VOL. 51 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 4, 2014 P43
ficult after falling in race two in
Magny-Cours," Rea said. "I had
12 points to make up but my team
gave me an amazing bike today."
Baz did not feature near the
top in race two, although his fight
back from an off-track excursion
at the first corner left him nearly
last. He got up to seventh and
leaves the series for MotoGP with
a top-five championship placing
in his pocket.
And some harsh words for
Sykes, who never forgave him
for his mistake that cost him any
chance of points in race one in
Malaysia.
"I am a nice person," Baz said.
"I can be really nice with the
people who like me and help me
and are nice with me, but I do
not think this is the case with my
teammate [Sykes]. He has not
always been really nice. I have
helped him in Magny-Cours, but
not in this one."
Baz had the pace to be sec-
ond in race two, but not after his
off-track run.
The last word for the new
champion came from the outgo-
ing one,
"Sylvain is a worthy champion
BLINDED BY
THE LIGHTS
For MotoGP riders, running
under lights in Qatar is nothing
new, and there were a few ex-GP
competitors in the World Super-
bike paddock on 2014. But for
those who had not ridden in the
brightness of a desert evening, the
numbers were still impressive.
What the system delivers is
astonishing, considering genera-
tors power it all. They power 3600
individual lamps, mounted on 1000
poles, that range from 10 feet to
nearly 120 feet high.
If you were wondering, that
means that they could supply the
needs of 3000 domestic houses,
or light 70 FIFA playing fields, plus
special considerations for marshals
posts and flag signaling positions.
Possibly the most impressive
figure is the one that says that it pro-
vides enough lighting to illuminate
a residential street starting in Doha,
but ending in Moscow.
The main question was how do
the riders deal with the situation,
and what about all those false shad-
ows – where you feel that another
rider is drawing alongside but it is
only a shadow thrown forward by
your own machine?
For Tom Sykes it was a simple
situation.
"There are some shadows,
but it is amazing how fast you can
recalibrate and take new things into
consideration. Your mind is like a
fast processor, if you use it correctly
you can allow for things like this."
The main reason for riding at
night, besides the sheer spectacle
of it, is to have manageable track
temperatures for the tires to work
on. And track temperatures of 86-
95 degres in the practice session
for the Superbikes is actually on the
cooler edge of the performance
envelope.
There are 999 more of these light
poles to light up the Losail Circuit.
