Despite being pushed hard by Mikko Hirvonen in the second half of the season, Sebastien Loeb took his sixth World Rally Championship title at Rally GB yesterday. If we can just get Petter Solberg in a consistently competitive car next year – and that looks fairly likely – then we could even have three drivers fighting for the crown next year.

Six world titles? Rubbish! Valentino Rossi took his ninth yesterday – and his seventh in the top MotoGP class.

The whole chicken celebration was slightly confusing, but easily explained by the man himself: when hens get old, they stop laying eggs, but he’s still laying eggs. Though his eggs are championships. Anyway, that’s why he had a live chicken with him on the cool down lap. He’s a funny little man.

What about Casey Stoner though? Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo scything through the field was impressive, but Stoner was just astonishing, all alone at the front. If only he hadn’t been sort of ill earlier in the season, then missed three races, the championship might still be alive. But there’s always next year.

Cal Crutchlow took the Supersport World Championship title in Portugal yesterday, and will partner the returning James Toseland in World Superbike in 2010, in the factory Yamaha squad.

Meanwhile Ben Spies, who will take Toseland’s place at Tech 3 Yamaha in MotoGP, took the Superbike World Championship title on his very first attempt. Poor old Noriyuki Haga finished second in the championship yet again.

Top Brit in the championship Johnny Rea took an impressive double podium, so with a season’s experience under his belt, big things will be expected of him next year on that factory Honda.

Encouraging signs too for British Superbike champion Leon Camier, who finished 6th and 7th in the races in Portugal. His plans for next year are yet to be announced, but surely the world stage beckons, whether it’s World Superbike, World Supersport or Moto2.

The FIA held a World Motor Sport Council yesterday, and calendars for pretty much all it’s championships came out of it.

It’s interesting to see where the British events stack up. It’s mainly not at Donington Park.

The Formula 1 calendar doesn’t specify venues, so it’s just Great Britain down for 11th July 2010, but the FIA will be working on the assumption that it is Donington Park. We shall see about that.

The standalone Formula Two round moves from Donington Park to Silverstone, which also hosts the new FIA GT1 World Championship. The World Touring Car Championship – with F2 in support – remains at Brands Hatch.

Away from the FIA, we know that A1GP won’t be visiting Britain in its fifth season. Since I last mentioned that sad fact, I’ve found this article from Kent News. In short, Brands Hatch decided against having A1GP back, due to the financial uncertainty of the series, and falling ticket sales for the event.

Brands Hatch does, however, appear on a provisional Superleague Formula calendar released yesterday, which was quickly retracted. Silverstone is the other British circuit on the possibly wrong calendar. Donington Park hosted the two previous British rounds of Superleague Formula.

MotoGP moves to Silverstone next year, so if the Formula 1 falls through for Donington Park, the only international event left there would be the Superbike World Championship.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. In Donington Park’s case, a really expensive basket that hasn’t been built yet.

The HM Plant Honda team can’t be overly happy with the way British Superbikes has gone this year. In a motorsport season full of rider and driver changes, especially in BSB, the team has still managed to stand out.

Those changes continue this week though, with Michael Rutter back in BSB for the fifth time, now on a Ducati; and in Singapore for the Formula 1, talk of Romain Grosjean feeling unwell and Lucas di Grassi on standby to be the third driver to sit in the second Renault this season.

But back to HM Plant Honda. Catching up on highlights of the Croft meeting this morning, it struck me that the team probably hasn’t done as badly as it seems. The reason their riders aren’t higher in the standings is that there have been three different men on one of the bikes, and four on the other. So let’s add them up.

Josh Brookes missed the first round due to visa issues, so it was Steve Plater on the bike. Brookes was then on the bike for rounds 2 to 7, but suspended from round 8 and 9, when Karl Muggeridge jumped on. Brookes returned for round 10. Brookes himself is on 131 points, but if we add on Plater’s 16 and Muggeridge’s 44, then he’d be on 191.

Glen Richards completed the first six rounds, but since then has been out injured, though he returns this weekend at Silverstone. He was replaced by Steve Brogan for rounds 7 and 8, John McGuinness for round 9, and Ryuchi Kyonari for round 10. Richards has 103 points, so we add to that 27.5 from Brogan, 4 from McGuinness, and 13 from Kyonari, making 147.5.

