Some last-race deciders can be something of a formality. Others are truly memorable
After 75 world championship years, history means something in racing, and history keeps getting made. Including last year.
The title fight went to the final round in Valencia in November. That makes it a third consecutive cliff-hanger. A rare event.
Only once since 1949 have there been three consecutive last-race deciders. That continued to make it four – 1978 to 1981. The first three went to the same rider. Kenny Roberts,
the fourth to Marco Lucchinelli.
Even single last-gasp deciders are not exactly common – 21 times out of 75, or 28 percent. This in spite of several different scoring systems. When it began, only the best three results from six races counted, and variations on that continued all the way through to 1976 (six of nine)… with a one-off 13 of 15 in 1991.
Barry Sheene (pictured below) won in 1976 and took advantage of the system’s loophole… not bothering to go to the last three races, to the dismay of fans in Finland, Czechoslovakia and West Germany.
On the other hand, the opportunity to pick and choose did have one particular benefit, at a time when the riders’ and factories’ opposition to the dangers of the Isle of Man circuit was growing year by year. It meant that skipping the TT wouldn’t necessarily cost them too much in terms of points, and might just save their lives.
The closest last-gasp outcome involved another British hero. In 1967 six out of 10 races counted and Mike Hailwood, riding for Honda, and MV Agusta’s Giacomo Agostini actually tied on corrected scores, with exactly 46 points each. Ago took it, by virtue of three second places to Mike’s two. Neither had finished lower than second in a truly epic year, but the Honda suffered some reliability problems, as well as famously bad handling, and Mike had three non-finishes to Ago’s two.
Not surprisingly, while some last-race deciders can be something of a formality, others are truly memorable, like Valentino Rossi’s two losses, at Valencia in 2006 and 2015. In the first, he had seen Nicky Hayden knocked off at Estoril by Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. While he narrowly lost the race to Toni Elias, second was enough to finally give him the points lead, 247 to 236. He needed only to finish within two places of Hayden to secure the title. Instead, he fell off.
It was equally dramatic in 2015, following his infamous spat with Marc Marquez in Malaysia, which earned him a back-of-the-grid start – his last-minute appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport having failed. He’d arrived seven points ahead of hated teammate Jorge Lorenzo, but Honda pair Marquez and Pedrosa ushered the Yamaha rider over the line to win, while Rossi was almost 20 seconds down in fourth. Lorenzo won the title by five points.
There was a sadder aspect to Wayne Rainey’s four-point win over Mick Doohan in 1992. The Yamaha rider had been left trailing by Mick’s mighty big-bang Honda NSR, and even skipped the Dutch TT, injured. That was where Mick broke his leg, triggering a horrendously drawn-out medical saga as he missed four races, his legs sewn together at one point to share blood supply. Mick, as thin and pale as a ghost, still led by two points as they lined up for the final round at Kyalami, South Africa. Mick finished sixth, Rainey third, enough to deny Doohan an heroic crown.
