Superbike World Championship preview: round eight - Brands Hatch
Circuit: Brands Hatch
Country: United Kingdom
Track length: 4197m
Opened: 1926
Fastest lap ever: 1:26.248 (Shane Byrne, 2003)
Lap record: 1:26.755 (Shane Byrne, 2003)
Last year's winners: Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
This weekend sees the Superbike World Championship move to the famous
Brands Hatch circuit in England for round eight of what is proving to be
a pulsating series.
Brands is traditionally the highlight of the season, with the year's
biggest crowd flocking to see some of the best racing of the year. An
old-fashioned race track, Brands Hatch provides a challenging mix of fast,
blind corners and radical elevation changes to test the riders' skill,
bravery and machine set-up skills. It is a circuit rated by many riders
as their favourite.
The Yamaha Motor Italia squad travels to the UK in good form, having
seen Noriyuki Haga close in on series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) last
time out in Brno. Haga currently lies second in the series, 73 points
behind Bayliss, and Brands Hatch is one of the Japanese rider's favourite
venues, having taken his YZF-R1 to the win there last year.
He explained: "I like Brands Hatch a lot and last year I had two great
races with Troy Corser. I was disappointed after Brno because I thought
that I could win. I was very fast in qualifying, although I had big
grip problems in both the races. It is going to be two more hard races
this weekend but I am confident that we can be back fighting at the front
again."
Haga has been a busy man since Brno, competing at last weekend's Suzuka
8-hour endurance event with Colin Edwards, although mechanical problems
following a small crash during Edwards' first stint meant that he did
not actually compete in the race.
Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt goes to Brands Hatch out to
avenge a Brno nightmare. Having won his first world superbike race at
Misano, the Australian had high hopes for the Czech race - only to be
denied two potential podium finishes due to technical problems. The
Australian enjoys riding at the British circuit posted a sixth and seventh
place finish there last year.
In the 600cc world supersport class, Kevin Curtain closed the gap on
Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) at the head of the championship with a win
in Brno. The Yamaha Motor Germany rider now trails the Frenchman by
just 10 points with five of the 12 races remaining.
"Things are in our own hands now," said the 40-year-old Australian.
"We're working with a new bike this year and maybe we've made taken a few
wrong turns with the set-up in the first part of the year. But we
showed at Brno that the package is very good and capable of winning races. I
was so happy after Brno and I'm really buzzing about Brands."
Broc Parkes made it a Yamaha Motor Germany one-two in Brno and
currently lies third in the championship, just 18 points behind his team-mate
and also right in contention for the title with five races remaining.
