Munich/Stephanskirchen – When the first session of free practice begins on Friday at 12.45 hrs local time in the next round of the FIM Superbike World Championship at Silverstone, all the riders and teams will be entering largely unfamiliar terrain. Although it is only three years since the World Championship last stopped by at the legendary race track in the English county of Northamptonshire, the circuit has undergone extensive modifications over recent months. Team BMW Motorrad Motorsport is travelling to Great Britain in upbeat mood. Troy Corser (AUS) missed out on the races in Brno after crashing heavily in Friday qualifying, and is eager to get back into race action. Ruben Xaus (ESP), meanwhile, celebrated his best result yet for BMW Motorrad Motorsport in the Czech Republic. Ruben goes into the Silverstone race weekend in 13th place in the riders’ standings on 64 points; Troy is 7th with 149 points. In the manufacturers’ table BMW is lying sixth on 163 points. Troy Corser: “After my crash in Brno I’ve been working a lot on my fitness. I’ve got a test scheduled at Mugello on Tuesday to make totally sure that I’m back to 100 per cent fitness. Now I’m looking forward to Silverstone; I spend a fair amount of the year in Great Britain and expect to see a lot of family friends at the track, so it will be something of a second home race for me. “I’ve already had a chance to take a look around the new track. The new layout looks very good and surface grip seems pretty consistent. There are a few bumps, especially where the new asphalt has been laid. I’m expecting us to do a good job here with our bike; we’ve done a lot of work on chassis set-up and the bumps shouldn’t be a particularly big problem. Engine power is a major factor at Silverstone, as the circuit has several long straights. There are also a handful of long, sweeping corners, which load up the tyres on one side, so it’s important to have a good throttle connection.” Ruben Xaus: “Brno was a very positive weekend for me. Although I unfortunately crashed in the second race, the team can be proud of our performance. We showed that we’re competitive and that we can keep pace with the top guys in every session. I hope that we can keep our form going at Silverstone. I have good memories of the track, as I’ve finished on the podium there on several occasions in the past. I’ve only seen the new layout on TV, but it looks interesting. There are some stop-and-go corners and it seemslike quite a physically demanding track. Some areas of the new section appear to be quite bumpy; we’ll take this into account in our set-up work and make the necessary adjustments to the bike.” Berthold Hauser, BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director: “We’re looking forward to Silverstone. It is a place where motor sport history has been made – Silverstone is known as the Home of British Motor Racing for good reason. The British race weekend was hosted by Donington in our debut season, so Silverstone will be new territory for our young team. Indeed, even experienced riders like Troy and Ruben, who have finished on the podium at Silverstone in the past, will face a new challenge this year. The track has been extensively modified over the past few months, and the riders will have to negotiate a whole new section of the track.” Background: The Silverstone race track is located outside the village of Silverstone in Northamptonshire, England. The circuit is most famous as the venue for the Formula One British Grand Prix, which it has hosted over 40 times. Indeed, the first ever race in the Formula One World Championship was held at Silverstone in 1950. The circuit is owned by the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) and was developed on the site of a Royal Air Force base built in 1943. The airfield featured three runways arranged in a triangle. The British round is one of the classic events on the FIM Superbike World Championship calendar, and the teams and riders will be back at Silverstone in 2010 after lining up at Donington for the last two years. The historic Northamptonshire circuit has undergone something of a makeover for its return to the programme. A stadium-type section measuring just under 800 metres has been incorporated into the circuit between the Abbey and Brooklands corners. Famous corners such as Maggotts, Becketts, Copse and Stowe have remained unchanged. A major overhaul of the track layout took place over the winter months. Work was carried out at Brooklands and Woodcote, notably on the new run-off area at the entry to the high-speed pit straight. Plus, the track now turns off to the right at Abbey and through the fast Farm Curve left-hander into a “stadium” section. After a sharp right-left combination (Village Corner/The Loop), the Aintree Corner leads onto the Wellington Straight, which in turn feeds out into Brooklands. The changes have added 760 metres to the length of the circuit, which now measures 5.902 kilometres.