From a press release issued by Parkalgar Honda: ONE of the things I cannot stand about racing is the insincerity, fawning and popularity games that many of the riders, managers and paddock groupies seem to love. It just wastes time and energy in my book. Take Qatar and the opening round of the World Supersport Championship. It was a tough race for everyone and Craig brought his Parkalgar Honda home in third for a podium finish. The team was made up and a lot of people shook our hands and congratulated us. There is nothing wrong with that, it is to be expected. When my rider is beaten fair and square, I’ll shake the hand of the winning manager and be sincere when I say well done. But there are times when someone wishes you congratulations and well wishes and it is so obviously fake that it makes you want to laugh out loud. When Chris Walker, who makes no effort to hide how much he dislikes me, offered his hand at Qatar I nearly fainted. I was polite and shook it and instantly disliked myself for joining in the fake smiles, handshakes and politics. It’s been a rollercoaster two opening rounds of the Championship. The Qatar result was as hoped for and the Phillip Island disaster doesn’t bear thinking about. The Parkalgar Honda team had no previous data for either circuit and now goes into the rest of the season with its two weak tracks behind it, so we remain upbeat. Craig is sixth in the Championship and only 17-points behind the lead so he is still a title contender, no doubt about it. Before the next round at Valencia we will have a test at the circuit and when we go racing we all want the podium or a maiden victory, that’s what we are in it for. MotoGP starts this weekend and people are asking me whether I think the winner will be Casey Stoner or Valentino Rossi. Valentino has a large tax bill to pay off and may be slightly hungrier this year and I hope that really motivates him to race because if it does we will be in for a vintage season of MotoGP. When Valentino started winning in the premier class Mick Doohan had just retired, so we never got to see the heavyweights really fight it out. Now with Casey and Valentino, we may just get to see two of the best riders ever slog it out and that will make great entertainment, which in turn is good for bike racing as the audiences will increase. Then again given the impressive testing performance of James Toseland, a rider I really rate, wouldn’t it be great to see a Brit challenging at the front in MotoGP”¦I’ll be watching the race on Sunday night. Catch you all soon. Simon