91Èȱ¬

We have had a lot of correspondence asking us why we didn’t cover it on television. The simple answer is that we don’t have the rights to World Superbikes. However, we have bought some pictures to show at the end of our MotoGP coverage this weekend and we’ll be catching up with James at the final MotoGP of the season in Valencia.

James’ triumph was covered by the website, by News 24 and on the radio. Many of the complaints have focused around the lack of coverage on the Six and Ten o’clock news and I have spoken to them about this.

It was a huge weekend for sport especially on Sunday with the Rugby World Cup, F1 and a full Premier League fixture list. News has limited time within these bulletins and there simply wasn’t room for all the stories that day.

James’ achievement isn’t going unnoticed though. 5Live will have an extended interview with him this Sunday between 5-6pm, Inside Sport will be catching up with him on Monday 29 October and his achievement will be recognised during the programme in December.

Clearly we’re delighted at his success and it will be great to see him competing in MotoGP next year, where you’ll get a chance to watch every race live.

The MotoGP team are in Australia this weekend and will be welcoming home a triumphant Casey Stoner; he claimed the title at the last race out in Japan. It’s an early start again so set your alarm clocks for 0545 BST but if you can’t face that then the race will be re-run on 91Èȱ¬ 1 at 1300 BST.

I’ll be back here in London with one of the other MotoGP producers on site in Oz so it’s a very early start for us too.

Over in Philip Island, Steve Parrish will again be heading up the charity ride along with Barry’s son Freddie, and then Freddie will unveil a special Sheene liveried Suzuki that Chris Vermulen will be riding this weekend.

Barry was very much Chris’ mentor which is why he rides #71 (the iconic number 7 was already taken by the time Chris arrived in the MotoGP paddock).

There’s no rest for the teams as they head onto next weekend for the penultimate round where we should have a decision on the proposed switch to a single tyre manufacturer for 2008 and we’ll be catching up with Nicky Hayden as well.

Last year so let’s hope for more of the same this time around.