road-going vehicles run long distances in front of huge crowds. As ovals tend to have banked turns surrounded by high concrete walls, this makes them totally unsuitable for motorcycle racing both in terms of safety, and of the entertainment factor. Yet

Assen's transformation from public roads to closed racetrack was a long process of sections being removed piece by piece, in a form of death by a thousand cuts, the Sachsenring sprang fully-formed from the brow of the ADAC, the German automobile

the original direction the track is to be raced to clockwise. Most of these changes were done to improve safety so as to lure MotoGP back to Misano, the series having left the circuit on Italy's Adriatic coast in 1993 after Wayne Rainey suffered a seemingly

is precisely engineered to test a particular aspect of vehicle dynamics, and connected to the following corner by the shortest means possible.Nature Versus NurturePhillip Island, on the other hand, is an ancient road course which has grown and mutated

. And sometimes it is the danger of the activity itself which creates the pressure: for the solo round-the-world sailor, a single mistake - misjudging the weather, forgetting to tether a safety line properly - can mean serious injury, and even death. The Price

was reversed in an attempt to improve safety - a concession to get MotoGP to return after a crash there in 1993 left Wayne Rainey in a wheelchair - the circuit has lost many of the other features that gave it its character and made it special. Before

positioned to exploit even the tiny gap that Stoner had left him. As the three men shot into the darkness under the bridge bearing the oval ring over the road course, Pedrosa drew alongside Stoner and on the perfect line for the next corner, the fast right

conditions encountered when racing on public roads. But on the relatively smooth, manicured asphalt of a short circuit, Pedrosa is almost unbeatable.Mr PerfectCasey Stoner most resembles his fellow Australian and five-time World Champion Mick Doohan. Like