World SuperSport 2003 - Round 11 - Magny Cours - Preview

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Stephane Chambon and Katsuaki Fujiwara are looking to finish the season in second and third places in the championship. With Chris Vermeulen (Honda) taking the title in the last round at Imola, runner-up and third places are very much up for grabs.

Magny-Cours hosted a round of the Superbike World Championship in 1991, but this will be the first time that a Supersport World Championship event will be taking place. The circuit was designed with Formula 1 in mind and is a difficult track for bikes - due in part to the number of slow corners.

The 2003 Honda has been the bike to beat this season, but it is testimony to the skill of Chambon and Fujiwara and the hard work of the Alstare Suzuki team that second and third places are a very real possibility. Both riders are keen on finishing the season on a high and none more so then Chambon who will be competing in a World Championship race in front of his own fans for the very first time.

Stephane Chambon - "It's been a very long time (twelve years) since there was a World Superbike or Supersport Championship event in France and I hope we get a very good crowd. The Supersport class is very popular in France and I think it's going to be a tremendous race. It's going to be hard for sure - because of the nature of the track - but I really want to do well in front of my fans and I really want to end the season as runner-up in the championship."

Katsuaki Fujiwara - "The start of my season was better then the second part and now I want to end the year with a good result. Steph and I cannot win the title this year, but we have a chance of finishing second and third and that's what we'll be aiming for. The team have done so well to keep our bike competitive against all the other new bikes this year and I am hoping to reward them in the best possible way. A podium will be good, but a win will be better."

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider Gregorio Lavilla knows that time is running out for him to record a win this year. The last round of the championship takes place at Magny-Cours circuit in France, on 19th October and there are just two opportunities remaining for Gregorio to take victory on the GSXR1000 Suzuki.

It is not going to be an easy task because the layout and design of Magny-Cours is unlikely to favour the GSXR1000 this year. All season, Gregorio and the team have struggled to get the bike to match the Ducatis exiting the turns and Mangy-Cours has plenty of slow-speed corners. The track was designed with Formula 1 in mind and has been modified from its 1989 layout this year. In 1991, Magny-Cours hosted the last round of the Superbike World Championship on French soil, with both races won by American Doug Polen (Ducati).

Gregorio Lavilla - "We tested - like most teams - at Magny-Cours recently and we have an idea of what our weekend is going to be like - hard! It's a circuit where overtaking is going to be difficult and so qualifying well is going to be important, though I say that about all circuits. Magny-Cours is what I call a 'modern track', that is one built for cars and these type of circuits are never usually very good for bikes. There are quite a few slow corners, so it's going to be very hard getting as good a drive out of them as the Ducatis.

"The GSXR1000 Suzuki is powerful enough to compete with the Ducatis at top speed normally, but we cannot get the power on to the track exiting the corners like they can at the moment. It's something we have been working on all season. At some tracks it is more of a problem then others. But I know I've got two chances of being the first rider to win a WSBK race on a Suzuki GSXR1000 and I'll be trying my hardest for sure - like I always do."