Oschersleben 8 Hours, fourth round of the 2008 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship, will take place on Saturday August 9th on the racetrack located between Hannover and Berlin. Traditionally disputed over a 24 Hours time, the event is changing format and moves to a 8 Hours race run half at night. The start will be given on Saturday at 3 pm, for an arrival at 11 pm. The race strategy will be different from the previous ten editions. A crash during Oschersleben 8 Hours will surely take any team away from a final place on the podium. With this new race format, the “German Speedweek” will also host a round of the highly disputed German Superbike Championship on Sunday. Several Endurance faces will be on the starting grid at Oschersleben, such as French Gwen Giabbani, Swiss Roman Stamm or Belgium rider Olivier Depoorter, also engaged on the Suzuki Yoshimura Germany. The competition will be try once again hard to beat current World Champions and 2008 series leader, Vincent Philippe, Matthieu Lagrive and Julien da Costa, the usual trio on the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team. The main challenger will be surely Team Kawasaki France, second at Oschersleben last year. Erwan Nigon and Julian Mazuecos will have the support of Chris Walker on the official Kawasaki. Many permanent teams are aiming to be on the podium in Germany : Yamaha Austria Racing Team with Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Steve Plater, Bolliger Switzerland and its Kawasaki given to David Morillon, Patric Muff and Horst Saiger, Endurance Moto 38 with a Yamaha ridden by Julien Millet, Cyril Brivet and Hervé Gantner, or also Phase One Endurance with Damian Cudlin, James Haydon and Stéphane Duterne. All those teams had been at least once on the podium during the ten previous editions of Oschersleben 24 Hours. Maco Moto Racing Team will be not only entering with his usual team, Warwick Nowland, Jason Pridmore and Martin Kuzma, but will also race with a second Yamaha. YMES Folch Endurance will discover Oschersleben with Dani Ribalta, Pedro Lluis Valcaneras and David Tomas. Suzuki Yoshimura Germany is one of the most ambitious local teams, with Olivier Depoorter, Werner Daemen, currently third at the German Superbike Championship and World Supersport rider Didier Van Keymeulen. Also keep an eye on the Yamaha Motor Deutschland, with Jorg Teuchert, female rider Nina Prinz and Andrzej Pawelec, three riders of the German Superbike championship. BMW Motorrad made strong impression last year in taking fifth and ninth final places. Two BMW HP2 Sport will be again on the starting grid, with Thomas Hinterreiter Richard Cooper, Jose-Luis Nion, Rico Penzkofer, Stéphane Mertens and Franz Aschenbrenner. As usual, Oschersleben welcomes several German teams riding exotic machines in the Open class. Three Ducati 1098, two KTM RC8, two Buell, two Triumph Daytona and a MV Agusta F4 are expected.