Phew! The World Superbike and World Supersport racing from Vallelunga at the weekend left me breathless.

In the first World Superbike race Troy Bayliss initially took the lead from pole position, but it was clear within a couple of laps that there was a problem with his machine and he couldn’t match the pace of the race leaders. Noriyuki Haga set a blistering pace and despite Max Biaggi looking like he might challenge for the lead in front of his home crowd it never came to anything and in the end he settled for second place with Troy Corser just behind in third.

Next up we had World Supersport and what a race that was. Jonathan Rea took an early lead  but his teammate and current championship leader Andrew Pitt was right on his tail. Then there was a constant changing of position (and paint) whilst Broc Parkes, Robin Harms and in the latter stages of the race Eugene Laverty battled it out for the third place on the podium.

A mistake from Pitt saw him drop back into the clutches of the following pack and gave Rea an unassailable lead. Laverty showed his racing credentials and managed to get through the pack into third position which Pitt tried to take from him, this eventually ended in tears for Pitt after a dramatic coming together with Laverty saw Pitt in the kitty litter and his championship lead cut dramatically. Real edge of the seat stuff for them and me!

An emotional Rea took the race comfortably with Yamaha teammates Parkes and Laverty taking second and third positions, respectively. Rea said in the post-race commentary that he would have sooner been dicing with the following riders – spoken like a true racer.

The second World Superbikes race saw Bayliss leading again from pole position right from the start of the race, with the championship title in his sights and no sign of the race one problems. Nori however had other ideas and an epic battle between the two riders ensued with more than one elbow and fairing bashing session at the end of the start/finish straight.

Meanwhile, Max Biaggi had a terrible start. He looked to clip Corser at the very start of the race which put him into a high speed wobble across the pack of fast accelerating starters and eventually running straight into the unlucky Keenan Sofluoglu and a dramatic crash resulted for both riders that completely obliterated their machines.

The dramatics at the front continued throughout the race with many changes of the lead and Corser looming closely in third place. Then Michel Fabrizio came up to join the party and on the last lap got past Corser into third place ensuring not only a podium place for him but also the championship for Bayliss.

Wrong! Bayliss only needed to ride around in second and it would have been a done deal, but fans of Bayliss will know that he isn’t wired like that and he continued to push Haga for the win. Then in a dramatic last lap crash Bayliss’ hopes of tying up the championship went down the tarmac. However as the Xerox Ducati team covered their eyes the spectators watched in amazement as Bayliss held onto the throttle and kept the bike running to eventually re-mount and finish 16th so unfortunately no points. The win went to Haga, who got the double with Fabrizio in second and Corser taking his second third position of the weekend.

So, a cracking weekend for Yamaha and the fans not such a good one for Bayliss.

Can’t wait until Magny Cours for the penultimate race of the season in two weeks time, will Bayliss take the championship there?

We’ll have to wait and see!