That would move Richards up from 12th to 5th, and Brookes up from 5th to 4th. That wouldn’t move them above the two Airwaves Yamaha riders, but that’s fair enough, because the Yamaha is probably the class of the field.

But crucially they’d remain behind the Hydrex Honda of Stuart Easton, meaning the top Honda rider still wouldn’t be on a factory bike. So whichever way we look at it, HM Plant Honda still wouldn’t be pleased.

Leon Camier currently leads the standings in British Superbikes by a country mile. But how good is he? I’ve been trying to work it out.

He finished 5th overall in the championship last year, albeit only 12 points behind 3rd place. The four riders above him are all now in World Superbike or Supersport, and not doing badly at all.

So is Camier’s success this year down to him being a better rider, or a lack of competitive riders in BSB? It’ll be a bit of both, of course, not to mention ever increasing confidence as the results keep on going his way.

Sylvain Guintoli was to be Camier’s big rival this year, until his huge accident. He’s back this weekend at Cadwell Park – scene of Camier’s season-ending accident in 2007 – so we will at least get to see how Camier does against him in the remaining rounds.

Nothing firm can be drawn from the way Camier has been riding this year. Although he’s won a vast number of races, he’s often had to fight through the field after a poor start. You can take from that either that he’s fantastic at battling through the pack, or just that he’s no good off the line.

The most important question is whether he deserves a place in the Superbike World Championship next year. I think he will be there, and how he does will answer the question. Because I’m really not sure at the moment.

Driver and rider changes are uncommonly common this year, and they’re starting to become significant.

Felipe Massa’s injury-enforced break from Formula 1 is disappointing, but at least he wasn’t fighting for the championship. Not so Casey Stoner, who is out of the next three MotoGP races while he tries to shake his continuing health issues.

With Dani Pedrosa at less than full fitness early in the season, it’s going to be left to the Yamaha boys to contest the championship. Luckily they’re close on points, but it’s disappointing that it’s a two horse race, essentially for medical reasons.

But at least it is a two horse race. Early on in British Superbikes, Leon Camier‘s main competition was going to be Sylvain Guintoli, but a crash at the third meeting of the year put him out of action. Camier’s pretty much taking the piss now, taking a triple victory at Brands Hatch at the weekend to give him a ludicrous lead in the championship.

It’s a slightly different story in the British Touring Car Championship. James Thompson joined Team Dynamics at the second meeting, and has since then risen to 5th in the standings. Knockhill this weekend will be his final meeting, because his packed schedule is full of Dutch, World and Australian touring car commitments.

Had he been with Team Dynamics from the off, with more pre-season testing and a full campaign, he would have been a front-runner. But that was not to be.

Thankfully, it remains close enough in the championship, so his absence won’t be too sorely felt. And hey, it means we have another driver change to look forward to!

The revolving door of motorsport has been spinning aplenty this year. We’ve lost Sebastien Bourdais and Nelson Piquet from Formula 1, and Gordon Shedden has been, gone and come back in the BTCC.

But British Superbikes is where it’s really been spinning like a bastard. HM Plant Honda has run four different riders already this year, with Karl Muggeridge making that five at Brands Hatch this weekend, and John McGuiness set to make it six later in the season.

Surprisingly, Michael Rutter hasn’t been on the HM Plant Honda yet, but it can only be a matter of time. Because after Brands Hatch, remarkably, he will have competed on every make of bike in the championship.

He started out on the North West 200 Yamaha, run by Rob Mac Racing, where he achieved a best result of 16th place after two rounds, so quite reasonably parted company with the team.

After a round off, he then stood in for the injured Sylvain Guintoli on the Worx Crescent Suzuki for three rounds. A couple of 5th places were the best he could manage, despite good qualifying results, and the team have plumped for Tommy Hill since then.

A single round for SMT Honda followed, with a 4th and a 6th place to his name. The first race was the team’s best result to date, albeit in controversial circumstances, when Josh Brookes torpedoed into Simon Andrews and took out the entire top five, leading to a red flag and the win basically going to the 6th place rider.

