Nine Times MotoGp World Champ...!

Valentino Rossi won his ninth world championship with one round of the 2009 season to spare, after a third place finish at a wet Sepang in Malaysia on Sunday. 

The 30-year-old, who has now won seven world championships in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class, had taken the 2009 title lead with his first win of the season at round three in Jerez. 

Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati's Casey Stoner then fought back, and all three were level at the top of world championship standings after round six in Catalunya. 

The next five rounds proved crucial, with Stoner falling victim to mystery fatigue problems while Lorenzo crashed out at both Donington Park and Brno. 

Rossi won three of those five races to build his title lead to a peak of 50 points after the Czech Republic, but instantly lost half that advantage - and threw Lorenzo a championship lifeline - when he crashed out of the following Indianapolis Grand Prix. 

The see-saw continued with a Rossi victory at Misano and then a Lorenzo win at Estoril - when Rossi was only fourth, dropping his title advantage to 18 points. 

The pressure was on for Phillip Island but Lorenzo cracked first, making a mistake into turn one and crashing out, effectively wrecking his hopes of taking the title down to the final round in Valencia. 

38 points clear heading into Sepang, Rossi only needed to be 25 points ahead of Lorenzo to wrap up the title - a feat he easily achieved after converting a record 58th pole into third place in the rain-delayed race, one place in front of Lorenzo. 

“Nine world championships is a great achievement, I'm so happy!” said Rossi. “I would need one hour to thank everyone! Starting with everyone at Yamaha - Furusawa-san, Lin Jarvis, Davide Brivio and all my guys, especially Jeremy. I couldn't have done it without Jeremy and he is like my motorcycle father!

“I also have to thank my family and friends - Stefania, Graziano, Uccio, Albi...so many! All the team, Yamaha and Bridgestone; together we've done a great, great job and it's always a huge enjoyment to ride and work with these people. 

“In order to stay at this level through a whole season you have to be calm and have the right people around you and this is what I have. We've stayed concentrated and focused even in the bad moments, so we can congratulate ourselves with this ninth title.” 

Rossi suffered a scare at the start of the race when he ran wide whilst trying to outbrake Dani Pedrosa into turn one and had plummeted to tenth - behind Lorenzo, who had started from the back of the grid – by the end of a soaking first lap. 

The #46 then shadowed his team-mate up the order, before taking fourth from the young Spaniard on lap eight of 21. That became third position when Andrea Dovizioso crashed out on lap 15, allowing Rossi to reach his target of celebrating championship victory from the podium. 

"Without the rain it could have been a brilliant race, with the four top riders fighting together, but the rain changed it," said Rossi of the weather. "It was scary for everyone because all the work we'd done was useless and we were riding 'blind' with the setting. 

Who's gonna be The King at Sepang...?

Championship contender Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets during Friday's first practice session as the FIM MotoGP World Championship hit Sepang.

The Fiat Yamaha rider is 38 points behind team-mate Valentino Rossi in the standings with just two races remaining and threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the field with a best lap of two minutes 2.180 seconds.

Marlboro Ducati rider Casey Stoner continued his fine form since returning from illness with second place, with Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa in third and Rossi in fourth.

A fourth-place finish on Sunday will be enough for Rossi to take his seventh premier-class world championship even if Lorenzo wins, and the Italian was in relaxed mood as he lapped 0.684 seconds slower than his young rival.

Rossi said: "I am quite happy, even if the time and the position isn't perfect.

"We worked mainly with old tyres to understand the nature of the bike when it's sliding, which is important here, but actually my pace was very consistent and I think we can make another step on Saturday.

"We still need to find a little bit more grip so we will look to improve the setting of the bike for this on Saturday morning - it's going to be very important to be on the front row for Sunday.

"I think the race will be very hard and we will have to take care to prepare properly and drink a lot of water because it is very, very hot."

The Bandidos Gang...1%

The Bandidos Motorcycle Club, also known as the Bandido Nation, is a "one-percenter" motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate with a worldwide membership. The club was formed in 1966 by Don Chambers in Texas. Its slogan is We are the people our parents warned us about. It is estimated to have 2,400 members in 210 chapters, located in 16 countries. The club considers itself to be an Outlaw Motorcycle Club. The Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada have named the Bandidos an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang.

