Last year we came to Valencia for the first "proper" round of the SBK championship in the rain. This year couldn't be any more different - while the UK languished in the grip of a late winter, with snow forecast for the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Brands, the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia was basking in sunshine. Which, I have to say, was rather nice.

For many, Valencia marks the end of the silly circuits - the ones where you have to travel so far to get there that you've almost forgotten what you are there for - and a return to relative normality. Certainly there is a refreshing familiarity to mainland European tracks which make it easier to drop into a routine and get started properly. And if you've got to choose somewhere to start properly, Valencia is as good a place as any. It's a beautiful circuit, combining fast sweepers with tight technical sections to produce some really excellent racing. The enthusiastic Spanish crowd, bolstered by the presence of no less than three of their own riders at the top level plus another brace midfield, just adds to the experience and makes the whole party somehow more, um, party-like. Which is nice.

Practice and qualifying showed that the four week break between Australia and here hadn't done anyone any harm. All teams have finally got their 2008 bikes, even though some are keeping last year's machinery as a reliable fallback, just in case they encounter major problems. Lap times, even taking the difference in weather into account, are massively improved over last year. Which is interesting, as in theory there shouldn't be that much difference. Just goes to show how much development work goes on, particularly with Pirelli, over the closed season. There were, in fact, several surprises during qualifying. The first was the relatively poor performance of the Xerox Ducati team, with Bayliss and Fabrizio ending up seventh and eighth, over half a second down on Carlos Checa, the Spaniard combining huge talent with local knowledge and a spectacularly well sorted machine to put his Ten Kate Honda on a comfortable pole. Max Neukirchner also raised a few eyebrows, the immensely likeable German being second fastest after leading the timesheets in the first session, while Lorenzo Lanzi also did well on the privateer Ducati. In fact it seemed that quite a few riders were enjoying something of a renaissance, with oft-injured but ever so fast Yukio Kagayama and the previously struggling Ryuichi Kiyonari both making the cut for Superpole. Local knowledge no doubt helped David Checa get his not hugely competitive GMT Yamaha into Superpole as well, edging out Greg Lavilla on the Ventaxia Honda.

Superpole is, I feel, a very egalitarian experience. Why? Because the slowest qualifier gets to go first so everyone in theory anyway, gets to sit at the top of the timesheets for at least a couple of minutes. It should come as no surprise that David Checa's time at the top was limited. Talented as the young Spaniard no doubt is, he was unlikely to be faster than Nori Haga. Or, indeed, Max Biaggi. Both of whom followed him out after what was, for them, a pretty dire qualifying. Biaggi took the lead by just under five hundredths of a second before himself being ousted by Kiyonari a few minutes later. Kiyo immediately yielded to Xaus who turned in an astonishing final sector to go from being sigificantly slower at the two thirds point to taking a solid lead. But despite that, Xaus was in turn pipped by Bayliss. Then Yukio Kagayama stunned us all by delivering an absolute textbook performance - well, apart from a rather fruity slide, that is - to snatch pole from Bayliss. Troy Corser had crashed in the latter part of qualifying and though he was back out in a few minutes so clearly wasn't badly hurt his Superpole performance was not up to his normal standard and he was only able to slot in ahead of Biaggi. Lorenzo Lanzi wasn't able to maintain his earlier pace, splitting Kiyo and Xaus, while last man to go Carlos Checa also had a torrid time, ending up justa tenth ahead of Corser. Max Neukirchner, second place in qualifying and thus second from last to go, though was a revelation. Smooth, calm, unhurried even, the young German blasted his Suzuki onto pole, just over a tenth of a second faster than his team-mate to give the first Suzuki one-two on the grid for as long as I can remember.

So the start will see a lineup of Neukirchner, Kagayama Bayliss and Xaus on the front row. Lanzi heads the second row from Kiyonari, Checa and Corser. Biaggi, Haga, Fabrizio and Tamada make up row three. Which should make for a very interesting first couple of laps. Perhaps with some elbows involved...