Which brings us to Brands Hatch this weekend, a round that SMT Honda is having to sit out for financial reasons. But Rutter will be there, riding the MSS Colchester Kawasaki of Simon Andrews, who is recovering from a wrist operation.

Like most people, I’m quite keen on Rutter, so I’m just glad he’s still around – though I didn’t think he would be.

After his very good form last season, he would have been expected to get some results early on. He’s struggled for various reasons, and it’s good – though curious – to see his results improving as the season goes on, despite constantly changing bikes.

So is he the luckiest, or unluckiest man in motorsport? It’s hard to guess who he’ll be riding for after this weekend, but he’s managed pretty well so far. And if he doesn’t miss any more than the one round he already has this season, then I think he’ll count himself bloody lucky.

It’s been a while since I had a proper check of how the Brits are doing in the Superbike World Championship. And things have changed.

Johnny Rea picked up a race victory a couple of meetings ago in Misano – the first for Honda this year. He now finds himself 4th overall, and both top Honda rider and top Brit – titles formerly held by Stiggy Honda’s Leon Haslam, who is now 5th in the standings.

Tom Sykes is 7th in the championship, which still compares worryingly unfavourably with his factory Yamaha team-mate Ben Spies, who is very much in contention for the title.

There are, therefore, already rumours about who might be after Sykes’s ride for next year. One is Supersport World Championship leader Cal Crutchlow, who probably deserves an opportunity of some sort for 2010. Another is Leon Camier, who I’m not so sure about, simply because the level of competition in British Superbikes isn’t as high this year, so it’s hard to tell how much of an achievement it is to be leading as he is.

Last year’s British Superbike champion, Shane Byrne, is the last regular Brit, in a still pretty reasonable 10th. It is perhaps slightly disappointing given how well he did in pre-season testing, but that just goes to show how little that means.

Tommy Hill parted company with the Althea Honda team in the Superbike World Championship a couple of months ago, having achieved very little. He now finds himself drafted in to the Worx Crescent Suzuki team in British Superbikes, as the latest replacement for the injured Sylvain Guintoli. He’s done well in the national championship before, so he’ll be hoping to restore his reputation.

Unfortunately that does mean that Michael Rutter is without a ride in British Superbikes for a second time this season, having first not impressed on the Rob Mac Racing Yamaha, and then not managed to translate good qualifying into results on the Worx Crescent Suzuki. I fear we may have seen the last of Rutter in British Superbikes, which is a shame, but everyone’s time has to come.

We’re at, approaching, or beyond halfway in the main championships I cover on these pages, so it seems like a good time to step back and assess how the year is going. My general opinion is: rather well.

There’s only one championship which is looking like a done deal, and that’s British Superbikes. After Sylvain Guintolli’s nasty crash, Leon Camier is being left largely unchallenged. With 10 wins from 12 races, and a significant lead over the second placed rider – his team-mate – it’s probably going to take an accident to keep him from the title. Cadwell Park, the scene of his horrendous crash in 2007, is still to come, but he’d be extremely unlucky to suffer the same fate twice.

One might be tempted to say that the Formula 1 title is Jenson Button’s to lose. If Brawn GP can keep up the pace, then that’s probably true, but can the team hold off Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel? I think that remains a very big question, and one which will only be answered over the remainder of the season.

Before the last three rounds, no-one would have bet against Sebastien Loeb taking yet another World Rally Championship title. But an extraordinary run of bad luck for Loeb – which is to say any bad luck at all for Loeb – has handed Mikko Hirvonen a one point lead. Loeb remains the man to beat, but – against all odds – it’s actually still quite interesting.

Noriyuki Haga was looking like a virtual certainty for the Superbike World Championship earlier in the year, but after five wins from the last six races for Ben Spies, it’s close at the top now. And with Haga injured after his crash at Donington Park, the title could be edging towards Spies.

MotoGP isn’t quite as close as it was at one point this year – when Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner were all tied on points at the top – but it’s still anybody’s championship. Rossi is the one who seems to have the momentum at this point, though after an impressive victory at Laguna Seca, even Dani Pedrosa could yet have something to say about it.

