Shinichi Nakatomi had his best ever personal result last weekend at Vallelunga and he arrives at Magny-Cours very motivated for the last event of the 2007 Superbike World Championship. With two 9th positions in Italy, the Japanese rider did a great job near Roma and he and the team were very happy of this good result. So he will try to do as well, or why not even better, in the Nievre area, and the most important goal is to gain one position in the championship standings. Shinichi Nakatomi: “I shall try to gain one position in the standings at Magny-Cours. My goal is to be in front of Jakub Smrz and to allow the team to progress in the team standings.” Team-manager Martial Garcia: “We are confident for Magny-Cours because our rider Shinichi Nakatomi and our Yamaha R1 are now completely competitive. We work hard for next year. FG Sport would like us to enter two riders next year and we are doing our best to satisfy this request.” The track was resurfaced after last winter. The grip on the dry tarmac is close to what it was before on the old pavement. But on the wet there is a huge difference, with a big progress that is very positive for the performance as well as for the safety. For your information, let’s look at how the Bol d’Or (raced under Superbike rules) lap record progressed: In 2006, the best lap was for the Yamaha R1 of the Yamaha Austria Racing Team in 1:43.950. In 2007, the quickest time is for the GMT 94’s Yamaha R1 in 1:42.714 with the average speed of 154.600 kph. The Magny-Cours circuit In 1959, Jean Bernigaud, mayor of Magny-Cours, created a kart track which became quickly the Circuit Jean Behra (named after the French driver 4th of the 1956 F1 championship). In 1971 was inaugurated the longer (3.850 km) new track. On July 7, 1991 was organized for the first time at Magny-Cours a F1 Grand Prix, with the President of the Republic and 100,000 spectators. There was only one motorcycle Grand Prix held at Magny-Cours and it was on July 19, 1992. Pierfrancesco Chili was on the pole position of the 250cc race. World Championship standings: 1- Toseland (Honda) 396 points, 2- Biaggi (Suzuki) 367, 3- Haga (Yamaha) 363, 4- Bayliss (Ducati) 341, 5- Corser (Yamaha) 267 — 15- Nakatomi (Yamaha) 116 Magny-Cours stats Practice record (2006): 1:39.147 Troy Corser (Suzuki) 160.162 kph 2006 Yamaha Motor France practice times: Nakatomi: 1:41.412 / 14th; Abe: 1:41.993 / 18th; Gimbert: 1:40.613 / 12th Race 1 results 2006: 1-Toseland (Honda), 2-Haga (Yamaha), 3-Corser (Suzuki), 4-Bayliss (Ducati), 5-Kagayama (Suzuki) 2006 Yamaha Motor France race 1 results: Nakatomi: 10th; Abe: 13th; Gimbert: DNF Race 2 results 2006: 1-Bayliss (Ducati), 2-Corser (Suzuki), 3-Toseland (Honda), 4-Haga (Yamaha), 5-Pitt (Yamaha) 2006 Yamaha Motor France race 2 results: Nakatomi: DNF; Abe: 12th; Gimbert: 11th Lap record (best race time 2006): 1:40.370 Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 158.211 kph