The world of motor racing is in mourning today after the death of Marco Simoncelli who died after a crash at the Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang this afternoon.

Once the extent of Simoncelli's crash became known, the organisers cancelled the race. The race had just started and was in the 2nd lap when the tragic accident happened.

The strong winds buffeting Phillip Island brought some sporadic rain clouds with them, making the 125cc race a hectic wet/dry affair.  Some rider chose to start the race on wet tires, while the majority went out on slicks, with the latter proving to be the better option.

Alexis Masbou (Caretta Technology Forward Team) led off the start, bumping his French compatriot and pole starter Johann Zarco(Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) on his way out to the front.Adrián Martín (Bankia Aspar) took over the lead, however shortly thereafter enter the pits to change to slicks as the track dried out. Meanwhile Championship leader Nico Terol (Bankia Aspar) sliced his way through the field after dropping back into 17th off the start.

Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) pulled out a 6 second lead while Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) moved into second and Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) raced his team mate for third, despite the fact that Zarco is the only one who still has a chance to stop Terol in taking the Championship title.

Read the rest of the article at GPone.

In the end it looked like a walk in the park forCasey Stoner, the Honda rider dominating his home race for the fifth straight year, winning the 2011 MotoGP World Championship in the process.

"I tried my very best to win the championship here in Australia, on my birthday - Stoner said afterward - It's hard to explain how I feel right now.  Nobody believed in me during my first world championship.  It seemed impossible.  Now things are different, and we won with this bike because we knew exactly what to do.  With Ducati I was the lead rider, and everyone was expecting me to pull something out of thin air.  This time we worked calmly as a team, without feeling too much pressure or pushing too hard.  Even on my bad days I still finished on the podium."

With a strong breeze blowing and darkening skies, the MotoGP race commenced with a rearranged grid following the withdrawl of both Yamaha Factory riders and Héctor Barberá’s replacement rider,Damian Cudlin on the Mapfre Aspar team. Jorge Lorenzo withdrew after a high side in the morning warm up left him with a severely injured finger that will require surgery, while Ben Spies is still mildly concussed after a crash in qualifying on Saturday.  Cudlin withdrew due to injuries from a crash in Saturday morning practice.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) followed Stoner into turn one, with the Italian making an early move on Hayden to take second. Simoncelli then spent the remainder of the race tussling with Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), beating his compatriot across the line for his best MotoGP finish of second.

"I'm very happy with the result - Sic added - It was a difficult race, but I just kept pushing and running my pace.  I took a big chance with Dovizioso in turn 1 on the final lap, but after leading for the entire race I wasn't going to let him steal second place from me.  I stole it from him."

Read the rest of the article at GPone.

As usual the Moto2 race was an extremely exciting affair, and on this occasion some of the drama came from the penalty assessed to Marc Marquez. The Spaniard was forced to start from the very back of the grid, and his charge through the field in pursuit of championship rival Stefan Bradl was spectacular to behold.

None of this should detract form the impressive performance of Alex De Angelis, however, who rode brilliantly to win his first race of the season.

"I'm very happy - the rider from San Marino commented - because the warm up didn't go so well for us.  Bradl tried to break away in the race, in an effort to maximize his points haul, and I went with him.  I knew I was faster than him in some places, and I passed him.  Later on he made contact with me, and luckily I didn't crash.  It has been a great weekend."

Márquez, meanwhile, made up plenty of ground with an extraordinary start, until lap seventeen where, after passing Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing) for third, the Italian fought back and the two duked it out to the finish, with the Spaniard making a move on the last lap to put him across the line third. His third place finished combined with the second place of Bradl rearranged the Championship standings, with the German retaking the lead by three points over Márquez.

Read the rest of the article at GPone.

Johann Zarco (Derbi) took a long-awaited first victory with a clear win from championship leader Nico Terol and Terol's Aprilia team mate Hector Faubel.

Zarco started from pole but rival Terol blasted off the start into the lead, taking team mate Faubel, with him along with a determined Zarco. The three broke from the pack, opening up a five-second gap with Faubel dropping back halfway through the race.

Zarco made his move on Terol on lap 14; the Aprilia rider tried to take back the lead but ran too deep on the brakes and gifted Zarco a five-second lead, which he held to the end, with Faubel a further 13 seconds back in third.

Sixteen-year-old Maverick Vinales on the Paris Hilton Aprilia broke a chain on the warm-up lap and had to start from the back of the grid, but fought his way through the 25-bike field to finish fourth, ahead of a four-way fight for fifth between Sandro Cortese, Jonas Folger, Alberto Moncayo and Adrian Martin (each on an Aprilia) who finished in that order in less than a second.

Thanks to IOL Motoring

Front-row starter Andrea Iannone (Suter) took the hole shot and got the best of a race-long battle with pole starter Marc Marquez (Suter) for his third win of the season.

Thomas Luthi completed an all-Suter podium after Kalex rider Stefan Bradl, who led the Championship at the start of the race but now trails Marquez in the standings by a single point, briefly entered the challenge but dropped off the pace to finish a second behind Luthi in fourth.

Simone Corsi (FTR) took fifth ahead of Alex de Angelis (Motobi), with Bradley Smith (Tech 3) coming home a further 5.5sec adrift to take seventh.

Dominique Aegerter (Suter) was eighth with Esteve Rabat (FTR) and Mika Kallio (Suter) rounding out the top 10.