Race day started warm, dry and sunny. Sunny enough that tyre wear might well turn out to be an issue through the races. Warmup means nothing, of course, being little more than a chance for the riders to blow away the cobwebs before starting the day's work. But for the record, the session was dominated by last year's race one winner Ruben Xaus. Though the Yamaha pairing of Corser and Haga respectively seemed to have shaken off Saturday's doldrums and made regular forays to the top of the table. And indeed stayed there, despite pressure from the local contingent.

But as I said, the warmup means nothing. And when the flag dropped several people demonstrated that qualifying meant nothing as well, most notably the Alto Evolution pairing of Shuhei Aoyama and Luca Morelli who charged up from their lowly qualifying gaining five and four places respectively in just one lap. Further up the field, Max Neukirchner capitalised on his pole position to extend an immediate lead. Troy Bayliss also got an excellent start to take second, hotly pursued by a rejuvenated Lorenzo Lanzi and Ruben Xaus. Corser and Haga also did well unlike Kagayama who had a dire start and ended the first lap down in seventh, ust ahead of Max Biaggi.

And that's where it got interesting. Unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Whether there was fluid on the track or something, we'll probably never officially know. But three riders all came off at the first corner of lap two. ShuheiAoyama, having made such a strong start, was desperately unlucky to be one of the fallers. The youngJapanese rider was joined in the gravel byGimbert on the GMT Yamaha and local hero Fuertes on his Suzuki. Threelaps later, as Nori Haga pushed to try to make up for his poor qualifying he lost the front at the same corner and slid out at high speed, unhurt but unable to continue. In the same lap another local hero, Morales, crashed his Yamaha and Yukio Kagayama slid out of contention on the Alstare Suzuki. Happily the immensely, and deservedly, popular Japanese rider was unhurt. Just two minutes later, Ruben Xaus devastated the local crowd by following Kagayama into the gravel at the same place. Though able to remount and make some progress, he eventually retired half a dozen laps later. In the same lap, Michel Fabrizio crashed out of contention, again unhurt, while a shorth time later Max Biaggi added to the Sterilgarda team's woes by encountering a gearbox problem that caused him to go straight on at a corner, making a U-turn on the escape road and running onto the gravel to drop from tenth to last. Ryuichi Kiyonari was robbed of some richly deserved points with a mechanical failure, too.

But as far as those still in the game were concerned, thing had settled down. Max Neukirchner had built a comfortable cushion over the pursuing Bayliss. Lorenzo Lanzi was hounding his former team-mate for second and Carlos Checa had eased away from Troy Corser to start threatening for a podium at his local round. Indeed, after a slow start the Spanish Ten Kate Honda rider showed his real class, slipping past both Lanzi and Bayliss in textbook passes. But Neukirchner was a long way ahead and riding impeccably. Still the Spanish former MotoGP star kept the pressure on and gradually closed. On the final lap it looked as though Neukirchner had done enoughto prevail, but heading into the last corner where Checa had made so many good cleanpasses, the Spanish rider dived down the inside. Only this time there really wasn't space to make it work. Checa lost the front of the Honda and swept the young German with him into the gravel by the simple expedient of taking his front wheel out. A racing mistake is fair enough, but Checa's total disregard for the wellbeing of a rider he had just skittled, leaving Neukirchner helplessly pinned under his bike while he urged the marshalls to get him back on the track and moving was breathtaking in its callousness and did untold harm to the Spanish rider's standing in the paddock.

So Checa's mistake elevated the Ducati pair behind to first and second. And it was Lorenzo Lanzi who prevailed over Bayliss in the last gasps of the race to take his maiden win. Bayliss was second with a surprised Corser a distant third. Fonsi Nieto maintained Suzuki and Spanish pride in a well deserved and hard fought fourth while Checa remounted and finished fifth. Karl Muggeridge stormed through to sixth in a brilliant race and Greg Lavilla rode to an excellent seventh. Laconi, Tamada and Rolfo rounded out the top ten.

Race two saw a notable absence at the front of the grid. Max Neukirchner sadly broke his collarbone in his last lap crash and was unable to start, so everyone got moved up a slot. Again it was a clean and event free start, with Aoyama making even better progress to gain seven places in the first lap. Unfortunately a previously undetected problem with the bike after the race one crash meant that after just a couple of laps it no longer felt safe and the Japanese hero had to back off and just ride to gather setup data and gain experience of the new bike.

