HM Plant Ducati Previews Sugo World Superbike Round

HM Plant Ducati Previews Sugo World Superbike Round

© 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by HM Plant Ducati:

Superbike World Championship

Round three: Sugo, Japan

Wednesday 23 April 2003

Event preview

Ready to shine in the land of the rising sun

This weekend Japan plays host to the world’s finest production-based motorcycle road racing teams as the Superbike World Championship (WSB) moves onto the third stage of its 12-round cycle. The man in charge of this hotly contested series is currently factory Ducati ace Neil Hodgson. The former HM Plant Ducati rider dominated the first two rounds, however WSB has a habit of not following form – as demonstrated last year when Colin Edwards snatched the championship from an apparently unstoppable Troy Bayliss.

Two men who are sure to be snapping at the heels of Hodgson are his hard riding adversary from the 2000 British Superbike Championship Chris Walker and ex-team-mate James Toseland. Sugo has a reputation for levelling the playing field. Part of this comes from the fact that it has traditionally been a “Dunlop track” thanks to the many hours of development the tyre manufacturer has devoted to Japanese Superbike riders at the circuit.

The Dunlop-shod HM Plant Ducatis are expected to perform well at Sugo and with almost a month having passed since the previous round in Australia Walker and Toseland are raring to go.

“In the past I just haven’t seemed to click at Sugo,” admits Walker. “So I’m hoping that the experience of the HM Plant Ducati team will help unravel some of the mysteries of the circuit and help me get my best result ever. As a rider, it’s really important to do well in front of the Japanese and I’m really looking forward to the race. It might be a little bit of a solemn occasion to start with because of the terrible news about Katoh but once we have all paid our respects I’m expecting to have another good battle with my team-mate and hopefully the factory boys as well.”

Toseland will also be paying tribute to the Japanese rider who died last weekend from injuries sustained in a crash during the opening race of the MotoGP season at Suzuka. However like every rider, he has a job to do this weekend and will be striving to make up the points he lost when a loose fairing forced him to retire from race one at Phillip Island.

“I like Sugo and had a couple of really good races there last year,” said the 22-year-old Yorkshireman. “I had some great scraps with the factory-equipped wild cards but with people like Tamada having moved on to MotoGP I should have a bit more room to breath and can concentrate on trying to win the race. Dunlop has done a lot of testing at Sugo and I’m looking forward to seeing what my HM Plant Ducati 998 F02 can do there. It seems ages since the last race and to be honest I just can’t wait to get going although I will be thinking of Katoh’s family and friends. We all know that there is a certain element of risk involved in motorcycle racing but that never makes it any easier when we lose someone as young and talented as Daijiro.”

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