Yamaha World Superbike riders Ben Spies and Tom Sykes are ready for action at the famous Nurburgring circuit in the Eifel Mountains this weekend. Following a five week break for the summer, Spies is refreshed and raring to take the fight to rival Noriyuki Haga for the championship lead with only seven points separating them after the last round in Brno. With only four rounds remaining the closing races of the 2009 season look set to be a hotly fought contest for the championship title. Spies could potentially walk away from Germany having taken the lead from Haga should the races go his way on Sunday. As with most of the tracks this year, neither Spies or Sykes have raced on the Nurburgring circuit before, although this has long since ceased to be an issue for them as they have adapted quickly and taken valuable championship points and victories from a variety of unknown tracks. “It has been great to have some time out to relax at home in the US”, said Ben Spies. “I’m fully recharged and really excited about getting stuck into some more racing. We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain so I’m just going to keep on giving it 100% and see what we can do to catch Nori this weekend.” Nurburgring technically speaking according to Tom Houseworth, Ben Spies Crew Chief “Heading into the Nurburgring we have a couple of issues to address, this will force us to change just a bit from our normal routine. By now it seems normal going to a circuit we have never seen. From what we have heard the corners are a bit slower than Brno with braking very important into them, so we will start with a different setup for our #2 machine. For the first session Ben will learn the track as quickly as possible on our #1 machine and evaluate chassis, gearbox and overall performance. The second session we are planning to start on the #2 machine to evaluate a setup targeting performance under very heavy braking. If all goes well the #2 machine will do everything the #1 machine does plus what we’re looking for under braking. Friday will be a busy first day as we have quite a bit to sort out in the two sessions including very important gearbox ratios. Saturday will provide us time to sort race rubber and try some different links or geometry depending on the mechanical grip we have and be ready for Sunday. If all goes well Sunday we hope to see ya on the box!” “I’m very much looking forward to it”, said Tom Sykes. We’ve had a long break, after two weeks I start getting a bit bored so am fired up and ready to go for it. It’s my first time at the track so I’ve got some learning to do, it’s easy to learn a track but tricky to find the last little bit. Hopefully we’ve made some improvements over the break with the bike as well so I’m looking forward to putting them to good use.” Nurburgring technically speaking according to Sergio Verbena, Tom Sykes Crew Chief “Apart from the gearbox settings I don’t feel we need to start with a special setting for this circuit, we have a base setting we will be starting with that we use for all races. Based on Tom’s feedback from the first sessions we will make adjustments to the suspension, steering, geometry and braking to fit to the track. We shouldn’t need to make any big changes as the settings we’re using so far have been working ok almost everywhere. So for first practice on Friday we’ll concentrate on fine-tuning the setting for the track, and we’ll start to check tyres as well. We’ll have many options with the Pirelli tyres, so it’s important to start work on tyres from the first practice. By the first qualifying session we must understand which tyre can have the best performance, because we will need a good lap time in case it starts to rain on Saturday!” Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager “After Brno we have worked really hard during the summer break. We have increased the performance of the bike and I think we have a good possibility to catch Nori now. Both the riders have had a good rest and we are just waiting for the next weekend now to get back onto the track and race and see if we can take the championship lead.” The 2009 Yamaha R1 has already won a European championship, having carried Jorg Teuchert to victory in the IDM German Superbike Championship. Crutchlow looking to extend championship lead in Germany Following the DNF at Brno, British rider Cal Crutchlow is back from his holidays and determined to make the points up at the German round of the World Supersport Championship this weekend at the Nurburgring circuit. Yamaha World Supersport rider Cal is still leading the championship with a 17 point lead over rival Eugene Laverty with four races to go. Team mate Fabien Foret was clearly back on form with an incredible win in Brno, having found the ideal set up for his bike the French rider is looking to repeat his performance in Germany and take another podium. “I’m very keen to get back onto the track”, said Cal Crutchlow. “It was really disappointing to lose out on the points at Brno so I’m determined to get them back in Germany! It’s the home race for my team as well so I want to do well for them and see if we can extend our championship lead some more. I did a few laps testing here last month and I really like the circuit so I think it’s going to be a good weekend.” “I hope we get ok weather in Germany”, said Fabien Foret. “Obviously I would like to have the same result as Brno, it was such a great race and I’m happy to be back on form. I want to stay on the podium again this weekend and for the rest of the season.” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha World Supersport Team Manager “We planned a test on the 18th of August with Cal at the ring as part of a track day. It went ok, he liked the track and was fast and we adjusted the bike as best we could. We have a good set up now to start with so we’ll have no lost time looking for the right gearing and we’ll be ready to go. We’ve made some changes to resolve the problem from Brno as well. Fabien is of course delighted with the Brno win and likes Nurburgring so I hope we can give him the same feeling with his set up to be on the podium again this weekend.”