[Ducati] ASSEN WSBK Preview

[Veloce916 at aol.com]

>From Ducati Corse:


Thursday Aug 31 2006 
Preview  

TITLE COUNTDOWN GETS UNDERWAY AT  ASSEN 

The World Superbike Championship enters a crucial phase with the final third  
of the season set to unfold over the coming weeks. Following the Brands Hatch 
 thriller, which saw Troy ‘Superman' Bayliss increase his stranglehold on the 
 championship for the Ducati Xerox Team, the first of two double-header 
events to  conclude the series gets underway this weekend at the Assen TT circuit,  
immediately followed in seven days time by the German round.  
This year's race at the legendary Van Drenthe TT track will take place on the 
 new layout of the circuit, which has been shortened by one-quarter of its  
distance to make way for a new car park and spectator complex. As a result all  
records will now have to be rewritten to take account of the new 4.55 km  
layout. 
Bayliss comes to Assen with a points cushion over Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) that 
 is sufficient to control the situation but not enough to clinch the title 
this  weekend. The Australian has had mixed times at the TT circuit on the three 
 occasions he has raced there, retiring twice in 2000, then clinching the 
2001  title at the Dutch round but crashing out the following year to ruin his 
chances  of a title repeat. 
"I've had mixed results at Assen but every time I've been there I've been at  
the front, which is good to know. The first part of the track has changed a 
bit  now and it's going to be different so that makes me a bit more optimistic 
about  the place. The last race at Brands was pretty much situation normal 
again and I  feel like we're back on track again now. I thought Corser was going 
to be the  most consistent but it's turned out to be Haga now. The other guys 
are right  there as well but I'm on form and they're going to have a hard time 
to beat me.  The strategy remains the same. I always treat every session like 
we're planning  to win at the weekend but you can't say anything until the 
lights turn green and  then you see how the situation is." 
With the Assen race, team-mate Lorenzo Lanzi now begins to retrace the steps  
that took him to two superb wins late last year at Lausitz and Magny-Cours 
and  his form will surely be galvanized by this crucial final part of the 
season.  Lorenzo has raced once in Superbike at Assen, last year, scoring a seventh 
and a  sixth place. 
"I like the Assen track but I feel sure that it was better before they  
modified it. We'll be racing on the short circuit, but in any case they've only  
modified the first part so it's not all totally new. Assen is fast and I like  
fast tracks, the only unknown factor is the weather. We'll see what it's like  
when we arrive. I'm going into the final four races aiming to do well. 
Hopefully  we'll have a bit more luck in these races and I can show what I'm really 
capable  of." 
THE CIRCUIT
Name: Van Drenthe Circuit Assen TT
Length:  4.55  km
Pole Position:  left
Race distance: 2 x 22 laps/100.210 km 
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (after 8 of 12 rounds): Riders - 1. Bayliss (Ducati  
Xerox) 307; 2. Haga (Yamaha) 230; 3. Toseland (Honda) 219; 4. Corser (Suzuki)  
193; 5. Barros (Honda) 166; 6. Pitt (Yamaha) 157; 7. Kagayama (Suzuki) 126; 8.  
Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) 96. Manufacturers - 1. Ducati 317; 2. Honda 267; 3. Suzuki 
 & Yamaha 259; 5. Kawasaki 140; 6. Petronas 4.

STATISTICS:  revised circuit. 
2005 RESULTS: Race 1 - 1. Vermeulen (Honda); 2. Toseland (Ducati); 3. Haga  
(Yamaha). Race 2 - 1. Vermeulen; 2. Haga; 3. Toseland. 
TV COVERAGE: Eurosport (Pan European): Sunday 3 September - 1200 SBK race 1  
(live); British Eurosport (UK): Saturday 2 September - 1545 Superpole (live),  
Sunday 3 September - 1130 SBK race 1 (live), 1745 race 2 (delayed). Eurosport 
2  (Pan-European): Sunday 3 September - 1515 SBK race 2 (live). La7 (Italy): 
Sunday  3 September - 1430 SBK race 1(delayed), 1525 SBK race 2 (live). RTL7  
(Netherlands): Sunday 3 September - 1630 SBK race 1 & 2 (delayed).