Salt Lake City, 27th May 2010 The seventh round of the 2010 World Superbike Championship will take place this weekend at Miller Motorsports Park, the American circuit located just a few kilometers from Salt Lake City. The track is 4907 metres in length and is considered one of the more difficult tracks on the calendar. Among the favourites for the podium are Carlos Checa. In the last two events here Team Althea Racing’s Spanish rider has been one of the main players, doing a spectacular double here in 2008 followed, last year, by a great second place finish in Race 1 behind Ben Spies. Motivated by the convincing results two weeks ago at Kyalami, where he finished second to Michel Fabrizio, Carlos will aim to extend the positive run on board the Italian team’s Ducati. Shane Byrne is also ready for two strong races; Althea Racing’s English rider aims for top ten results. The Kyalami round unfortunately didn’t reward Shakey with many points but both the team and the rider are confident, seeing as last year on American soil the Briton finished tenth in the second race. “Morale is high as we arrive in Salt Lake City” – reveals Genesio Bevilacqua, General Manager of Althea Racing – in Kyalami, at the end of a race to remember, we achieved a great second place with Carlos. The team is determined and everything is working perfectly in the garage. If we consider the fact that in 2008, right here in America, Checa took the double, we can be confident ahead of this weekend. Shakey also has the will to do well. At Kyalami he didn’t bring home the results he hoped for but at Miller his goal is to reach the positions that count. We are ready”¦” The Miller schedule kicks off on Saturday at 12.45 local time, with the first practice session, followed at 15.45 by first qualifying. On Sunday at 10.45 the second qualifying session, which will determine entry to the afternoon’s Superpole at 15.00 (22.00 UK time). The races are set for Monday, at 12.00 (19.00 UK time) and at 15.30 (22.30 UK time). More, from a press release issued by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: Hannspree Ten Kate Honda riders, Jonathan Rea and Max Neukirchner, have arrived in America for this weekend’s seventh round World Superbike championship event at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City in Utah. The 4.907km Miller circuit’s fast and flowing layout suits the engine and handling characteristics of the team’s Honda CBR1000RRs and the two riders are eager to get back on track on Saturday. In a break with World Superbike tradition, the race will take place on Monday, which is Memorial Day and a public holiday in the US. Rea heads into the weekend, which marks the halfway point in the 2010 season, in third place in the series after his fourth podium finish of the year last time out at Kyalami in South Africa. The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland took fifth and third place finishes in the two 2009 races at Miller and is confident that the base setting which he and his crew have been fine tuning in rece nt rounds will stand him in good stead for this weekend’s encounters. Max Neukirchner missed last year’s races through injury but performed strongly in the inaugural WSBK meeting at Miller in 2008, when he finished second and fourth. The 26-year-old German has struggled to find his best form so far this year and is looking to Miller to help him turn his season around. Jonathan Rea I’ve had a good few days acclimatising in America staying with my manager Chuck Aksland in a town called Copperopolis, near San Francisco. It’s in Copper Valley, so you can probably imagine what they mined here. I’ve been playing some golf and watched the AMA Motocross at Hangtown last weekend. Now it’s time to get back to business at Miller which quite I’m optimistic about. We know the bike works well there and I really enjoy riding at the circuit, so we’re going with the intention of at l east two podium finishes. We lost our way a bit on the Saturday at Kyalami but still managed to grind out two decent results. We’ll keep working around the good base setting that we’ve found this year, which is the one we usually end up going back to, but I definitely need to qualify well at Miller to ensure that I get away near the front in Monday’s races. Max Neukirchner After the promise of Assen the races at both Monza and Kyalami were disappointing. But after South Africa we had a good meeting and the team told me not to spend too long thinking about things and that I should try to relax and refresh a little. I know the guys have got a plan together for Miller, which we will go through on Friday at the circuit and then we will try to find a good base set-up I’ll just concentrate and work as hard as I can through the weekend. I finished second and fourth at Miller two years ago but I missed l ast year’s races. I’ll try to get up to speed again as quickly as possible, while working on the new style that focuses on corner exit and getting on the throttle as quickly as possible. I’m actually feeling really optimistic, though, and looking forward to the weekend very much. Ronald ten Kate team manager The bikes went immediately to America from Kyalami so most of the guys have had some time off over the last week. We’ve had a good look at all the data from Kyalami, however, and we know that Miller has been good for us over the last couple of years. In fact, America has been pretty good generally, because we had quite some success at Laguna Seca before. Of course, results from the past don’t mean much for this weekend, but we’re certainly confident that Jonathan can be fighting up at the front again. We also have a plan of attack to get Max back on the rails and will start him wi th two clear settings. Once we’ve found that base, he’ll hopefully be no more than a couple of clicks away. But at least Miller’s grippy surface and characteristics are very different to the bumps of Kyalami. More, from another press release issued by Hannspree Ten Kate Honda: 2010 World Supersport championship leader, Kenan Sofuoglu, has said that only victory will do this weekend as the series reaches its halfway point at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. Sofuoglu heads to the 4.907km circuit near Salt Lake City hoping to repeat his stunning win in the corresponding race last season when the Turkish ace’s two bold manoeuvres past Cal Crutchlow and Eugene Laverty produced one of the most memorable last laps in World Supersport history. However, with a slender one-point lead over Laverty in the 2010 standings, Sofuoglu knows that another victory on his Honda CBR600RR is important to maintain his challenge to win back the Supersport crown he last wore in 