World Superbikes 2021.

[chrisb]

a terribly tragic Saturday saw a young man killed following his dreams, a 15 year old with strong family connections was tragically fatally injured in the SSP300 race, Mat Oxley wrote an impassioned piece a few months ago in MotoSport calling for an age limit and Saturday's tragedy sadly supports his assertions, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Vinales's family in this terrible time.

After that tragedy all WSB racing on the Saturday was cancelled, they returned on the Sunday and Toprak continues to stretch his lead over Johnny and Scott,

BSB is now in the 'shootout' and my word given the crashing at Oulton Park shootout is about right my word it is fierce,

BSB moves to Donnington Park this weekend, something I have a ticket for, but have some concerns about being able to get there due to yet another Governmental fiasco, I may get there but not sure about getting back....and WSB moved to Portugal, something that I would think may be a good idea for a few years, so plenty of action this weekend

[René]

That is terrible Chris. I do not follow this series but 15 sounds very young. Like so often a tragedy is needed to wake people up and make a real change.

[chrisb]

not quite sure why or how, but the WSB circus is in Argentina this weekend, with a championship tightly poised between Toprak and Johnny, with Scott some way behind but looking good, we have all seen some strange things hapepn in a championship, and I just keep thinking wouldn't it be amusing if Scott took the chamionship with him to BMW

[charleselan]

I have to say that I have been truly amazed at some of the venues many championships have been to in 2021 Chris, it is like they are saying "what pandemic". As they say money talks and that is what it is all about these days.

[chrisb]

well the championship ends this weekend in a very very wet Thailand, with one race postponed until Sunday due to monsoon like conditions they did manage qualifying and sure enough Toprak was quickest, with Jonathon 2nd and Scott 3rd. A great 4th was the American Garrett Gerloff and 5th was Locatelli

saying farewell to WSB this weekend is none other than Chaz Davies, the Welsh wizard finished runner-up no less than 3 times and his replacement Rinaldi and i have no idea why but was 1.3 seconds slower than Scott, whose last weekend with Ducati before hopefully a very competitive BMW-

Also possibly out of the WSB are two more Brits, Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam, that makes 4 previous British winners possibly now out of WSB-

[charleselan]

I have just read that as well Chris, why the blazes they are there goodness knows; well I do actually it is due to the country being one of the worlds largest motorcycle purchasing countries, although I doubt they are Superbikes.

Very sad that WSB are loosing all three of the British riders, not necessarily due to nationality but for the fact that all three are quality riders. Chaz is definitely retiring, but Tom and Leon look as though they are returning to BSB which will be great for the national championship.

I really hope that BMW pull their finger out next year, hopefully the arrival of Scott will take them to a new level and he will not be happy if he is tooling around in the lower part of the Top 10.

[chrisb]

Thailand proved to have a good circuit, it also proved to have torrential rain, and some very very brave and skilled riders, the WSS race was exciting with Cluzel coming from 13th to win, epic race! and then Race two, the class of the field was obvious and bodes well for next year, Johnny and Scott were just head and shoulders above anyone else, Van De Mark was good and Toprak was as challenging as ever, if he 'when?' he goes to MotoGP he may not go down so well with his aggression, should be interesting and probably lead to a Turkish MotoGP, as his fan base is huge

Relieved to see everyone got through the terrible conditions with some exceptions, but au revoir Chaz, and where Leon and Tom good luck on your new ventures and that's it, no more international motorbike racing for a very long time, apparently about 138 days to the next MotoGP race, although as it is supposed to be in Texas this may not happen