Victorious in the last four Superbike races at Silverstone and Misano Adriatico, the Ducati Xerox Team duo of Régis Laconi and James Toseland will be looking to extend their winning streak at this weekend's Czech Republic round at Brno, which hosts a World Superbike championship race for the first time in 9 years.

Laconi's double win in the Misano heat brought the Frenchman, who celebrated his 30th birthday last week, back into contention in the championship and he now lies in third place, 92 points adrift of leader Corser (Suzuki), while Toseland moved up to fifth place with two fourth places at the Italian circuit.

Ducati Corse Superbike technical director, Ernesto Marinelli, explains the difficulties of the Brno circuit, following the Ducati Xerox Team's recent test sessions. ""We have tested here for four days recently, which is a bit of an advantage because at least it means that the track is not totally new. It's a circuit that does not require any particularly aggressive riding, instead you have to 'stroke' your way through the curves at quite a good speed. The circuit has a lot of these corners and slow uphill chicanes, so it is actually quite difficult."

Régis Laconi comes to Brno on the crest of a wave after notching up two wins at Misano, where the second race also marked Ducati's 600th WSBK podium. "For me Misano was perfect, they were two of the best races of my life. It was also great for Ducati because we understood that we can achieve anything, even though it will be extremely difficult to win both races every time to be able to aim for the title. However the championship is not over yet. I like the Brno circuit a lot because it's wide and fast with some great cornering lines. Unlike Misano, maybe my aim here is not to try and overdo it and win both races because I think that I will only go well here if I enjoy myself out on the track. The biggest problem therefore will be to get the right set-up for the front, because to get the bike to go where you want you have to have precision cornering and be able to use your own natural riding style."

James Toseland has never raced at Brno before but had a good testing session in preparation for the Czech Round. "I've never raced here before but we had a great test both times and I'm really looking forward to racing here. It's similar to Mugello, with the fast long chicanes and it seems to suit the Ducati and me. We have to win here, we can't let Troy win again otherwise it's going to be very difficult. We'll run a slightly stiffer setting on the front fork because of the heavy braking and we can afford to go a bit stiffer at the rear shock as well because of the width of the track. You can pick the bike up earlier and it feels like it's got 20 HP less because of the amount of room. It's a really great track with a lot of passing places and I think it's going to be a good race."

BRNO STATISTICS: The 2005 championship moves into the second half of the season with the Czech Republic round. The first Brno Superbike race was held in 1993 and saw the two wins go to Carl Fogarty (Ducati) and Scott Russell (Kawasaki). Since then the only other WSBK event to be held at the track was in 1996, when current points leader Troy Corser scored two wins on a factory Ducati 916 in his championship-winning year. Ducati are the manufacturer with the best victory record at Brno, three wins against Kawasaki's one. The track records all belong to Corser, who set them in 1996 (pole position 2m04.019s/156.873 kph, lap record 2m03.825s/157.082 kph), but the circuit has not undergone any modifications since then and those times are surely destined to drop this weekend, when the two races will be run over a distance of 108.060 kms (20 laps).