Season ending spectacular

Bayliss led a Ducati one-two with Italian Loris Capirossi in the last race of the 990cc era as American Nicky Hayden finished third and claimed the world title on a Honda after Valentino Rossi had a rare crash. Rossi got back on his Yamaha to finish 13th in the race at Valencia in Spain -- in front of a crowd of 129,000!

Not since American Wayne Rainey overhauled Australia's Mick Doohan in the final race of 1992 had the rider going into the last round in second place taken the title. It was justice for Hayden, who had led most of the season and only lost the lead when his Spanish teammate Dani Pedrosa crashed into him in Portugal two weeks ago.

Bayliss, who recently clinched his second world superbike crown, amazingly achieved at Valencia the MotoGP victory that eluded him in two years on Ducati's GP bikes in 2003-2004 and then another season on a Honda.

"Honestly, it's been a fairytale weekend, I'm pinching myself," Bayliss says. "I've had a great year. Winning the world superbike championship was a good start! Then just when I was kicking back I got a phone call asking if I was interested in doing this ride (in place of injured Spaniard Sete Gibernau). It was something I couldn't knock back because I started the Desmosedici project with Loris at the end of 2002 and had some great times in 2003 and '04, so to be able to come back and finish off the story at the last 990 race was incredible. This will be my last ride in MotoGP. I've had some great times, but I'm really comfortable where I am and this is probably best left to the young guys. To take a win is incredible -- I've showed I can still ride around in circles pretty fast!"

There were three other Aussies in the race, with Garry McCoy 15th on the new Ilmor machine, but Casey Stoner crashed out of fifth in his final outing aboard his privateer Honda ahead of his move to Ducati next season while Chris Vermeulen's crashed his Suzuki just before Stoner's exit.

Ford set for rally title
The world rally driving championship was decided in Western Australia at the weekend without the world champion even being present, but Ford has strengthened its grip on the manufacturers' title.

Frenchman Sebastien Loeb missed the last Rally Australia with a broken arm, but as Finn Marcus Gronholm finished fifth Loeb has secured his third title with two rounds remaining -- in New Zealand and Britain.

At WA's last Rally Oz before the event moves to Queensland in 2008, Gronholm's Ford teammate and fellow Finn Mikko Hirvonen won his first WRC round, while Australians Dean Herridge and Chris Atkinson finished eighth and 10th respectively in Subaru Imprezas. Hirvonen's Ford Focus completed the 26-stage rally 37.1 seconds ahead of Norwegian Petter Solberg's Subaru, with Austrian Manfred Stohl third, almost another 3½ minutes back, in a Peugeot.

Ford's win was its sixth of the year, the most it has ever scored in a world rally season, and doubled its lead over Citroen in the manufacturers' championship to 16 points, although the Citroen effort is through a satellite team, Kronos.

Loeb has a 21-point lead (112 to 91) over Gronholm, who needed to finish at least third in Australia to stay in the title hunt but could only manage fifth after his rollover on the first forest stage on Friday. Hirvonen's win consolidates his third place in the championship on 57 points. He is 14 points ahead of Spaniard Daniel Sordo in a Citroen, although Sordo and Stohl remain in contention for third. Solberg's second place was Subaru's best result since the Argentina round in late April and he is sixth in the series on 31 points. Spain's Xavier Pons, driving a Citroen in place of Loeb, finished fourth in WA but more than 7½ minutes behind Gronholm.

Loeb, 32, joins Finnish greats Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen as the only drivers to win at least three world rally titles.

Kankkunen won four -- in 1986, '87, '91 and '93 -- and Makinen four in a row from 1996-99.

Atkinson bemoans lost podium
Chris Atkinson might have been on the podium in Perth had he not gone off the road on Friday after setting the fastest time on each of the first three stages in the forests. Atkinson was leading by 13 seconds at that point, but his Subaru got stuck in deep sand by the roadside and heat from it set grass and bushes alight, leaving the Impreza damaged as well. He was allowed to resume but with a 25-minute penalty for missing six stages. He was consistently in the top five but never had the same feeling of control. Early Sunday he encountered a tree across the road after coming over a blind crest. In the process of taking evasive action, he clipped a tree on the side of the road, damaging the left hand rear side of the Impreza, but by the finish he and co-driver Glenn Macneall had climbed back to 10th -- from 36th after Friday's off -- but more than 27 minutes behind the winning Ford.

"After the time loss on the first leg there was nothing to be gained in being a hero," Atkinson says. "I didn't have the same confidence in the car, so I was not taking big risks. Without confidence it's hard to push and get the sort of speed we had on the first day. It wasn't the result that we wanted but we had the pace we wanted on the opening day, and that's encouraging because it could have very easily been a podium result for us. After Friday we wanted to look after the car for New Zealand (on November 17-19). We are encouraged but not getting carried away. We've still got a lot of work to do, so we're not kidding ourselves that we're back where we need to be. I'm looking forward to NZ now. If we can take some more steps forward with the car then we might be in the position to push for a podium again, so that is definitely our goal."

Dean Herridge's eighth outright, 18 minutes 22 seconds behind Hirvonen, came in a Group N Subaru. He and co-driver Bill Hayes were not only the top-placed Australians but third in the Production WRC (PWRC) competition.

Schumi the 'super assistant'
Ferrari is undergoing big changes in the wake of Michael Schumacher's retirement from grand prix driving. Jean Todt is to head the whole business -- road cars and racing -- with Schumacher as his "super assistant", a role that the seven-time world champion says hasn't yet been defined. Luca di Montezemolo, who is moving on to bigger things in the Fiat empire and Italian industry, says Schumacher "was always a team man, always willing to help others" and that "his experience and professionalism will be very useful to Ferrari". The role is certain to include identifying new drivers for the Scuderia. Schumacher says Ferrari "will give me the freedom of what I will have to do -- they don't expect me to be at my desk at any (particular) time, for example. I will first need a few months off to clear up my mind and then we'll be getting back to work." Among other changes at Maranello, technical director Ross Brawn is taking a year off but denies he may join another F1 team.

New Senna in F1 by 2009?
Ayrton Senna's 23-year-old nephew, Bruno, wants to be in F1 by 2009 -- and the team most likely to take him is Scuderia Toro Rosso, the second Red Bull outfit half-owned by Gerhard Berger, a great friend of the late Brazilian triple world champion. Berger is a half-owner of Toro Rosso and apparently has to find funding for it. A new Senna could prove attractive to potential sponsors of the team. He is set to drive next season in the GP2 series that supports F1 at European GPs. He says of recently-retired seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher: "If my uncle had not died, Schumacher would have won two titles less. Michael rarely had to drive right at the limit, but that would have been very different had Ayrton been there."

Montoya 11th in Busch debut
Juan Pablo Montoya finished 11th in his first NASCAR Busch Series race in Memphis, after qualifying ninth. He ran in the top 10 early in the race but was bumped into a spin that put him back in the field and he had to fight his way back.