Castrol Honda's World Supersport championship rider Chris Vermeulen will contest Sunday's opening round of the British Supersport championship at Donington Park and the 18-year-old is confident of success.

"I finished fourth and second in the two Donington Park rounds last year so I'd like to be on the podium at least on Sunday," said the Australian. "We're also using the Donington round as valuable test time before the World Supersport round there in May."

Other World SuperSport regulars such as Iain MacPherson, Andrew Pitt and Adam Fergusson will do a similar thing at the Victorian Titles this weekend at Phillip Island.

Vermeulen crashed out of ninth place in the opening World Supersport round at Valencia, Spain on March 11 and that series resumes at Phillip Island, Australia on April 22.

"I needed some testing before the Australian round so the timing of this event is perfect," added Vermeulen. "Michelin are also pretty keen to get some test time at Donington, they reckon the Donington surface is similar to a couple of other tracks we have to race on in the world championship."

The British Supersport championship takes on a different format for 2001. After two 40-minute practice sessions on Friday the riders will have a Saturday morning qualifying session followed by the introduction of a one-lap Superpole competition for the fastest 12 riders.

Vermeulen commented: "The Superpole will be good fun and then Sunday's race is over 16 laps, about nine laps short of the World Supersport race distance at Donington Park but still good practice for me."

Vermeulen's Castrol Honda CBR600F4i Sport machine will feature a number of engine and exhaust improvements since its debut in Spain three weeks ago. 

"The team have worked hard with the exhaust manufacturer Akrapovic and they're also hoping to have one of the newly tuned engines ready for Donington," Vermeulen concluded.

The British SuperSport regulars competed in last weekend's Race Of The Year at Mallory Park as a warm-up to this weekend.