Marquez ends year with dirt track win

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez rounded off his 2014 season with victory in the Superprestigio dirt track exhibition event in Barcelona on Saturday night.

Marquez had been narrowly defeated by 2013 AMA Flat Track champion Brad Baker in the inaugural running of the event in January this year, but in the second edition he defeated Baker's successor Jared Mees by three tenths of a second in the final. Baker was ruled out when he dislocated his shoulder in a practice crash.

Marquez was part of a large grand prix motorcycle racing contingent taking part, with British duo Scott Redding and Bradley Smith also in the field, and Moto2 and Moto3 champions Tito Rabat and Alex Marquez headlining a pack from the feeder categories. Three-time World Superbike champion Troy Bayliss was also among the star names.

In the final, Marquez emerged from a multi-bike first-corner collision to chase down early leader, sometime Moto2 rider Kenny Noyes, before winning a battle to the finish with Mees.

Smith was eighth in the final, while Redding pulled out in the heats having picked up muscle damage earlier in the day.