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Over its 25 years the FIM Superbike World Championship has experienced many seasons like the current one, where the final round will indeed be the championship finale.

As things stand any one of three riders can be crowned champion of the 2012 season. They are current leader and hot favourite Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing), Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) and Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad Motorsport). This is by no means a unique situation as the last round draws close.

The most recent year when things truly went down to the wire was in 2009, when Ben Spies (Yamaha) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) faced off at Portimao. Despite being ten points behind on Sunday morning, Spies became champion.

In 2007 the closest ever finish was preceded by the penultimate round at Vallelunga. James Toseland (Honda) left there 29 points ahead of Max Biaggi (Suzuki) and 33 ahead of Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha). The season finished, at Magny Cours, in the order of Toseland, Haga, Biaggi, with only 18 points separating the top three, and only two points between first and second.

Toseland had already been involved in a close-fought thing in 2004, his first championship-winning year. Leaving Imola, Regis Laconi (Ducati) his team-mate Toseland, Chris Vermeulen (Honda) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati) were covered by 41 points. Any four could - mathematically - have won the title, but Toseland finally beat Laconi by nine points at Magny-Cours.

Maybe the most famous last weekend face off of all time in SBK racing took place at Imola on September 29 2002. Colin Edwards (Honda) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati) had battled all year, an almost total duopoly of race winning form so complete that going to Imola for the last round there was one point in it. Coming out, Edwards won both races to take the title by 11 points.

There were seven occasions before the turn of the millennium when the title also went all the way, giving proof - if ever any proof were needed - that SBK racing provides one of the closest forms of motorsport spectacle there is.