The club was formed in 1966 in San Leon, Texas by Donald Eugene Chambers. Many people think Chambers named his club the Bandidos after seeing a TV commercial with the Frito Bandito raising hell to sell Fritos corn chips. This is not true, as the cartoon came out in 1968 (although he did adopt an obese machete- and pistol-wielding Mexican Bandido as the center patch for the club's colors). Don Chambers, having served in Vietnam as a Marine, modeled the clubs colors after the scarlet and gold motif of the United States Marine Corps. After Chambers' presidency ended due to his conviction for murder in El Paso, Texas, Ronnie Hodge was elevated to president.

The Bandidos has over 90 chapters in the United States, 90 chapters in Europe, and another 17 in Australia and Southeast Asia. In the United States, the club is concentrated in Texas, but extends into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and several other states. The Rock Machine Motorcycle club in Canada merged with the Bandidos in 2000, and there is a chapter in Toronto, Ontario. The Bandidos are also found in Australia; aside from the non-locale-specific Nomads chapter, the chapters are located in Adelaide, Ballarat, Brisbane City, Cairns, Sydney Downtown, Geelong, Gold Coast, Hunter Valley, Ipswich City, Mid North Coast, Mid State, Northside, Noosa, North Victoria, Sunshine Coast, Sydney, and Toowoomba, and were acquired with much bloodletting. In recent years the club has also expanded heavily into Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, France and the Channel Islands. Additionally, it is looking into setting up shop in Russia and Eastern Europe and also in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The Bandidos are organized by local chapters, with state and regional officers, as well as a national chapter made up of four regional vice presidents and a national president.

Like the Hell's Angels, The Bandidos also have a number of puppet, or so-called "support," clubs, who are used as proxies for both legal and illegal activities. These groups usually wear reverse colors (gold border with red background rather than the Bandidos' red-border–and–gold background). They also commonly wear a unique patch consisting of a round patch in Bandidos colors on the front upper left of the colors (vest), as worn by the member. Most of these clubs are regional.

Who's #1...

SEPANG, Oct 22 — Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi can finish in any of the top four positions at this weekend’s race at the Sepang Circuit to lift his seventh MotoGP World Championship title.

Rossi has arrived here with a 38-point advantage over his team-mate and closest title rival Jorge Lorenzo who collected 232 points.

However, Rossi would not want to be complacent with his current position.

“After Jorge’s mistake at Phillip Island (Australian Grand Prix) we have a good advantage. But we have to treat this like a normal race, especially from the practice session because I like this track a lot and have had great results in races here in the past.

“I was happy that our team worked well last weekend and my bike went well in the race, and now my main target is to reach Sunday with a good setting. We spent a lot of time during the winter at this track, so we have a lot of data,” said Rossi in a pre-event press conference at the circuit today.

Also at the press conference were Aleix Espargaro, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and the 2009 125cc World Champion Julian Simon.

Rossi has a history of good form in the punishing heat of Malaysia, where he won from second on the grid last year and has seven podium finishes here in all, including five wins.

Meanwhile, Ducati Marlboro Team rider, Stoner, noted that the Malaysian leg would definitely be a tough race as it was in the previous year.

“It is not easy to find the perfect set-up here. But the last two races were fantastic for us; it was the right way to come back. In Portugal, we had a great race and then at Phillip Island we topped it off. Things are so much better now. Everything seems to work well, so we are really looking forward to this weekend now.

“It has been a long time since I looked forward to racing so much, because it was really hard when I wasn’t competitive before the break,” said the 24-year-old Stoner.

On the other hand, Pedrosa, who is riding for the Repsol Honda Team, has good memories of the Sepang Circuit.

He had finished on the podium in the past three seasons and had tasted victory in both the 125cc and 250cc World Championship classes but has yet to win the premier class at the circuit.

“I have won the 125cc and 250cc classes here and I am missing the MotoGP win here. I think everybody should be ready for this weekend. We will just try to do our best in practice and the best we can in the race,” said Pedrosa.

Currently, Pedrosa is trailing the leader by 189 points in fourth position and only six points separate him from Stoner.

Tomorrow, all riders will start off with the free practice session and the race would be held in three days time.