Editor

For the first time this season, the third round of the FIM Superbike and Supersport World Championships will be accompanied by the scheduled opening events of the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup and the European Superstock 600 Championship.


World Supersport
After winning the opening two World Supersport rounds, Italian Luca Scassa (Yamaha ParkinGO) will be aiming for a hat-trick of victories that will help him to increase his substantial 19-point advantage over Broc Parkes (Kawasaki Motocard.com). As well as the Australian however, Scassa will also have to keep one eye on his team-mate Chaz Davies, who finished the Donington race just a fraction behind in second.


Another Brit, Sam Lowes (Parkalgar Honda), who had to retire from the European Round while challenging up at the front, wants to show some even more impressive form in his first full rookie season, while Gino Rea (Honda Step Racing Team) will be out to repeat his fantastic podium finish at Donington. And still in the Honda camp, third place overall is in the hands of Denmark's Robbin Harms (Harms Benjan Racing Team), while the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda twin French attack of Florian Marino and Fabien Foret are looking for good results in front of their team's home crowd.


Mechanical gremlins, a spate of punctures and health issues have so far conditioned a number of riders competing in World Supersport. Assen should be a good opportunity therefore for Britain's James Ellison (Bogdanka PTR Honda), Italians Vittorio Iannuzzo and Massimo Roccoli (both on Kawasaki Lorenzini by Leoni machines), Danilo Dell'Omo (Triumph Suriano Racing Team) and the promising Roberto Tamburini (Yamaha Bike Service R.T.) to produce their form.


Superstock 1000
The entry list for the Superstock 1000 class shows that it is as popular as ever with a wide range of riders (29) and teams (22), on a variety of machinery (Ducati, Honda, BMW, Kawasaki and Yamaha) and from no fewer than 12 countries. Following Badovini's almost total domination in 2010, this year the title battle looks to be a lot more wide-open. Riders of the international calibre of Sheridan Morais (Kawasaki Lorenzini by Leoni), reigning European Superstock 600 champion Jeremy Guarnoni (Yamaha MRS) and WSBK wild-card at Phillip Island, Aussie Bryan Staring (Kawasaki Pedercini) now have a true fighting chance for the win. This year's bumper crop of Italians will also be hard to beat; they include Lorenzo Zanetti (in the winning BMW Motorrad Italia team together with Sylvain Barrier), Davide Giugliano and Lorenzo Baroni (Althea Ducati) and Danilo Petrucci (Barni). Lorini Honda field an impressive trio of Andrea Antonelli, Eddi La Marra plus Daniele Beretta, with Luca Verdini on the Ten Kate Junior version. Kawasaki have the largest representation, with other Ninjas for Marco Bussolotti (Pedercini), Lorenzo Savadori (Lorenzini by Leoni) and the GoEleven versions for Nico Vivarelli and Niccolò Canepa, who returns to the category he won in 2007.


Superstock 600
A new season of European Superstock 600 Championship racing is about to get underway and this year there are 24 riders waiting to meet the challenge in this always-exciting class. Representatives from 12 nations - including some outside Europe - will all be trying to emulate the feat of former champions Claudio Corti, Xavier Simeon, Maxime Berger, Loris Baz, Gino Rea and most recently Jeremy Guarnoni. Some, like Berardino Lombardi and Romain Lanusse, can even be considered to be seasoned veterans in comparison to their competitors, who include two former AMA Supersport champions, Joshua Day (Racedays Kawasaki) and Austin DeHaven (Yamaha Trasimeno), as well as several other highly-rated youngsters such as Ten Kate Junior Team's Michael Van Der Mark, Nelson Major (Falcone Competition), Joshua Elliott (WMT Yamaha) and Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Sport Team) from Australia, who won last year's final round at Magny-Cours.


European Junior Cup & Moriwaki Cup
The Assen weekend schedule will also include two interesting support races, which are focussing on attracting talented youngsters to the sport. The European Junior Cup will be for 14 to 17 year-olds on Kawasaki Ninja 250R machines and riders from eight different countries will be taking part in the six rounds on the calendar.


Instead, the Moriwaki 250 4T Trophy is an Italo-Dutch match-up which will be held on Honda-engined Japanese bikes of the same name. The return event will be at the Imola*WSBK round.



Source: World Superbike

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Kawasaki Racing