From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Stalker becomes Mr Nasty for Silverstone

The influence of Foggy PETRONAS Racing team boss Carl Fogarty has rubbed off on his rider Chris Walker in the build-up to this weekend’s British round of the Superbike World championship at Silverstone, Great Britain.

Chris, nicknamed The Stalker for his gutsy pursuit of success, has adopted the legendary Foggy focus as he and team-mate Troy Corser prepare for tomorrow’s first action at the sixth round of the championship.

Chris said: “It’s a good thing that I feel angry and nasty as, just like Carl did, I tend to do better when I am in that mood! Although I didn’t do too well here last year, I do enjoy the circuit and it will be great to have the support of my home crowd.

“I never really know what to expect on this bike until we ride round as we have done better at some circuits than we have expected. But the FP1 is definitely going better and I think we can go well if we get a good set-up. The team has been working really hard with the PETRONAS engine development team on existing data to make as much improvement as possible from the last round.

“Silverstone is one of those tracks where a good lap builds from the fast first corner, which takes you onto the straight and where you tend to push the front. But if you start the lap fast it really does flow as each corner leads into the next. Then the two chicanes give you chance to catch your breath before you go again! It’s an important track to be smooth on and carry good corner speed, so that aspect of it might suit us. However, the last chicane is very slow and exits onto a fast section so we may struggle there.”

The initial focus for Troy and Chris will be on setting the bike up for the Pirelli race tyres. With James Haydon missing the round through injury last year, the team was only able to acquire limited data from Troy’s bike. And, with the Australian failing to qualify for Superpole as a result of technical problems, his 16th place in the first race after an early mistake was the stark return from a disastrous weekend. Much of last year’s challenge centred on chatter from the Michelin tyres and, with the track also being bumpy in braking areas due to the `carpet effect’ caused by F1 racing, effective suspension set-up will again be a key factor.

Carl said: “The first thing I am hoping is that we do better than last year, especially as we are at our home track. We are hoping for more improvements from the engine at the next round, Laguna Seca, so to have Troy and Chris in the top six at this round would be an achievement. It’s becoming harder to say which tracks will suit us and which won’t, but our bike is still not as fast as a lot of the other machines so we will be down on top speed again.”

Circuit information: Silverstone, Great Britain

Best lap: Neil Hodgson, 1:52.875 (Superpole, 2003)
Lap record (race): Gregorio Lavilla 1:53.629 (2003)
Pole position: Right
Circuit length: 5.094km
Corners: 7 left, 8 right

Standings (after 5 of 11 rounds)

Riders: 1 Toseland 157; 2 Laconi 155; 3 Chili 113; 4 McCoy 107; 5 Haga 94; 6 Vermeulen 92; 7 Haslam 89; 8 Corser 79; 9 Walker 78; 10 Martin 73

Manufacturers: 1 Ducati 250; 2 Petronas 112; 3 Honda 99; 4 Kawasaki 64; 5 Suzuki 56; 6 Yamaha 26