Two more Yamaha M1s, another Honda RC211V and Kawasaki's brand new ZX-RR will be on the grid by the SKYY VODKA Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Victoria's Phillip Island on October 18-20.

Suzuki was hopeful of fielding another four-stroke for its Japanese test rider Akira Ryo, although Australia's triple American Superbike champion Mat Mladin would love to have ridden it.

At the start of the season in April there were only seven four-strokes in the field. Two Hondas, two Yamahas, two Suzukis and one Aprilia, against the traditional two-stroke 500cc machines, like the Yamaha YZR500 of Australia's Garry McCoy.

Ryo has ridden six of the 11 races so far as a wildcard on a third four-stroke Suzuki, including a sensational second place in the season-opener at Suzuka in Japan.

Since the mid-season break, Japan's reigning 250cc world champion, Daijiro Kato, has been on a four-stroke Honda - and has out qualified Italian superstar and championship leader Valentino Rossi at the past two GPs.

MotoGP has been described recently as "the four-stroke symphony" and the "exhaust pipe orchestra".

More powerful than the two-stroke bikes yet more fuel-efficient, the four-strokes make a great show for the fans and have drawn bigger crowds, by an average of 10% so far this season.

By the time the championship arrives in Australia after this weekend's round in Brazil, then visits to Japan again and Malaysia - 12 of the 22 bikes on the grid will be four-strokes.

Frenchman Olivier Jacque and Japan's Shinya Nakano, who fought out the thrilling 250cc world championship decider at Phillip Island in 2000, with Jacque taking victory in a "photo finish" by just 0.014 seconds - are in line for M1 Yamahas from the Malaysian GP on October 13.

Yamaha has scored just one victory this year, with Italian Max Biaggi victorious on an M1 in the Czech Republic in late August.

Honda has dominated, with the RC211V winning 10 of the 11 races so far, nine by Rossi and another by his Japanese team-mate Tohru Ukawa.

Either Brazilian Alex Barros or Italian Loris Capirossi will score the next four-stroke Honda, with Barros the more likely as the top two-stroke rider - sitting fifth in the championship.

Capirossi will switch to Ducati's new MotoGP team next year, paired with Australia's reigning superbike world champion Troy Bayliss - is not happy at the prospect of missing out on a four-stroke this year.

"It is a very bad decision to give a two-rider team just one bike," Capirossi said. "I don't like this at all."

Japan's Kawasaki will make its MotoGP entrance with a wildcard for its Japanese test rider, Akira Yanagawa, in the final four races of the season before it joins the fray full-time next year.

Kawasaki is expected to move Australia's Andrew Pitt, its supersports world champion, across to its MotoGP team for next season.

Austrian manufacturer KTM is also reportedly planning to enter MotoGP from 2004, with BMW another name consistently tipped to tackle the top echelon of two-wheel racing.

In the meantime, Phillip Island's flowing corners are likely to help the two-stroke 500s remain competitive against the barrage of new four-strokes at the SKYY VODKA Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Although the four-strokes will definitely be faster on the straights.

McCoy, the 30-year-old GP veteran from Camden on the south-western outskirts of Sydney, has struggled to compete with the four-strokes going into the first corner of the past two GPs in the Czech Republic and Portugal, describing the early manoeuvring as "pretty amazing".

"I think Phillip Island is just a little bit more open in that first corner - and it's going to make it a little bit easier for some of those guys on two-strokes to mix it in with the guys on four-strokes," McCoy said.

"There's going to be a bit more room, and it's a pretty fast corner, so I think we're all going to go through there pretty quick - and we will just have to wait and see what happens in turn two.

"My dream would be to just beat them all into that first turn and come out in front."

McCoy's Red Bull WCM team has confirmed it will field four-stroke Hondas similar to Rossi's for the Australian and his young American teammate John Hopkins next season.

Honda Racing Corporation will supply its four-stroke engines to Japanese chassis maker Moriwaki, which will build the bikes for McCoy and Hopkins.

"I was hoping this year that it was going to be a bit more of a challenge between the two-strokes and four-strokes, but that's not the way it's been," McCoy said.

"I think the FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme, the sport's governing body) just wanted four-strokes to win so that everyone has to buy a four-stroke for next year.

“Unfortunately the rules have been extended a bit too much for the four-strokes and left the two-strokes out in the cold.

"I think if the majority of the field is going to have four-strokes next year it's going to be pretty close racing again," concluded McCoy.

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