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With the year almost over there's one clear winner in the unofficial competition among WSB riders and teams (polled by us lot in the paddocks) as to which circuit takes top honours - Portimao.

The Portugese track was the host of the final round of the World Superbike Championship this year, and although the periphery of the venue (little things like roads) weren't finished when we first pulled up to the track to start the round, the actual circuit itself more than made up for it.

Portimao is just incredible. Words can't do it justice and the team who designed and came up with the concept deserve plaudits by the bucketload.

It's combinations of blind climbs, harsh braking areas and complex, linked corners makes it more like a British track than anything else you're likely to find on foreign shores.

Combine that with a lot of run-off, brilliant safety features and the atmosphere of an intimate setting - which in itself is quite a feat because the venue itself is pretty large - and the Portimao track is unique.

In fact, it might just turn out to be the best track in the world. It's not there yet though, it'll need some races on it to help the slippery surface bed in and offer some grip, but once that's happened it will be hard to beat.

And there in itself is a lesson to anyone who is looking at building or developing a circuit. Forget being clever or making the facilities all big-bang kahuna burger and the latest in big screen technology, concentrate on getting the track right. And make it wide enough so that the riders can really attack it.

Get that right and everyone will love you for it, just like we all do Portimao.

So much so in fact that we're all anxious to get back out there and get racing again. Maybe we could arrange a round of the BSB championship out there? Something like an IRTA/Jerez pre-season test for the Brit boys?

Just a thought, but with the lads out there on such a good track as an early-season muscle-flexer it'd make some fascinating BSB action before we start the year proper back in Blighty.

Riders like Leon Camier and Glen Richards would absolutely fly around Portimao and with the emphasis on being fastest early on, so as to score the most possible benefit against rivals, at the forefront of their minds, I'd bet a fiver on them being faster than the WSB posse in the final race of 2008, too.

Tony Carter / Eurosport