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When as always I tripped over the bulging massive MotoGP bag at the top of the stairs, woke up in the night worried once again I was travelling to Japan without a visa, could still smell the wood preservative on my hands and double checked with my next door neighbour he would deliver my wife’s birthday present I knew my favourite trip of the year was about to start.

Three grands prix in the space of two hectic weeks on the other side of the world in Japan, Australia and Malaysia embracing so very different cultures, contrasting weather and food. Three totally different race tracks in Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang which so often produced the new World Champion although not this time round.

Packing enough underpants and work shirts was always a problem to see you through the first two weeks before the welcome laundry service at the hotel in Kuala Lumpur.Hence the bulging MotoGP bag although the problem was if you flew in with all your colleagues picking out your bag on the carousel among 100 similar others was nightmare. In over 30 visits to Japan I never had a visa and every time I approached immigration I got that dreaded feeling that everybody was watching me and I would be refused entry and sent home but it never happened. When you are away from home for three weeks on the other side of the World important matters have to be attended to before you go and when you are away. I always had to spray the wooden garden furniture with preservative the week before I departed because I left in the autumn and returned at the start of winter with those horrible dark nights. My hands still smelt as I boarded that first flight to Tokyo. I was always away for my wife’s birthday at the end of October. Cards and presents had to be hidden and in one case a new bike delivered by my next door neighbour on the right day.

The unbelievable Motegi complex is in the middle of nowhere and until the last couple years we used to stay at one of the many golf courses in the area. At night we were the only people there in the middle of the pitch black Japanese countryside and it reminded so much of the film, The Shining .My so called ‘friends’ used to warn me as we went to bed that Jack Nicholson would be breaking down my bedroom door in the middle of the night to announce I’m home. That warning plus a couple earth tremors certainly didn’t help sleep despite the jet lag.

Straight onto Phillip Island which was such a contrast. We always stayed in the main town Cowes named after the town in the Isle of Wight where I spent many a childhood holiday. I loved the fish and chips and especially the local pub where we learnt so much about Australian beer, life on Phillip Island, cricket and a betting system called Pokies.

We would often fly out of Melbourne on the Sunday/early Monday morning to Kuala Lumpur after the race. After two weeks on the road that first swim at the hotel near the airport was pure heaven. It was a break of a couple of days to get the laundry done and sample the delights of the food and markets in sprawling KL while dodging those tropical storms. Negotiating over the price in the markets was a real art which I never quite mastered and so I took Casey Stoner along on one occasion to stand in for me. As expected he was brilliant.

I was ready to go home at the end of three incredible weeks that for me personally was the perfect illustration why I love MotoGP so much both on and off the track. Of course I’m envious of all those flying out this week but at least I’m home for my wife’s birthday and I will not be tripping over at the top of the stairs.

Sheene realised after winning his two 500cc titles in the seventies he could make more money by actually not competing in many of the last few Grands Prix with some very lucrative appearance deals at home. Ago would miss out riding at some of the dangerous road circuits on the all-conquering 350 and 500cc MV Agustas and who could blame him.  After Spencer clinched that historic 1985 250/500cc double by winning the penultimate round of the 500cc Championship at Anderstorp incredibly he never again stood on a Grand Prix podium. Doohan and Rossi just ploughed on and won more and more races after title victories.

The ride I will never forget came from Kenny Roberts Jr in 2000 at Motegi in Japan. Just eight days earlier Kenny had clinched the 500cc world title for Suzuki with a calculated sixth place in the race won by Rossi at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to become the first son to win the same premier class title as his father. It was my first visit to Motegi and Roberts showed us all just why he was the World Champion. Both Roberts and Suzuki knew they had to win the title that year with the young cavalry led by Rossi and Biaggi funded by Honda and Yamaha on the charge. Rossi had won his first 500cc Grand Prix at Donington followed by the Rio win while Biaggi was victorious in Brno. Throw in the likes of sliding Australian Garry McCoy who’d already won three Grands Prix that season on the Yamaha and there were plenty of pretenders to Roberts’s crown wanting to put the World Champion in his place but it never happened. Roberts simply blew them all away round the 4.801 kms circuit to beat Rossi and Biaggi by over six seconds, just to let them know who was the Champion of the world. It turned out to be the last of Kenny’s eight 500cc wins and Rossi took over his mantle. The rest is history but the American had made his point in such a masterful way.

There are still four Grands Prix to go this year and Marquez’ next appearance at the home of Honda in Motegi does not exactly spell out good news for his rivals. Perhaps a certain 20-year-old Frenchman may have something to say about that in the next six weeks.

Repsol Honda will be prepared to celebrate the distinct possibility that Marc Marquez will clinch the MotoGP™ world title on Sunday in Thailand, but I bet they have not mentioned their plans to their rider. It might seem like a miracle when a rider wins a World Championship that he magically appears on the podium proudly wearing a t-shirt proclaiming his amazing achievement.

Often a new helmet miraculously appears on his lap of honour, while, in more recent years, a little pantomime is often played out trackside to make a poignant point or celebrate the exact number of World titles achieved. While all the celebrations are going on at the circuit, the World Champion’s biography with pictures has already been beamed around the world to millions of media outlets.

