Edwards is in confident mood and enjoyed a successful test five weeks ago at the 2.52-mile circuit in readiness for this week's San Marino round.

"Misano has never been a lucky place for me but I'm not a big believer in luck or superstitions," claims Edwards. "But I am a big believer in reaping the rewards of hard work and I know we're working hard enough to win this championship."

Edwards arrives in Italy after another successful two-day test at the Michelin tyres test track in France last weekend. The 28-year-old is also keen to leave the European schedule on a high as the championship heads across the Atlantic ocean to his native United States of America.

"I want to go to my home race at Laguna Seca next month on the back of two good results at Misano," says Edwards. "We've every reason to believe that that is possible. Misano does pose its problems for us but the Misano test we had gave us a lot of data and I'm confident the team and Michelin can come up with the winning formula for Sunday."

Edwards is 39 points behind championship leader Troy Bayliss after seven of the 13 rounds and 106 points clear of third-placed Neil Hodgson.

Edwards concludes: "I'm not sure how long Troy can keep his run going but I'm in the mood to try and end it on Sunday with a couple of wins. And it would be nice to give Honda victory in Ducati's home round."

The Castrol Honda Rumi team will be looking for success in their home round as rider Mark Heckles bids to improve on his 24th place in the championship on the HRC kit SP-2 machine.

"Misano is a track I know after racing a Superstock machine there last year so I've no excuses for not getting on with the job and earning a couple of points-scoring finishes for the team," says 24-year-old Heckles.

The World Supersport championship took a dramatic twist in the previous round in Germany after Ten Kate Honda rider Fabien Foret won the race and took the lead of the championship only to be excluded from the results due to a technical infringement with an after sales part.

That exclusion remains under appeal and Foret now wants to repeat his German round victory at Misano on Sunday.

"Nobody knows what the outcome of the appeal will be so I'm just concentrating on winning Sunday's race," says Foret. "I'm looking at the championship points table knowing I need to close the gap to the lead regardless of any decisions that are taken away from the race track."

Diminutive Frenchman Stephane Chambon leads the championship, by nine points from reigning champion Andrew Pitt with Foret 10 points behind the Australian Kawasaki rider.

Van Zon Honda's Chris Vermeulen, 19, will be looking to at least repeat his season-best result of 2001 when he took fifth place in the Misano race. Vermeulen was little more than one second away from winning the Misano round last year and is in confident mood.

"We tested at Misano five weeks ago and the CBR600 and Pirelli tyres proved a good match for the track," Vermeulen reports. "Everything is in place for me to take my first win but I realise I have to work towards that with two good practice and qualifying days on Friday and Saturday."

The Honda UK team returns to a full complement of riders for Misano with John McGuinness back in action after contesting the Isle of Man TT races earlier this month. While McGuinness was in action on the island his team-mate Karl Muggeridge rode an action-packed race in Germany.

Muggeridge rode from eighth place on the grid to third on lap two before crashing. He remounted to finish 14th and the tough Australian is now looking to put his Misano experience to good use in Sunday's eighth round.

"I made my World Supersport debut at Misano, for the Castrol Honda team, so the place holds special memories," recalls Muggeridge. "Misano's a real riders' track and I'm confident I can be in contention for a win there."

Misano data:

Superbike:
2001 Qualifying: Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 1m 35.236s
2001 Superpole: Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 1m 35.235s
2001 winners: Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and Ben Bostrom (Ducati)
Lap record: Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 1m 35.403s (June 2001)

Supersport:
2001 pole position: Iain MacPherson (Kawasaki) 1m 38.125s
2001 winner: Jorg Teuchert (Yamaha)
Lap record: Jorg Teuchert (Yamaha) 1m 39.132s (June 2000)

World Superbike championship points after seven of 13 rounds: 1 Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 310, 2 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 271, 3 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 165, 4 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Aprilia) 153, 5 Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 152, 6 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 143, 7 James Toseland, GB (Ducati) 99, 8 Chris Walker, GB (Kawasaki) 80, 9 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Suzuki) 68, 10 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 58. Manufacturers points: 1 Ducati 320, 2 Honda 276, 3 Aprilia 153, 4 Kawasaki 117, 5 Suzuki 68, 6 Yamaha 16, 7 Benelli 7.

World Supersport championship points after round seven of 12: 1 Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 112, 2 Andrew Pitt, Australia (Kawasaki) 103, 3 Fabien Foret, France (Honda) 93, 4 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 84, 5 Christian Kellner, Germany (Yamaha) 65, 6 Jorg Teuchert, Germany (Yamaha) and Paolo Casoli, Italy (Yamaha) 60, 8 Chris Vermeulen, Australia (Honda) 58, 9 James Whitham, GB (Yamaha) 55, 10 Piergiorgio Bontempi, Italy (Ducati) 46.  Manufacturers points: 1 Suzuki 128, 2 Honda 113, 3 Yamaha 108, 4 Kawasaki 103, 5 Ducati 49.