Up at the front it was Yukio Kagayama who made the break into the first corner, Troy Bayliss just behind with Xaus and Haga leading a short train of Lanzi, Biaggi and Corser. This was short lived, though, as Bayliss, Xaus and Haga all muscled their way past the Suzuki in the first half lap. Checa made a good start but got pushed back by a very aggressively riding Troy Corser. The fight at the front soon resolved to Bayliss, Xaus and Haga, with Haga certainly the man of the moment. Halfway through the second lap Haga stuffed the Yamaha inside of Xaus to make a clean but forceful pass while a couple of places back Corser did the same to Lanzi before getting embroiled in a short fight with Kagayama. Bayliss and Haga made a rapid break away at the front while Corser climbed all over Xaus and Checa climbed through the field as well, making a fabulous pass at the end of the main straight to take both Corser and Xaus in one hit. Despite a brief fight back from Xaus, Checa got through and started to close on the front pair. Max Biaggi manage a better showing this time out as well, getting onto the tail end of the front pack within five laps. Xaus and Corser found themselves in ading dong battle, giving Kagayama some clear space to get away in fourth. But on lap seven, Haga managed to take the lead on turn one in a brave pass, especially bearing in mind that he crashed there in race one. But on the next corner, Checa made a masterful move to take both Bayliss and Haga in one go. And made it stick. Corser was now in a real furball, with Xaus ahead of him and Biaggi behind and all three of them giving no quarter at all.

Checa made a huge lunge at the front to try to make the break, but though Bayliss seemed unable to maintain the pace, Haga stuck firmly behind him. Then on lap eleven, Checa moved off the line and put his hand up, letting Haga and then Bayliss through. It later transpired that Checa had an electronics problem which only went away when he turned off the traction control. Kiyonari rode well to join onto the back of the group, while Lanzi on the other hand had a dismal time, dropping back to ninth by midway through the race. Haga and Bayliss pulled away at the front, Haga pushing spectacularly hard and making the Yamaha behave like a bucking bronco on several occasions. Kagayama suddenly found himself being passed very robustly by Checa and Corser in quick succession, Checa managing to ride around the problems with the Ten Kate Honda. Haga and Bayliss were fighting but Haga fought from the front and, despite massive pressure from Bayliss held it to the line. Kagayama yielded to Corser and then British Superbike champion Kiyonari on the other Ten Kate Honda while Corser got past Xaus and immediately made a gap for himself. Kiyonari slipped past Xaus while Biaggi struggled bravely with the broken wrist he picked up at Phillip Island and managed to stay with his team-mate, even giving him a fairly hard time. Corser was struggling with rear end grip and yielded to the pressure of a spectacularly in form Kiyonari who out-dragged the Yamaha crossing the line to start the final lap.

So Bayliss has reinforced his stranglehold at the top though Haga did himself, and the championship, no harm at all. Checa combined brilliant talent with appalling judgement and mechanical bad luck. It wasn't a total classic meeting, but it had its moments, that's for sure. Three weeks to go before the next round at Assen. Another great circuit which may well give us some great racing. Let's see, shall we?

Race One

1 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
2 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
3 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
4 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)
5 Carlos Checa (Honda)
6 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
7 Gregorio Lavilla (Honda)
8 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
9 Makoto Tamada (Kawasaki)
10 Roby Rolfo (Honda)

Race Two

1 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
2 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
3 Carlos Checa (Honda)
4 Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)
5 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
6 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
7 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
8 Max Biaggi (Ducati)
9 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
10 Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki)

Championship Standing after three rounds:

1 Troy Bayliss 128
2 Fonsi Nieto 80
3Troy Corser 72
4 Carlos Checa 72
5 Ruben Xaus 68
6 Noriuki Haga 47
7 Max Biaggi 44
8 Lorenzo Lanzi 42
9 Max Neukirchner39
10 Michel Fabrizio 37

SB