And the Winner Is ...

As expected, Qatar went Spies, Haga, Biaggi for both races. Spies tagged along in third behind Biaggi and Haga for most of the first race, passed with 6 laps to go and pulled away as tyres started to fade. In race 2 "Big Ben" jumped to the front earlier and ran away from the pack, holding about a 3 second lead, like many of his past AMA races.
The entertainment was provided by Haga and Biaggi fighting for second place. Biaggi is riding very well this year ... smooth-as-silk lines. Haga had some front end problems but he wrestled it into submission. Smrz didn't spoil anybody's day except his own and Shakey managed a sixth in race 1 but only 12th in race 2. Couple of other interesting results ... Aprilia went 3, 4 in race one with Nakano 10 seconds behind Biaggi. He could only make 7th in race 2, but proves Aprilia has got it sorted right out of the blocks. In race 2, Kiyonari (Honda) was right on Biaggi's tail at the finish. Sykes, Spies' team mate, made a very good showing in both races (7th and 5th), showing that Yamaha has it sorted too. This means that there's a good bike under a good rider with Spies and the big-bang Yamaha ... looks like the Stoner-Ducati combination of two years ago.
Honourable mention goes to BMW who managed a top ten finish in race 1, with Corser in 9th and two top tens in the second race with Corser leading Xaus, 9th, 10th. Nice try, but I don't see them making a single podium this year. I'm calling it now: barring DNFs by Spies, he'll take the 2009 WSB Championship ... sorry Nori, you're going to finish second again.