2007. Sofuoglu’s Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team-mate, Michele Pirro, has delivered two solid fourth place finishes in the last two races at Monza and Kyalami and the Italian will be looking to the Miller race to add to his solitary podium, which w as achieved at the Portimao round in March. Kenan Sofuoglu I am really looking forward to going back to America where I had one of the best races of my career last year. But last year, the CBR was still on the old suspension so we will have a big job to find a good setting with Andreani’s Ohlins suspension that we are using now. The bike is certainly a lot better than last year and Laverty and Lascorz are both very strong. We need to improve the bike after Kyalami, too, so we have a lot of work to do. Up to now I have been fighting for points and have been on the podium in every race. Now, it’s time to win again and there will be no better place to win again than at Miller. Michele Pirro The crash that I had on Friday at Kyalami caused me more problems than I first thought and my shoulder gave me some trouble during the race. But I’m feeling fit now and, looking back to Monza and Kyalami, it was important to finish the races after two crashes before. To get those results was a big satisfaction for me but now I am ready to push for podium finishes once more. I am looking forward to racing in America very much. We know that the bike is strong after Kenan’s amazing win last season. I was in the race and finished eighth, but I like the circuit very much it has a very long straight and fast corners. I hope to keep improving by results now and will try my best for a good one this weekend. Ronald ten Kate team manager Last year was the maiden Supersport race at Miller, where the whole team enjoyed Kenan’s very hard fought win. The bike is certainly better now than it was last year and we have two riders who are up to speed, so our aim will be to get them both on the podium. Or even better! We have some new software in the electronics package to try on the track after we have tested it on the dyno. We hope it will be another step forward this weekend. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Yamaha Sterilgarda riders Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland are gearing up for the U.S round of the World Superbike Championship this coming Monday at the Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City. Last year the team saw a double victory here at the hands of rider Ben Spies, success they will be looking to repeat in 2010 with British riders Crutchlow and Toseland. The Salt Lake City round is the seventh of the 2010 Championship, with six rounds now remaining before the finale in Magny Cours in October. Toseland heads into this weekend in fifth place in the championship on 125 points, 16 points behind Carlos Checa in fourth. Team mate Crutchlow sits in ninth with 86 points, nine points behind Michele Fabrizio in eighth. “I’m really looking forward to Salt Lake City,” said James Toseland. “It’s a brand new track for me. I got to drive a couple of laps in one of the Miller Racing School’s Mustang’s this week which has given me an idea of the track layout, but there’s nothing like actually riding it on a bike to understand it. I’ve always enjoyed coming to American tracks to race, I love Laguna Seca and Indianapolis so I’m looking forward to the challenge of learning this one and getting up to speed as quickly as possible. I hope we don’t have the grip level problems as we did in Kyalami.” “It’s great to be back here again,” said Cal Crutchlow. “I loved racing here last year on the Supersport bike; it’s a great track so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it on the R1. I know the bike works well here, so I’m confident we can get up there and fight to be at the front to finish the weekend on the podium.” Miller technically speaking according to Frankie Carchedi, James Toseland’s Crew Chief “Kyalami proved to be a tough weekend for the team, but James gained some valuable points towards the championship. Miller is a new track for James, so the key will be for him to do as many laps as possible in the first few sessions and learn the track. The second day we will work hard on the setting so that James can again fight for the top three places. Miller racetrack is very different to Kyalami and has hardly any change of elevations. We will work hard on making sure we can also maintain good grip levels for the whole race, as this is a key factor for us. We have some good data from last year and we will use this to our advantage to work towards an optimum set up as quickly as possible.” Miller technically speaking according to Marcus Eschenbacher, Cal Crutchlow’s Crew Chief “The circuit has two or three different characters, and at least two different tarmac surfaces to deal with. You have the fast flowing part and then the last part which is more twisty with a different tarmac surface so we have to see what the grip situation is and what our level of traction is. We will start with one bike on our base set up and the second bike we will try something new. We want to have more dynamic transfer on the bike so we will adjust the bike to achieve this which will hopefully give us more traction without compromising steering. We will also try a new clutch to see if we can improve on our starts.” Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team Manager “Miller Motorsports circuit seems to be one of the good circuits for us, last year we ran very well here with no problems so we’re preparing for the weekend with confidence and determination, we believe we can achieve good results. After South Africa we haven’t worked on our bikes as they came directly from Kyalami to here but we are ready with a good base set up to begin on Saturday with the first session.” The Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike Team riders will be looking to build on the current run of victories by both the R1 and the R6 in the USA national championships. Team Graves Yamaha R1 rider Josh Hayes took double AMA Superbike wins in California two weeks ago, with fellow Yamaha Pat Clark Motorsports R1 rider Ben Bostrom taking two second places behind him to make it a double Yamaha one-two on the podium. The R6 was also dominating the AMA weekend, with podiums by Tommy Aquino, Josh Herrin and Dane Westby. In AMA ProSupersport, the Saturday saw five of the top six places taken by the R6 whilst Sunday saw it take the chequered flag. *Please note that this Weekend’s World Superbike races at Salt Lake City will take place on the Monday, not the Sunday. First qualifying sessions will be Saturday and second qualifying and Superpole on Sunday.