World SuperSport 2003 - Round 11 - Magny Cours - Preview

After a season of incident and occasional glory for the Kawasaki Racing Team the final round of the world championship takes them back the point of origin for most of its team members. Run out of French headquarters the Kawasaki Racing Team is predominantly Gallic in composition, making Magny Cours a home venue at which to end an exciting season.

World Champion Fabien Foret (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) continues the French theme in the team and a repeat of his Misano race win would be the perfect way to see the season out. The second impressive riding talent in the works squad is Pere Riba (Kawasaki Racing Team ZX-6RR) and the Spaniard will gunning to score his season high point on a circuit he and Foret have tested at in the recent past.

After ten of the eleven rounds of the 2003 season Foret is overall eighth, and Riba 11th, but each has a realistic chance of improvement before the final curtain is drawn on the year.

Magny Cours is a well-known venue to each rider, with Foret about to experience the thrill of home crowd shouting support for him for the first time, this being the first ever World Supersport round in France.

"This will be a special race because it is in France," said the 2002 World Champion. "That means there will be a little more pressure because you always want to do a bit better in your own country. Anyway, it's a race like every other one and I want to sign off as well as possible with Kawasaki. I know the track very well, even if it is not my favourite track in France. I will do my best and if I can finish on the podium I will be very happy."

Riba is also glad that he has had some opportunity to test at the recently modified Magny Cours venue, an impressive facility in the French countryside, built close to the town of Nevers.

"The test we had was a great help to us for the basic settings of the bike but I'm sure the track temperature will be different which will affect tyre choice," said the experienced Riba, a WSS race winner in his own right. "This is the last race and I cannot do anything about winning the championship but I will be trying to put in as good a race as I can. I hope it is raining because there has not been a wet race so far and rain often evens things out. Normally there are a couple of wet races, so thus has been a very unusual year."

Practice and qualifying take place over Friday and Saturday, 17th and 18th with the race itself scheduled for Sunday 19th.