World Superbike

Assen: Team Alstare Suzuki preview

After the summer break, the Superbike World Championship resumes at the ever popular Assen circuit in the Netherlands, with both Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama looking for podium places. The fast, flowing ...

Published: Sep 1, 2005, 4:39 PM

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After the summer break, the Superbike World Championship resumes at the ever popular Assen circuit in the Netherlands, with both Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra riders Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama looking for podium places. The fast, flowing circuit is a favourite amongst riders and fans and is consistently one of the best attended events in the Superbike World Championship calendar.

Troy has been on the podium seven times at Assen, but he has never won a race there - something he intends to rectify this year.

After his recent run of bad luck and a couple of heavy tumbles, Yukio is looking forward to Assen and kickstarting his season back to life. It is one of the few tracks this year that he has raced at before (in MotoGP two years ago) and one that he likes a lot.

Troy
The week leading up to, and including, Brands Hatch was something special. Becoming a father to a beautiful baby girl six days or so before the race and then winning the first race and taking runner-up spot in the second was the perfect end to a wonderful week.

I always look forward to Assen because it such a great circuit and usually we get really good crowds there. I am still after my first win at Assen, but I reckon this year I am in a good position to do it - and that's my goal. Like all fast tracks, Assen provides good racing and normally it's not the kind of place where a rider can make a break from the rest and make it stick. Over the past few seasons, the track has had a few changes, so most of us will be seeing this year's layout for the first time. But, as long as they have not destroyed what the track is all about, I'm sure I will be in with a chance of a couple of podiums.

Yukio
Brands Hatch was a painful experience for me - first my backside and then my ribs. On Saturday lunchtime, I did not think I would be able to take part in Superpole or the races, but I did. Superpole was very, very hard for me, but I had a chance to rest on Saturday evening and felt in better condition for raceday. I wanted to race because I have many British fans and I did not want to let them down. And, in a way, that is a bit the same for Assen, because many, many British fans like going there and they make the atmosphere special. Although, I have not ridden a Superbike at Assen, I have raced there before, so I have an idea of which way the track goes! It is a fast track, but technical and it is a track where you need to put in many, many laps to shave off those last fractions of a second. It is one of those tracks where you always feel that maybe you could've gone faster afterwards. I should be fully fit again at Assen and it is one place you need to be 100% if you want a good result.

-tas-

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