Given that the ballast regulations and so forth are engineered to ensure a close championship, there are some fairly healthy – though by no means safe – leads in the tin tops.

The World Touring Car Championship is led by reigning champion Yvan Muller, with SEAT team-mate Gabriele Tarquini 14 points behind. Augusto Farfus is a further point back, but could be one to watch, as BMW seem to be putting all their eggs in his basket now – not exactly to the delight of the other BMW drivers.

Colin Turkington has a nice 25 point cushion over Matt Neal in the British Touring Car Championship. It’s not as straight-forward as that though. Neal has been consistent, but James Thompson – who started the season late with Team Dynamics – has the second most race wins behind Turkington, despite standing only 6th overall. Jason Plato, 4th overall, has been consistently getting good results recently, so he could be a factor. And you can never count out Fabrizio Giovanardi, currently 3rd.

Enough waffle, I should name names. I’ll pick:

• British Superbikes – Leon Camier
• Formula 1 – Jenson Button
• World Rally Championship – Sebastien Loeb
• Superbike World Championship – Ben Spies
• MotoGP – Valentino Rossi
• World Touring Car Championship – Yvan Muller
• British Touring Car Championship – Colin Turkington

Not very imaginative, granted, but we’ll see how much that changes by the end of the year.

ITV4‘s nightly coverage of the Isle of Man TT races hasn’t been perfect, but by god it’s been very good. The camera shots they’ve been getting, in particular, genuinely deserve some sort of award.

The slow motion footage from high motion cameras has been nothing short of stunning. A bike hitting the ground after a jump is the obvious candidate for the high motion treatment, and indeed it’s been well worth the effort of capturing that – seeing the bike squirm on landing and the rider regaining control in such clarity is an absolute treat. But other details have been highlighted by the high motion cameras as well, like the screen being buffeted by the air at high speed. And it all looks brilliant.

On board cameras have provided some great pictures too – specifically of riders’ faces, and of the scenery flying by at close quarters.

The TT is about the spectacle of motorbikes lapping the Mountain Course at high speed, as well as the races themselves. And it’s that spectacle which ITV4 has captured near-perfectly through outstanding camera work.

Coverage of the races has been further from perfect – though certainly not bad. Like rallying, it’s hard to convey the story of the race through split times – but that’s the nature of racing against the clock.

BBC MotoGP pit lane man Matt Roberts has been a better presenter when he’s stood in for Craig Doyle, but Doyle is hardly offensive. As for commentary, James Whittam and Steve Parrish has, as suspected, proved an odd combination. Neither man has been poor, but a lack of familiarity – in terms of not working together regularly – perhaps conspires against them.

One extremely odd moment, however, was Parrish interviewing Valentino Rossi at trackside. It was as if Rossi had no idea what Parrish was doing there. Maybe Rossi just wanted to spectate in peace, but given that Parrish is there in the MotoGP paddock every race, you’d think that there would have been more congeniality. By comparison, Rossi seemed entirely at ease talking to Matt Roberts.

But for top quality interviews, there’s only been one man: Guy Martin, the rider who is never far from a cup of tea. Thinking about it, give him a medal too.

Unfortunately, after behaving for the practice sessions, the weather for the Isle of Man TT has taken a turn for the torrential. So today’s races have been postponed to Monday – because it’s not expected to get any better tomorrow – with the other races shuffling back accordingly.

Watching some practice highlights this morning, it struck me quite how special an event the TT is. The Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix was just a fortnight ago, and is trumpeted as a raw, dangerous, exciting street race. But it’s very tame by comparison to the Isle of Man TT races.

There’s an official promo video on YouTube, which is well worth watching. Superbikes speeding down narrow roads with buildings on either side is just jaw dropping.

So I’ll look forward to watching the race highlights on ITV4 next week. Commentary is from Steve Parrish and James Whittam – an intriguing combination, and I’ll be interested to see how well it works. There’s a programme on every night, though obviously this weekend’s are a bit screwed now.

But it’s the spectators who made the journey over to the Isle of Man for the weekend who I really feel sorry for. It’s just not fair for them.