Phil Marron was certainly celebrating in Lombok as his Pata Yamaha rider, Toprak Razgatlioglu, claimed the WorldSBK Crown.

Marron has been a mechanic and crew chief to many riders over his long career from domestic racing to world level - including his brother-in-law Eugene Laverty - but on Sunday he finally made the jump to running bike side for a world champion in the shape of Toprak Razgatlioglu.

It was not all smooth sailing as Marron initially explains in response to a question of how it had all gone in the end, after so many winning performances. “We had three DNF’s. Two mechanicals and one rider input. I got asked about it earlier and that was actually a turning point for us because after that moment with Garrett [Gerloff at Assen, when Razgatlioglu got knocked off], Toprak’s approach changed.

“He just wanted to go win races after that. So, that was one of the turning points. Misano race two was another. He needed to win. Double at Donington. In my opinion, the incident with Garrett made him reset. Like, ‘OK, championship is over, I just need to win’ and that winning brought us here.”

Personally for Marron, his usual beaming grin was all the wider, especially after coming close a few times before. “I was over the moon. I have a few silver medals. I’ve been involved in a few silver medals in world championships, so it was nice to finally add a gold to that as well. I can’t put it into words.”