on the privateer Aprilia, with Ruben Xaus next and Nori Haga bringing up the rear. While row three saw Luca Scassa ahead od Sylvain Guintoli, Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes. So that left just twelve minutes of Superpole Three to decide the front two rows. And when the dust had settled (literally, as Jakub Smrz rode through the gravel at one point) it came down to a straight fight between the Yamahas of Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland, the latter's performance all the more remarkable considering that he is still far from properly fit after last weekend's first corner carnage. Crutchlow finally prevailed after the lead swapped a few times, taking pole by seventeen thousandths of a second from Toseland, with Carlos Checa third and Fabrizio rounding off the front row. Leon Haslam headed row two from Smrz, Biaggi and Leon Camier. Out of interest, by the way, the only two riders not in Superpole were the Pedercini Kawasaki pairing of Matteo Baiocco who started behind his team mate, Roger-Lee Hayden.

Anyhow. While Superpole is obviously terribly important in terms of who starts where (and so who gets the best shot at making a break), it's obviously overshadowed by the races themselves. Even less important is warmup, though for completeness I should tell you that Crutchlow was fastest, closely followed by Fabrizio and Haslam. Interestingly, Haga was fifth, the best we'd seen from the Japanese rider all weekend.

So Race One, then, started with the normal dash to the first corner. And it was Michel Fabrizio who got the holeshot, with Carlos Checa slotting the privateer Althea Ducati in behind him and Toseland taking third while Cal Crutchlow got a truly horrible start, ending the first lap back in eighth with an awful lot of work to do. Especially as he was behind both Aprilias, with Camier having outdragged Biaggi to the first corner and sat in a comfortable fifth, ahead of Rea and behind Haslam.

Now bizarrely, this was actually a really exciting race. But not at the front. Fabrizio and Checa both rode an absolutely faultless race and maintained a blistering pace throughout. While Checa was certainly pushing hard and keeping him honest, Fabrizio never showed an sign of being seriously threatened, and remained in the lead from start to chequered flag, ultimately crossing the line over a second ahead of second placed Checa, with a gap of around four seconds back to third.

But that's where things started to get interesting. Toseland battled gamely on and seriously looked likely to get a podium for the first half of the race. But Haslam's race pace was very strong and the Suzuki, despite being ferociously fast, seemed to be easier on tyres than the Yamaha which got progressively more out of shape as the race went on. By the halfway mark Toseland was under pressure from Haslam, Biaggi and Camier, and on lap twelve Haslam dived under the struggling former champion. It took Biaggi another couple of laps, after managing to despatch Camier following a protracted scrap, to get past Toseland, who then set about defending his position with enthusiasm and considerable skill against the other marauding Aprilia of Leon Camier.

Then, in an audacious move just three laps from the end, Johnathan Rea, who had been steadily climbing through the field after dropping off the pace around the mid point, managed to pass both Camier and Toseland around the outside, a move frighteningly reminiscent of the one he tried last week in Monza. This time, though, instead of ending up looking for his bike which was in small pieces on top of the barrier the young Ulsterman found himself in fifth place. Toseland's woes were compounded by the fact that Camier slipped through on the same lap, though he continued to battle on and managed to finish a respectable seventh, ahead of Crutchlow who never recovered from that dreadful start. It later transpired that both Yamahas had tyre problems that prevented the riders from capitalising on their undoubted ability.

Race Two was a different story as it was Leon Haslam who got a fantastic start to take an early lead, joined, astonishingly, by Jonathan Rea who slotted into second place from the third row, ahead of Biaggi and Fabrizio. Crutchlow again made a dreadful start, ending the first lap in sixth behind Checa while Toseland did even worse and wound up ninth behind Camier and Troy Corser. Camier had started well but got comprehensively beaten up by, I think, Checa, and was pushed off the track, dropping back slightly. Interestingly, from that initial very strong start the young Englishman faded very rapidly and retired with technical difficulties on lap eighteen, outside the points and with no possibility of upping the pace. Whether the enforced off track excursion had anything to do with this or whether it was just one of those things that happen in racing is still unknown.

Back up at the front, far from clearing off into the sunset, Haslam was harried and harassed by Jonathan Rea for one whole lap. Biaggi managed to briefly get into the lead of the battling trio before Rea pulled the same trick as in race one, riding around the outside of both of them to leapfrog from third to first in one hit. But unlike race one, though the lap chart shows little movement, that's because when they crossed the line the order was always the same. It doesn't take into account the incredibly close fight that went on from lights out at the beginning to the chequered flag between three equally matched bikes and riders. I lost count of the number of passes, attempted passes and feints that took place in that twenty four lap race, and I can only guess at how exhausting it must have been to ride at that pace and that level of concentration for so long. There was never a moment when I honestly thought that any of the three leaders had it sewn up, though Rea did extend a bit of a lead when Haslam and Biaggi got particularly feisty with each other. It didn't last though.

And adding to that freight train we had Checa and Crutchlow joining on the back, the Yamaha rider gaining the advantage fairly early but again never entirely breaking away from the Spanish veteran. Fabrizio, meanwhile, seemed unable to maintain the pace this time, falling back and ultimately being passed by Corser and Toseland.

So two of the most entertaining races we've seen so far this year ended with Leon Haslam consolidating his lead over Biaggi, with the pair of them a vast distance ahead of third placed Rea. But it's early days and if there's one thing certain in racing it's that nothing is guaranteed. Next round is in Salt Lake City, and it could be rather good.

Race One

1 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
2 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
3 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
4 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
5 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
6 Leon Camier (Aprilia)
7 James Toseland (Yamaha)
8 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
9 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
10 Sylvain Guintoli (Suzuki)

Race Two

1 Leon Haslam (Suzuki)
2 Jonathan Rea (Honda)
3 Max Biaggi (Aprilia)
4 Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha)
5 Carlos Checa (Ducati)
6 James Toseland (Yamaha)
7 Troy Corser (BMW)
8 Michel Fabrizio (Ducati)
9 Jakub Smrz (Ducati)
10 Nori Haga (Ducati)

Championship Standing after six rounds:

1 Leon Haslam 222
2 Max Biaggi 207
3 Jonathan Rea 141
4 Carlos Checa 141
5 James Toseland 126
6 Nori Haga 108
7 Troy Corser 106
8 Michel Fabrizio 96
9 Cal Crutchlow 88
10 Leon Camier 82

SB