Thanks to IOL Motoring

Dani Pedrosa (Honda) took the the honours in a dramatic Japanese Grand Prix where only two of the top seven riders didn't either run off the circuit or incur a ride-through penalty (or both!). Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Pedrosa's Honda team mate Casey Stoner completed the podium.

The 24-lap race began with pole man Stoner launching into Turn 1 at the head of the field, while team mate Andrea Dovizioso jumped the start from the front row, with Marco Simoncelli (Honda) and Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha Tech 3) also incurring ride through penalties for the same mistake.

Ducati's Valentino Rossi crashed out on the first lap, colliding with Yamaha rider Ben Spies and forcing off the track and down the order. Meanwhile Stoner appeared set to take another victory, leading clear and free until running off the track on lap five, just before Ducati privateer Hector Barbera crashed out, and Nicky Hayden on the second works Ducati went farming while running fourth.

Lorenzo had some catching up to do, and made his way through the field to come home second, while Stoner climbed back to third. Simoncelli and Dovizioso took their ride-through penalties and then got into a dice for fourth that went all the way to the line, with Simoncelli in front by a scant 0.141sec when it mattered.

Three Americans followed next, with Spies sixth in front of Hayden and Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3). Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) avoided any drama to finish ninth in his home race with Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) tenth.

Crutchlow was 11th despite an off-track excursion in addition to his ride-through penalty.

Stoner's lead at the top of the Championship over Lorenzo now stands at 40 points with three rounds of the 2011 season remaining.

Thanks to IOL Motoring

TT legend Ian Hutchinson was back on track for the first time today since the horrendous British Supersport accident at Silverstone which broke his left leg so badly he has been forced to watch from the sidelines all year.

The eight-time Isle of Man TT winner rode a Swan Yamaha R1 in Superstock trim using both treaded and slick tyres, and specially-constructed gear-shift system which allows the Bingley man to swap cogs with his right leg.

The system, built by SMR Performance, uses a shaft from the right side of the bike which goes through the swingarm pivot and connects to a knuckle which then joins the left-mounted quickshifter as usual. Hutchinson had no problem with it but had the left-mounted rear brake disconnected while he waits for a thumb-brake to be installed.

"I was so excited last night, I couldn't sleep and I was watching the footage from Le Mans at gone midnight. Being on the track felt surprisingly good to be honest. It's a bit strange but after a couple of laps you're soon back into it," said Hutchinson, speaking to bikesportnews.com at Cadwell Park.

"It wasn't like I expected to be missing apexes or anything like that and you don't forget what you've spent all that time learning. Obviously, I'm not pushing hard and getting on the throttle early but I've got some good lines and really enjoying being back out there.

"We're using the Superstock bike because it is closer to a roadbike and easier to ride than a full-blown Supersport race bike, you don't really have to chase it around the track as much. There's a lot more torque to go a little slower and find my way back into riding really.

"The gearbox is quite easy actually, it's still in race-shift and I've not got it wrong yet but I did go for the back brake over the mountain but then remembered it isn't there. I need to get a thumb brake on it as I am used to that on a Superbike which will take my mind off doing that.

"My leg feels really good, I've got another operation on it later this week to try and release some scar tissue to get my ankle working again. I'm still having physio but it's looking good for Macau in November. We will swap the gearshift back if the operation is a success but I'm not going to stop racing because I have to use the right side to change gears."

Due to popular demand we have brought together the links to all the photos and videos from the Zombie Tribes Show & Shine event in place. Hope you all enjoy!

Photos from OzBoy of OzSpeedPhotography

http://www.ozspeedphotography.com/Motorcycles/Zombie-Tribes-shownshine-11911/18990342_sTFwfH#1475158484_x5XpWzg

Photos from "hamster"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26447895@N07/sets/72157627644730754/

Photos from our very own "Captain Morgan"

http://www.zombietribes.com/11-Website-Articles-Other-Content/3048-Show-and-Shine-for-a-Cause/Page-7.html

http://www.zombietribes.com/11-Website-Articles-Other-Content/3048-Show-and-Shine-for-a-Cause/Page-8.html

Photos on our Facebook Page

If there are any more links, please share them with us and we'll update this page.

Marc Marquez reduced Stefan Bradl's Moto2 championship lead to a mere six points by taking his seventh win of the season at Aragon, as a tyre problem for Bradl dropped him to eighth.

The title rivals had made a spectacular start to the race, launching into an immediate three-way battle with Scott Redding that included the lead being exchanged repeatedly on the first lap alone.

That level of frenetic dicing continued for the first two thirds of the race, with Andrea Iannone, Simone Corsi and Alex de Angelis joining in, and all taking a turn in the lead, as Aleix Espargaro, Julian Simon and Mike di Meglio started tagging onto the back of the train too.

Marquez kept fighting to the front of the pack but failing to break away - at one stage running wide off the track just as he seemed set to escape.

The crunch moment came on lap 14, when Speed Master rider Iannone made a big move on Marquez at the first corner, slid slightly off course, and narrowly avoided taking the race leader out while also breaking up the pack a little.

While Iannone accelerated back on in third place, Marquez got some clear air at last and started cruising away, going on to win by 2.466 seconds.

Iannone reclaimed second, with Corsi (Ioda) and de Angelis (JIR) chasing him home.

The rest of the erstwhile lead group became detached - and grew into an even bigger gaggle, with just 3.1s covering fifth to 17th places at the flag.

Bradl began to suffer a severe tyre problem with his Kiefer Kalex and drifted down the order to finish eighth, behind Espargaro, Bradley Smith and Thomas Luthi. Early leader Redding fell right back to 15th.

Thanks to Autosport...