Farewell to Losail

With the provisional calendar for the 2010 World Superbike season featuring no Qatar round of the championship for the first time in five years, it’s worth looking back on the often-momentous happenings at the 5.380km circuit near Doha.

In 2005, Suzuki Alstare man Troy Corser started what would be a successful championship challenge with the race one win (photo), before his team-mate Yukio Kagayama scored a victory of his own, his first in WSB.

The year after, James Toseland won his first race for Honda in race one, before Corser took his second triumph at the fast, flat and furious Losail circuit.

Max Biaggi got his first WSB season off to an incredible start by winning the opener in 2007 on his Suzuki, only for Toseland and Honda to win his second Losail race, sharing the early points lead with Biaggi.

Ducati legend Troy Bayliss finally got a Losail win in 2008, his final championship year, but a great result for Fonsi Nieto (Alstare Suzuki) saw him ride confidently on his GSX-R to score victory, his lone WSB win so far.

Ben Spies is the only rider to have won the double at Losail and this year it was one of those rounds where he was just perfect, taking pole, a new lap record and fastest ever qualifying lap, and then both 18-lap race wins on his Yamaha R1.

No prizes for guessing that the Suzuki riders may be the ones who miss Qatar most, as no fewer than five of the total of ten Qatar WSB races have gone the way of the official Suzuki men.