01 02 03
GARDNER STRAIGHT TO T1 / DOOHAN CORNER
We are going back to 1992 for this one . On the exit of T12 , Stephane Mertens ’ Ducati hit the outside white line … and some dust . Mertens immediately suffered a strange sideways highside exit from his 888 - but the bike stayed upright . Mertens hit the pit wall ( without serious injury ) and immediately afterwards his riderless Ducati also impacted the barriers on its left side , catching fire dramatically . Still upright and running hard , the two-wheeled conflagration clanged and banged its way down the metal armco until it simply ran out of safety rails to guide its errant fiery path . It finally came to rest - and destruction - miles from where it had started .
T2 / THE SOUTHERN LOOP
The place where bold overtakes are the norm , not the exception . 2009 Champion Ben Spies was nudged off here by Max Biaggi , or else the ‘ rookie ’ pole-sitter would surely have won his first ever WorldSBK race . He went on to win his second one - of course !
T3 / STONER CORNER
Another super-fast one , this leads to the really ‘ busy ’ Miller right hander . T3 is maybe most famous as the corner where Carl Fogarty ’ s career ended with a broken shoulder , after a crash with privateer rider Robert Ulm . He seemed to slow up as ‘ Foggy ’ closed in to pass on the outside .
03 STONER CORNER
04
T4 / MILLER CORNER
We ’ re only looking back to last year , when Alex Lowes and Toprak Razgatlioglu crashed after Lowes tagged Toprak ’ s machine . A place of incident and consequence , always .
05 - 08
T5-T6 ( SIBERIA ) AND T7-T8 ( HAYSHED )
Watch the riders who really fancy their chances fly through here in the practice laps , testing their own confidence in their tyres on the fast switchbacks .
09 10
01 GARDNER STRAIGHT TO DOOHAN
CORNER
02 THE SOUTHERN LOOP
T9 / LUKEY HEIGHTS
Some epic passes have been put in going into the left curve at Lukey . This was the scene of Troy Bayliss ’ big practice high side at the start of his short-lived comeback in 2015 , if you remember ?
11 - 12
T10 / MG HAIRPIN
The last chance to make a pass under braking before the final two über-lefts , MG has seen even the best of them mistime their grab on the lever , after what must feel like a short ride down a lift shaft .
T11-T12
The driving left hander of T11 leads onto the seemingly endless high-lean angle left of T12 . It is a simply awesome corner - on entry , apex or exit - take your pick . A great place for a late race-winning slipstreaming set-up behind the leading rider .
57 HISTORIC CORNERS