Shinichi Nakatomi is now 21st in the provisional standings and his main goal during this Roman weekend is to gain at least one position. With a total of 32 points right now, Nakatomi is not directly threatened by Cal Crutchlow who is 22nd with 20 points. But he can hope to progress in the standings, as Roberto Rolfo in front of him has a total of 35 points, the same number of points as Tom Sykes. And Regis Laconi is not so far in front with 37 points. Martial Garcia (team manager): “With three events to go, Shinichi Nakatomi will be very motivated to earn a few points and express his talent on a dry track after the wet weekend at Donington.”.” The “Autodromo Piero Taruffi” Located 35 km north of Roma, near Campagnano di Roma, the Autodromo di Vallelunga is owned by the Automobile Club of Italy since 1967. The “international” track is 4.110 km long for the motorcycle races and 4.085 km long for the car events. The “club” track is 1.746 km long. The minimum width is 10.97 m, and 14 m on the start-finish straight. There are 7 right hand curves and 3 left, with a minimum radius of 23 m and a maximum of 166 m. The Autodromo started as a horse race track. The first car race was organized on December 9, 1951 on a sand oval, like it was done in the USA. The asphalt track was built in 1957. The “international” circuit, then 3.222 km long, was inaugurated on May 19, 1963. The most recent important work was done in 2005. The biggest motorcycle competition organized on this circuit before the first WSBK race in 2008 has been the Endurance World Championship from 2002 to 2005, under the FG Sport flag. The car Grand Prix of Rome welcomed from 1985 to 1991 the Formula 3000 Championship. July 8th and 9th tests: The two-day tests in July produced some good results for Pirelli. The Italian tyre manufacturer brought two new front and three rear tyres to the Rome track for the manufacturer development teams, all of which gave positive results. Noriyuki Haga on his Yamaha YZF-R1 lapped half-a-second quicker on average than last year’s time. 1-Xaus (Ducati) 1’36.032, 2-Canepa (Ducati) 1’36.404, 3-Bayliss (Ducati) 1’36.448, 4-Fabrizio (Ducati) 1’36.678, 5-Corser (Yamaha) 1’36.770, 6-Kiyonari (Honda) 1’37.017, 7-Checa (Honda) 1’37.023, 8-Haga (Yamaha) 1’37.115, 9-Smrz (Ducati) 1’37.243, 10-Sofuoglu (Honda) 1’37.300, 11-Biaggi (Ducati) 1’37.333, 12-Rolfo (Honda) 1’37.547, 13-Nakatomi (Yamaha) 1’37.628, 14-Muggeridge (Honda) 1’37.899, 15-Aoyama (Honda) 1’37.927, 16-Lanzi (Ducati) 1’38.869, 17-Pridmore (Honda) 1’39.547, 18-Morelli (Honda) 1’41.320 World Championship standings: 1- Bayliss (Ducati) 359 points, 2- Corser (Yamaha) 258, 3-Neukirchner (Suzuki) 254, 4-Checa (Honda) 240, 5-Haga (Yamaha) 230 — 21-Nakatomi (Yamaha) 32 Vallelunga stats Practice record (2007): 1:35.890 Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 154.300 kph (Nakatomi: 1:37.775 / 10th) Lap record (best race time 2007): 1:37.419 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) 151.880 kph Race 1 result 2007: 1- Biaggi (Suzuki), 2-Bayliss (Ducati), 3-Toseland (Honda), 4-Haga (Yamaha), 5-Fabrizio (Honda) — 9-Nakatomi (Yamaha) Race 2 results 2007: 1-Bayliss (Ducati), 2-Biaggi (Suzuki), 3-Haga (Yamaha), 4-Corser (Yamaha) 5-Rolfo (Honda) — 9-Nakatomi (Yamaha) Superstock: back in Magny-Cours The Superstock 1000 and 600cc classes will not be at Vallelunga, where only Superbikes and Supersports will participate. So we shall have to wait until the French event to see Loris Baz, leader of the 600cc Superstock European Championship, and his teammate Sylvain Barrier back from injury. The team whishes a quick recovery to Franck Millet who was injured last week during the Bol d’Or practices. 13th round of the Superbike World Championship: October 5th at Magny-Cours (France)