The only road racing this coming weekend will be the World Superbike series event at the old airfield track of Silverstone in England. This very fast circuit, also used for Formula One racing, has been on the calendar since 2002 but was reconfigured this year to remove it’s fastest straight. As a result, the only rider that has seen his configuration before will be Suzuki’s Yukio Kagayama since he raced the British Superbike series for the past two seasons and this layout was apparently in use for their races. Unfortunately for everyone else, it means that Suzuki again holds the upper hand coming into this race weekend.

So its the same question this week as every other week for the past couple of months…can anyone stop the Suzuki steamroller? More specifically, can anyone stop the Troy Corser steamroller? Last year three riders dominated Silverstone: Haga had a great race weekend last year with two podium finishes so this could be a good time for him to get things right again. Sadly, he has suffered from setup and tire problems all season so it will be a big leap for the Yamaha rider to make.

Another fan favorite in the UK, Frankie Chili showed great form at Silverstone last year but a qualifying snafu mean he had to charge through the pack in both races. He made it onto the podium with a third in the first race but then had a massive highside in the second race. He has had top ten finishes at the last two races, despite having a broken collarbone, so hopefully he will be healthy enough to fight for the lead in this race.

The person that really dominated at Silverstone last year was Chris Vermeulen. In fact, it was his performances as the UK track that propelled him into championship contention. He rode great in the second race at Monza and his win there makes him the most likely candidate to challenge Troy Corser. Unlike both Chili and Haga who have had machine and/or health problems, Vermeulen has been steadily improving this season. It seems like the Winston Ten Kate Honda is gaining speed with each round and the young Australian is again proving to be a rider capable of winning races (and championships).

Another rider on my watch list for this weekend is Ducati’s Regis Laconi. Like Chili, he had a mixed result at Silverstone last year despite some great rides. He crashed out of race one while running at the front and then came back with a third in race two. But what shows that Laconi’s strength is on the rise was his performances last weekend at Monza. A forth in race one, after battling with the lead group for the whole race, followed by a second in race two. It appears that the Ducati does well at a fast, flowing circuit like Monza (just hope it doesn’t only like fast, flowing *Italian* circuits) and it also appears that the Bologna based team have found a setup that works for the bikes since Toseland was up front at Monza as well.

The British riders always seem to step up a bit when they are back in the motherland so I think both Toseland and Walker will ride well. Toseland showed an awakening at Monza and if he can continue with that improvement should run with the leaders. Walker had a great race two at Monza but I think it will be a stretch for him to do that again at Silverstone. I expect him to be near the front but not dicing with the leaders.

Finally, the wildcard British Superbike riders usually make an impact but the Pirelli spec tire rule means that the front runners in BSB can’t race the WSBK round. There are only two BSB riders entered as wildcards and neither are likely to make an impact in the top 15.

If anyone is going to stop Suzuki, its probably going to be Honda and Ducati. If anyone is going to stop Troy Corser, it is probably Yukio Kagayama, Chris Vermeulen and Regis Laconi. The rest of the race should be a big battle between the gaggle of Yamahas (Haga, Pitt, Abe, Gimbert, Nieto, Cardoso), the herd of Hondas (Chili, Neukirchner, Muggeridge, Bostrom), the smattering of Kawasakis (Walker, Bussei) and the pair of FPR bikes (McCoy and Martin). Should be an exciting couple of races this weekend…

[image from the Silverstone Circuit web site.]