Hello and welcome to the final edition of the Racing Insider column for 2010, making it 50 in total for the year and what a year it has been for motorcycling racing on MotoOnline.com.au. Anyhow, enough about us, let’s get to the action for one last time this season.

Australian Supercross
The big news this week has been the Super X, Australasian Supercross Championship, Lites class standings for 2010. Who is the champion: PJ Larsen or Matt Moss?

Our news section is full of updates from throughout the whole saga, however it’s certainly a shame that we won’t see a champion declared until early in the new year.

There’s obviously a lot riding on this decision for both riders and their respective teams, but I have a feeling that the gloss will be missing from this particular title no matter who wins it from this point.

In fact, by the time this series is decided, there’s every chance that the AMA Supercross Championship will be underway and very little attention from overseas will actually be cast upon the new champ.

Who is going to win? Well, that is anybody’s guess after Suzuki’s latest appeal. Who deserves to win? That particular question has caused a variety of debates all week long and to be honest, I’ll be happy with whatever outcome is reached as long as the decisions are made according to the rules.

We revealed yesterday that Dan Reardon and Ryan Marmont will be riding for JDR Motorsports KTM at the first couple of AMA rounds, which will add some additional Aussie spice to the mix before they return home for the MX Nationals.

All in all, Super X 2010 was another great season even though it was largely spoiled by rain and many were missing Chad Reed, however I’m hearing positive things for 2011 so definitely look forward to that.

When we officially know more, you guys will be the first to know!

Australian Motocross
To see the industry band together in support of Harley Quinlan yesterday at the Harley Quinlan Ride Day in Victoria was a great thing, which I’m envious that we couldn’t get down there to check it out.

With over $15,000 raised and a lot of cool memorabilia auctioned off by MX Nationals promoter Kevin Williams thanks to the day run by Yarrive Konsky, I’m sure Harley and his family will hugely appreciate the generosity shown by all who attended and took part in the event.

The event gave some lucky fans the first chance to see Cheyne Boyd aboard the factory Honda that he’ll race in 2011, which should be an exciting thing to watch progress if he can get it set-up to his liking.

Just quickly, with Jay Marmont, Reardon, Billy Mackenzie, Josh Coppins, Cody Cooper and a host of Aussie young guns such as Dean Ferris, Todd Waters and Ryan Marmont in the mix for next year’s MX Nationals, we are on for an absolute epic season!

World Superbike
Aussie Superbike Champion Bryan Staring travelled all the way to Europe last week only to have his scheduled test cancelled due to bad weather, delaying his official debut on the Pedercini Kawasaki Superstock 1000 ZX-10R.

While the test was partly for the reason for Staring’s trip to Europe, he did know that the weather was going to be difficult and mostly used the time to set up base in Italy near the Pedercini workshop.

Interestingly, Pedercini does still have a second Superbike seat available, however it’s a paid ride and whoever lands the position will have to take a fair amount of sponsorship money to the team.

What that means is that the previous possibility of Aussie Andrew Pitt joining the team is all but over, which is a disappointment because it would have been great to see him work with Staring next year.

Staring will now set his sights on a test at Sepang in 10 January, which will span over four days and make for a very important number of days on the bike.

While we haven’t had confirmation at this stage, it would be ideal to see Queenslander Chris Vermeulen return to riding at that test as long as he’s fit enough to ride.

Phillip Island’s only just around the corner, less than three months away – a scary prospect in some ways considering we’re only just wrapping up this season.

Australian Superbikes
When the World Superbikes kick off at the Island, the Aussie Supers will also get underway for a brand new season just a few months following this year’s season finale.

I spoke to Yamaha Racing Team manager John Redding yesterday and while he didn’t commit to the ASBK fulltime in 2011, there’s a huge possibility that Yamaha will be at a number of rounds since they’re building all-new Supersport-spec bikes for the season.

There’s no doubt that Yamaha is doing all it can to be involved in the Superbike series next year – at least in the Supersport ranks – although Redding did admit that the back-to-back rounds of ASBK to open the season at Phillip Island and Symmons Plains, before Eastern Creek’s FX opener the following weekend, is a huge logistical challenge for anybody.

International Entertainment Group director Yarrive Konsky yesterday sent through these cool pictures of a Viking Group transporter decked out in an ASBK livery.

Konsky said in the email that two of these B-double transporters will be travelling with the ASBK show in 2011, making for a massive 60 metres of storage for the series on the road during the season.

That’s all for this week and for another year when it comes to the Insider column, we’ll be back bigger and better early next year with a host of exciting new features to be implemented on MotoOnline.com.au.

Thank you, as always, for stopping by to check the Insider out!

Don’t forget though, we’ll have the second annual Moto Awards feature up on Friday and the news will constantly continue to be updated during the holiday period as it comes to hand.