From a press release issued by Honda Racing Information:

HONDA RIDERS READY FOR EARLY START AT VALENCIA

For the past two years the World Supersport Riders’ Championship has gone the way of competitors who chose Honda CBR power to propel them to the position of Supersport’s supreme gladiator. As the new World Supersport season commences at Valencia this coming weekend the collective Honda teams will be vying for an unprecedented third straight Riders’ Championship, using updated versions of the same CBR600RR which convincingly headed the race winning totals in 2003.

The man who won the last three Supersport races of the 2003 season is Karl Muggeridge (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) and he returns in race-ready form, having dominated the off season testing sessions at the favoured shakedown venue of Valencia. The most recent test, a three-day official SBK gathering, saw Muggeridge break the track record, with an outstanding time of 1:37.655

Muggeridge is joined in the Ten Kate Honda team by another Australian maestro in the making, Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR). A protégé of 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner, Parkes was a podium finisher for Honda last year, and after a swap to the Ten Kate team is in perfect shape to challenge for race wins in what is only his second World Supersport season.

The man who challenged the Ten Kate Honda riders most consistently in pre-season testing is the vastly experienced Supersport entity, Sebastien Charpentier (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR). Charpentier’s credentials were re-embossed in some style after he joined the Klaffi team mid-season in 2003 but by contrast a new talent from Germany is having his first four-stroke racing experience in 2004. Max Neukirchner (Klaffi Honda CBR600RR) has a strong pedigree in the European 250cc championship, a track record that belies his formal status of Supersport rookie this year.

The supported Honda ranks have been swelled by the talents of two new CBR riders, Alessio Corradi (Team Italia Megabike Honda CBR600RR) and new full time World Supersport rider Denis Sacchetti (Team Italia Megabike Honda CBR600RR).

As the first race of the year rapidly approaches all the CBR-mounted protagonists can be buoyed by the fact that not one but three Honda riders (Muggeridge, Charpentier and Parkes) headed up the time sheets at the recent official SBK tests in Spain.

The pre-season preparations for the leading Honda lights could hardly have been more encouraging, especially for quickest man of all, Muggeridge.

“I’ve done so many laps of testing here in the winter that I left the official SBK sessions at Valencia feeling dizzy,” said the four times race winner in the run up to the first race of the year. “We have tested everything we had to test and gathered all the set-up info we could. I just want to get down to riding competitively, whether it’s in qualifying or in the race. It’s going to be a tough year – but it’s always a tough year.”

Charpentier’s pre-season prowess gives him good reason to feel confident on race eve, as does his position of number 1 rider in the proven Klaffi outfit. “It’s good to start the season in the team I finished last year with. We showed that we make a good combination and we also set fast times in the pre-season tests at Valencia. I’m happy and I feel ready.”

Parkes, who shone in his only previous Ten Kate outing at the tail end of the 2003 season, reckons he is in almost the perfect pre-season position. “We’ve done a lot of work in testing, got the set-up pretty much worked out and tested a lot of tyres. The thing I’m most happy about is being in a team that works so well. Not only that, I’m also on a CBR that is consistently quick.”

The Austrian-based Klaffi team’s new German talent Neukirchner is on the brink of his WSS introduction, taking a realistic outlook in what will be a whole new experience for him.
“I hope that I can be solidly in the top 20 for most of this weekend,” said Neukirchner “and then go for a top 15 if possible. I’m very pleased to have been given this opportunity in World Supersport, especially in the Klaffi team, which is very professional and very competitive.”

Corradi, who has found the season coming along too soon for an ideal start in his latest new adventure, is still getting to know his CBR600RR. “In the final official test sessions we have carried out all the jobs that we could not do earlier in the winter,” said Corradi after three days of tests in mid-February. “The main difference between my new CBR and the previous bike I rode is in the chassis. We worked hard throughout our Valencia test and made enormous steps.” Big enough steps, in fact, to place Corradi ninth out of the 27 riders on show earlier this month.

Sacchetti ended his pre-season preparations familiarising himself with his new machine and Valencia’s track layout, in preparation for the real job in hand this weekend. “I worked on the basics so far, such as riding position and the unique aspects of the track,” said 18-year-old Sacchetti. “Having shared the track with the other top riders I know there is a lot of work for me to concentrate on to reach the top level. I hope to be on a competitive level by the time we get to the first Italian round of the season, at Misano in April.”

The first qualifying session of the year will take place on Friday 27 February; with the race itself currently scheduled for its traditional 13.20 CET start on Sunday 29.

The sixth season of full World Championship status Supersport racing currently consists of ten confirmed rounds, the second of which will take the field halfway around the world to Phillip Island in Australia, on March 28.