Following the German Round at
the Eurospeedway, the Ducati Xerox Team will return to its regular line-up
for this weekend's upcoming eleventh round of the World Superbike
Championship at Imola. Régis Laconi takes his place alongside James Toseland
after recovering from the arm injury he suffered at Assen.
Ducati's home event (the Enzo & Dino Ferrari circuit is just
half-an-hour down the motorway from the factory in Bologna) marks the
penultimate round of this year's championship. Even though the title appears
to be in the hands of Troy Corser (Suzuki), with Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
still in with a chance, both Toseland and Laconi will be aiming for third
place in the championship to finish the season on a high note.
Three weeks ago Laconi was replaced for the German Round by Lorenzo
Lanzi, who went on to take pole and score a sensational victory at the
Eurospeedway. Lanzi now returns to his usual team, Stefano Caracchi's SC
Ducati, but for the final two rounds of this year's championship the
23-year-old Italian will have at his disposal a full-factory 999F05, which
he will race in SC colours with additional Xerox logos on the side and front
fairings.
Ducati Corse Superbike technical director Ernesto Marinelli
illustrates the characteristics of the Imola track, a circuit where
twin-cylinder machines have always dominated in the four editions held so
far. "Imola is a complicated track for bikes because it is very old and the
track surface is particularly rough" he explains. "Because of the nature of
the circuit the bikes become particularly nervous, so you have to work a lot
on the suspension and sometimes quite radically on the structure of the
bike, because if the set-up is too rigid, the bike becomes too nervous. We
have all the data from last year, and although this bike is different, it's
still a 999 so in reality there won't be that many changes from 2004. We
went well then so hopefully we can do the same again this year!"
James Toseland twice finished on the podium last year in his
resurgence towards the 2004 title and once again the 24-year-old Brit wants
to finish the season with a rush of positive results, starting at Imola. "I'
m looking forward to Imola, it was a great weekend for me last year" he
declared. "There are two races left, we've got a chance of finishing third
in the championship and that's my aim. It's been a disappointing year as far
as wins go, just one at Silverstone, but I can't think of a better place to
increase my total than in front of the home crowd for Ducati. Imola is a
truly exciting track, with the undulations and all the history behind it. It
used to be a bogey track for me in previous years, but last year we pulled
it all together. To go well around Imola you need a pretty standard set-up
and we won't really be changing the base set-up too much. You need a bit
more support on the front because of the hard braking but other than that
the geometry will be pretty similar to what we've had and on Friday morning
we'll be looking to go out and set some quick times straightaway".
Last year's Imola double race winner Règis Laconi has spent the month
since Assen in a race against time to get fit for the final back-to-back
championship events at Imola and Magny-Cours. "Now my arm is starting to get
better" commented the 30-year-old Frenchman. "It's still not at 100% and
probably won't be for the race but we knew that it would be like that. The
important thing is to try and get the arm to work calmly and find the right
feeling with the bike this weekend, despite the fact that there will still
be a bit of pain. This last month I've worked hard with the physiotherapist
to get into the best possible condition. At least I'm going back to a track
that I know well and where I won last year and in 2001 because that makes
things a bit easier. It might be possible for me to get third in the
championship but it's not going to be easy because Haga is 25 points ahead
with four races left. But I love the Imola track and we'll do our best to
get some good results there".
