TOSELAND OUT TO MAINTAIN CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD James Toseland (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) enters the fourth round of the Superbike World Championship still in possession of the championship lead he has enjoyed since leaving Qatar after round one, despite the misfortune of a retirement in the most recent round. A measure of just how effective the start of his season has been comes from the fact that he is the only rider in the top five to have suffered a no-score, but yet he still leads second place rider Max Biaggi by five points. With the latest electronics working in harmony with his well-proven machine, Toseland’s confidence in the run-up to Valencia is still high, and he fully intends to leave Valencia with his championship lead intact. Toseland, the 2004 World Champion, has started from the front row in every one of the three rounds so far, and has scored three wins and two second places. The Donington round on April 1 was a positive one for Roberto Rolfo (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) and he is the second highest placed Honda rider in the series. Valencia is well known to him, despite the fact that he did not test there in March, during the official sessions called by the series organisers. Michel Fabrizio (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) is looking forward to the Valencia race after Donington, with the former Superstock champion keen to get back to the sort of form that delivered him three podium finishes for Honda in the 2006 season. Currently 14th overall, Fabrizio heads up a running flush of Honda riders, down to his team-mate Steve Martin (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) in 17th. Joshua Brookes (Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR) and Karl Muggeridge (Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR) are buoyed by their recent points scoring rides at Donington, with Muggeridge now much recovered from the foot and ankle tendon injury he suffered in practice for the Australian round in March. For Toseland, Valencia will present another opportunity for the youngest ever champion of the class to score his first career double win, after he looked in a good position to do it at Donington in the last round. He is, understandably, even more intent on defending his championship lead. “It was tough in Donington to go from the joy of winning the first race to not finishing the second, but I’ll be putting in all behind me and concentrating on the job we have to do in Valencia,” stated Toseland. “I’m still leading the championship and that is where I said I wanted to be after Donington. I’ll say the same again – I want to leave Spain as the series leader and that is the goal for the whole team.” Rolfo’s improvement in form was easy to see at Donington, and he expects to make further strides at Valencia. “I had a much better feeling on the bike at Donington and although I had bad luck once again in the Superpole, I feel like I have made really good progress,” said the Italian. “I am looking forward to Valencia – it is a track we have tested so we have already done some good work towards the set-up of the bike. I know that I can do better and I will be looking to prove that in Spain.” Fabrizio’s Valencia weekend will be particularly busy after the team came into possession of new electronics for one of his machines. As the team’s favoured test venue, Valencia is the perfect place at which to do back-to-back evaluations of any new equipment. “For me, Valencia will be an important event because we have done a lot of kilometres on this circuit,” affirmed the rider from Rome. “I hope that with the new electronic parts on motorcycle will help us to be competitive, like the best Hondas in the World Championship.” Martin’s approach to Valencia has also been given a boost with the addition of some new electronics to try on one of his CBR1000RR race machines, on a circuit which the team has a lots of data about. “Valencia is where we’ve done all our winter testing and so we should have a good advantage there,” said Martin, with a touch of realism added. “The bikes are being taken straight to Valencia from Donington, and so any development work will now have to be done during practice and qualifying for race weekend. But we will work hard in the team and in Valencia you will see our best.” Brookes has scored points in all but one of the 2007 races so far, and but for a tyre choice gamble at Donington that didn’t pay off as expected, he may well be even higher up the order than his current placing of 15th. “We are looking a bit stronger now,” said Brookes. “We have tested at Valencia so we have got some data from there and we know which direction to go in now.” Muggeridge, who scored two good finishes at Donington after being unable to start in the previous Phillip Island round due to injury, now looks forward to Valencia. “We found out a lot about how our bike worked in race situations at Donington,” said the 2004 World Supersport Champion. “We are looking forward to Valencia because we will be able to concentrate more on the rear suspension there.” The next stop after the Valencia weekend is Assen, where round five of the WSS and SBK championships take place between 27 and 29 April.