It all looks so easy but it’s not. Take the lead from the very start, pull away from the pursuing pack in the early stages or as Marc Marquez did on Sunday on the first lap and then cruise to victory without a care in the world. Ask any rider who has the talent to be able to perform such an act and they will all tell you it can be one of the toughest methods of securing 25 World Championship points.

Double 500cc World Champion Barry Sheene told me it needed more concentration and resolve to prevent the mind wandering as lap after lap all that was in front of you was empty tarmac with your pity board the only reality check to the real world. It was important to keep up your lap times at a constant fast pace, not only to prevent your pursuers to get a sniff of catching you but also to keep your mind focused. He told me it was so easy to let those lap times drop and his mind would start to wander towards the most bizarre thoughts that had absolutely nothing to do with Grand Prix motorcycle racing. Where have I left my car keys, what times the flight home tonight and what have we got for dinner were the most common. In those days such was the diversity of the field and the machinery they were riding, lapping backmarkers was a welcome exercise to sharpen the mind and bring you back to reality.

I should be upset with Marc Marquez but how could I be after that fantastic race with Fabio Quartararo on Sunday. This time he came out on top in a last-lap head-to-head confrontation to win his 77th Grand Prix and that’s one more than my boyhood hero Mike Hailwood.

How could Hailwood not be my boyhood hero? He lived just a couple of miles over the hill from my Village just outside Oxford. His father Stan was the boss of one the biggest motorcycle dealers in the country with Kings of Oxford’s headquarters filling most of Park End Street with British built motorcycles. My Sister even danced with him once at the Oxford Jazz club but, to my disappointment, it turned out to be just that one dance. One morning on the way to school I was transfixed to see the pride of place in the showroom window was Hailwood’s 250cc four-cylinder Honda on which he just won the 1961 TT in the Isle of Man en route to the World title. Any thought of school lessons went out of the window for the remainder of the day.

We used to point out that the weather at places such as Assen, the Sachsenring, Le Mans and even Qatar could be equally as variable. Our protests disappeared in the storm that deluged Silverstone and its new surface that proved unable to cope with the sheer amount of water falling out of the sky causing the cancellation of our beloved British Grand Prix. The first time in the 69-year history of Grand Prix racing that weather caused the complete and utter cancellation of a Grand Prix on the actual day of a race. There was no point trying to argue with those sodden and frustrated Italian and Spaniard’s as everybody packed up ready for the next round in Misano. This time the weather had won.

I’d had some close shaves before and have missed complete days of practice and qualifying. Race days have been postponed, race programmes and race distances cut short but always racing won albeit such as Qatar in 2009, a day late. Riders actually refusing to race on safety grounds have also produced severely depleted grids but the races have gone ahead. I remember being summoned to Barry Sheene’s motorhome at Nogaro in France in 1982 to draft a letter from all the top riders led by Kenny Roberts telling the organisers they refused to race on safety grounds. Who will forget the sight of Eddie Lawson raising one finger, not to celebrate a victory, while sitting on the pit lane wall in Misano every single lap to Pier Francesco Chili who won a re-started 1989 Nations Grand Prix when the leading riders refused to race after safety issue in the first race.

The likes of Marc Marquez, Steve Smith, Lionel Messi, Lewis Hamilton and Roger Federer are not quite untouchable. Although, as Dovi showed in the amazing race in Austria on Sunday, you have to produce something so very special to halt the juggernaut.

Marquez arrived at the Red Bull Ring in the form of his life, which is some form if you check out what he had already achieved. Ducati had won on the three previous clashes at the magnificently situated circuit which is the only battleground in the calendar that the Repsol Honda rider has not stood on the top step of the podium. Typically it was something he wanted to rectify and complete the full house.

It’s always been the same dilemma for the riders although some them employed their own special way of dealing with the nerve-jangling wait. Typically, double 500cc World Champion Barry Sheene produced the most attention. While others around scurried around he would simply pull out a cigarette, place into his mouth through a special hole drilled in his helmet for the purpose, light up and have a quiet smoke while the weather and the organisers made up their minds. It was so Barry, playing physiological games to undermine his rivals even before the race had started. It worked most times although a certain Kenny Roberts was neither impressed or intimidated.

There was no visible sign of any rider lighting up on Sunday even round the back of the pit lane garages and certainly not Marc Marquez who seemed so relaxed. Who was surprised after that truly unbelievable lap by the World Champion to qualifying by over two seconds on slick tyres the previous afternoon on a track that had plenty of damp or even wet patches.

Viewers witnessed plenty of replays of that amazing lap while they waited for the weather to make up its mind. We heard from Mick Doohan on the grid how he was still p……… off losing out to Alex Criville after leading all the way to the very last corner at Brno 23 years ago. John Hopkins told us during the nervous wait this was when he was glad he was no longer a MotoGP™ rider. Colin Edwards how he just wanted to get back into his garage and stay focused while relaxing and we heard many opinions on the rumours that Valentino Rossi is considering retirement.