Celebration time!

Many of the fans heading to Phillip Island for this weekend’s 2010 IVECO Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix are wondering what will happen if new World Champion Jorge Lorenzo wins the race, because the 23-year-old Spaniard has perfected some of the wackiest celebratory stunts in sporting history on his way to the top of the two-wheeled world.

Mind you, he had a good teacher – the man on the other side of the Yamaha garage, Valentino Rossi, has staged some stunning celebrations of his own, with rubber dolls, chicken costumes and all sorts of gimmicks coming out of the Italian’s repertoire over the years.

In fact Rossi did his utmost to take the edge off Lorenzo’s post-race party in Malaysia, where the Spaniard took Rossi’s MotoGP crown away, and a slightly downbeat Lorenzo said he was taking time for it all to sink in.

“I need five minutes on my own just to relax, enjoy the quiet and take in what I have done!” he said. “This is something I have always wanted and something I've dreamed of my whole life, so it is the most incredible moment for me.”

That’s all well and good, but there is a growing feeling that Phillip Island could be the place where the close-cropped Jorge lets his proverbial hair down properly – especially if he posts his first victory here on a MotoGP machine.

"In previous years I have had one great idea for Phillip Island but I haven't been able to win the race – but I cannot tell you, it's a secret,” Lorenzo admits.  “Maybe I will use it on Sunday if I win."

When he won in Spain in the second race of the season, Lorenzo surprised everyone – himself included – by leaping into the circuit’s lake – still clad in his racing boots and leathers. There was momentary panic when he wondered if he could get out again…

Phillip Island, of course, has not only Bass Strait right alongside but also its own little lake on the infield, but Lorenzo’s not looking that way:  "Yes I know,” he says, “but maybe there are some crocodiles there so I will not do that.”

All right, what about some other Aussie icon?

“Yes, it’s Australia,” he muses, “a kangaroo theme could be funny – but I imagine it is impossible to catch and run with a kangaroo? I have an idea, not these, but it is a surprise."

A quick look back over some of Lorenzo’s previous pantomimes suggests that almost anything could happen. At Laguna Seca in July, after winning the U.S. Grand Prix, he did a pretty decent impersonation of an astronaut walking on the moon.  

Following his win at the French GP in May he stopped trackside in front of one of the Superscreen TVs, collected a bag of popcorn and pretended to be at the movies, perhaps indicating the ease of a convincing victory over main rivals Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso.

Wherever he has gone and won, he has tended to dismount and plant a flag declaring the territory in question to be part of ‘Lorenzo’s  Land’. But that sounds pretty tame when it comes to celebrating either a world title, an Island victory – or both.