World Supersport 2004 - Round 3 - Suzuki Preview Misano

Katsuaki Fujiwara and the Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra squad are looking for victory at this weekend s third-round World Supersport Championship at Misano, Italy, after just missing out on the ultimate accolade for the past two years.

On both occasions, the Japanese rider challenged Fabien Foret for the win, while Fuji s team mate Stephane Chambon took fourth position last year.

This year s event has been moved from its traditional June date and is the first of three rounds in Italy this season: Misano has been home to the San Marino round of the championship since 1991 and the 4.060 kilometre circuit is a demanding mixture of fast and slow corners and is sure to be an exciting event for the huge legion of fans expected.

The third member of the Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra team, Vittorio Iannuzzo, is looking for a good result in front of his home fans, but knows that the task this year is not an easy one in his first year: Iannuzzo is still getting used to the new, improved GSX-R600 after spending the last two seasons on the bigger Suzuki GSX R1000.

Katsuaki Fujiwara - "The team have been working hard to develop the new machine technically, but at the moment, it is very hard to push it to the limit because we are constantly trying new settings. I hope that it all comes together for us in Misano."

Stephane Chambon- "It's difficult to know exactly which way to go but I m confident that the technical department has found some solutions in the past three weeks since Australia, so that the initial technical problems we experienced have been eradicated."

Vittorio Iannuzzo - "For the past two seasons, I have been racing a much bigger and heavier bike, so there9s lots for me to get used to and learn. Also, this is a completely new bike and we have to get used to riding it on Pirelli tyres, whereas the team have been on Dunlops for ages. Our main competitors have already been on Pirellis for years so their knowledge and understanding of them is obviously ahead of us. We have a lot of catching up to do - in a very short time - and we need to do it very soon as I am desperate to improve soon and attack the podium."

The new USB Power Commander is already available for the ZX-10R, as is a powershifter