Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Dennis Noyes

He’s been the fastest man on the World Superbike trail over the last eight starts and showed the Spanish flag proudly at Laguna Seca, but he has no contract for 2004. Rubén Xaus is not as tall as many say…he’s just a centimeter over 6 feet tall, but he looks 6’2″ on the little Ducati 999 F03. Appearances deceive, but lap times don’t and Xaus was blindingly fast in today’s qualifying session in the Assen rain. His wet time of 2:13.222 won’t improve his fifth place in qualifying carried over from yesterday’s dry practice, but it did make it clear that the Spaniard who resides in Andorra is on form at his second-favorite track.

His favorite is Laguna Seca where he should have won them both, but crashed out of the lead in the first race. (He explained that by saying, “I was running a rock-hard tire up front that only works when it is pushing and when my lead got big I made the mistake of slowing too much and the tire cooled too much.”)

Ruben has no contract for next year and was considered “fired” at mid-season before his big double at Misano. Now Ducati officials are preparing an offer but don’t know what to do with Rubén.

He has cost them a lot in bent metal and broken fiber over the last years, but they also know that he was perfectly capable of beating Troy Bayliss a couple of times toward the end of last season (especially here at Assen where he turned the same lap times as Valentino Rossi on the RC211V) but was restrained by logical team orders. Bayliss was battling Colin Edwards for the crown but Ruben was well back in points. If they lose him he might come back to haunt them.

Many people mistakenly think that Spanish riders have an inside line for MotoGP rides, but that is only partly true. With three Spanish riders already slotted into MotoGP teams (Gibernau, Checa and De Gea), the Championship rights holders are using their not insignificant influence to attract British and German riders as first priority.

Neil Hodgson seems headed for the D’Antin MotoGP team which will become the second Ducati team next year. Luis D’Antin says he does want a Spanish rider, but one bringing significant sponsorship, and that means he is looking first to Fonsi Gonzalez Nieto and his Repsol millions.

If Fonsi stays in 250cc or goes to the Gresini team as Gibernau’s team mate (a remote possibility), Xaus might get the call, but on the other hand Ducati may want the Spaniard to defend their colors in World Superbike again next year…or they might send him with a works 999 and full Michelin support, to the AMA Championship.

“I am having fun now that I have the bike working well, so I really don’t want to think too much about next year,” said Xaus just two hours before Superpole, “but sure I have to think. I have now nothing for next year. I want to race in the World Championship, either Superbike or MotoGP, but if Ducati want to make a big effort in the USA then maybe that is what I do. For sure I like America, the people, the big trucks (Xaus drives a big Dodge Ram V8 at great speeds around Spain), but it is always hard to adjust to living aboard…I know it was sometimes hard for Ben Bostrom to adjust to Europe last year. Right now I just try and do a good job in Superpole…never in my life have I been fastest in Superpole. I hate Superpole. Maybe I go to America just to get away from Superpole.”

If it stays wet Rubén might, just might, take the first Superpole of his career. At present the Supersport 600s have just finished their final qualifying on a wet track, led by Karl Muggeride in 2:09.956 (compared to yesterday’s pole of 2:05.738 by Chris Vermuelen with Muggeridge second.

So as the Superbikes rattle the glass in the Media Center as they warm up now for their one hour free practice prior to the Superpole, yesterday’s grids are virtually unchanged except for some minor shifting of positions on the final rows of Supersport.

The Metrosat images show drying conditions and scattered showers. Race Direction will later decide whether to run a dry (normal) or wet Superpole. If the conditions are determined to be wet, the 16 fastest riders will be allowed 50 minutes to record 12 laps to determine final grid positions.