News 12 Oct 2009

The Go: Octoberfest

This weekend marks a massive weekend in Australian motorcycle racing, causing a few tough decisions for MotoOnline.com.au editor Gobert.

Stoner leads at the Island in 2008. He'll be hoping for more of the same this weekend.

Stoner leads at the Island in 2008. He'll be hoping for more of the same this weekend.

The month of October has long been a sensational month for Aussie motorsport fans as the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Bathurst 1000, and the Indy (now the A1GP) weekend take place all within weeks of each other.

Last year saw Super X, the Australasian Supercross Championship join the stacked month of action for the first time, and now with the addition of MotoOnline.com.au to my working schedule, I suddenly find myself up in arms as to whether I’d prefer to see the Island MotoGP round or Super X opener in Tassie.

The clash between the Super X opener in Perth and the Aussie MotoGP round wasn’t a huge deal last year since I didn’t cover much dirt news or race coverage in my role at AMCN magazine, but for this year, I very much aim to cover all things equal on this site – and love it!

So what do I chose, then? On one hand, MotoGP is the pinnacle of road racing and spans over three days featuring the likes of Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and co.

On the other hand, the Super X season-starter in Tasmania marks yet another year of what has been the greatest domestic motorcycle racing series this country has ever seen, and the (yet to be confirmed) opportunity to see Chad Reed in his Kawasaki debut is a hard thing to ignore.

In the end, I’ve decided to stick with the three-day MotoGP event at the Island, pretty much because I’ll be attending a number of other Super X rounds during the season, and also because live television coverage of Super X (woo hoo!) will pull me through Saturday night just nicely.

Having the penultimate round of the Australian Superbike Championship there is also a great attraction for the Island weekend, with Glenn Allerton leading the series by less than 20 points over Josh Waters and Wayne Maxwell at this point.

Super X fans don’t be disappointed though, because thanks to Global Action Sports’ brilliant media campaign, we’ll have the race reports as they finish despite my absence, and a host of rider interviews have already been lined up and ready to be completed – starting with Ryan Marmont in tomorrow’s Moto Talk.

There’s no doubt that I’m excited for the weeks ahead, as Super X brings a fresh new season of racing right as so many around on the globe are coming to their season’s end.

It’s going to be a thriller down at the Island this year as Casey strives for a three-peat on the Ducati Desmosedici, and don’t forget to salute Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen in his final AGP appearance (for now) before he heads off to World Superbike with Kawasaki in 2010.

On second thoughts, anybody here have a helicopter to hop over to Launceston on Saturday arvo? Save me a seat if you do, that would make for the ultimate weekend of moto racing.

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