VOL. 51 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 4, 2014 P45
NIGHT MOVES
Racing through the night is nothing
new for endurance racers or the MotoGP
crowd, but the main memory for all in the
World Superbike paddock of Losail will
be getting out of bed so late it leaves a
panic in the heart that you are going to
miss the first sessions. Teams and riders
spent most of the daylight hours waiting,
building up to a climax of racing in the
dark, then shooting back to hotels at the
first opportunity.
The fact that the championship itself
would be decided at the lunar landscape
of the final round in Qatar saved what
could have been a wasted trip to many.
Isolated out there a month after the
rest of the season, isolated out in the
desert in a venue that very few people
turn up to watch at, and held in the night
to avoid wild track temperatures, lots of
people questioned the wisdom of going
back to Qatar with World Superbike at all.
But give the track in the dunes its dues.
It is big and fast and long at 3.3 miles.
It is reliably dry almost all the time. It is
well designed for safety and lets the Su-
perbikes sing to their full capacity, which
some other circuits categorically do not.
It was also a circuit full of surprises
that started even on the first day.
Tom Sykes was slow, Marco Melandri
even slower. Ducati led the way even
though they have not as many horses to
play with on the over half-mile long main
straight. The Suzukis were well up the
front as well, again not expected at such
a fast track.
Whatever else the combined factors
that made up Qatar being run late in the
night did, it made people pay attention. It
delivered some strange performances, at
least to start with. And it was also some-
thing different from any other round.
That alone may make it worth doing
over and over.
Racing under the lights of Losail
was new to the World Superbike
Championship.
