Chris Vermeulen is looking give his home fans something to celebrate as he prepares to make his final Australian Grand Prix appearance for the foreseeable future.

Having been confirmed as returning to the World Superbike Championship with Kawasaki this week, Vermeulen has just three rounds remaining to make an impression on the MotoGP paddock before he leaves.

This includes racing on home ground at Phillip Island, where Vermeulen is looking to extend his consecutive run of points finishes and improve upon his current 11th in the standings for Rizla Suzuki.

"A home GP is always very exciting because all my friends and family will be there and it's always good to race in front of your countrymen. The last time out at Estoril we made improvements in the longer corners with the GSV-R, so hopefully that will help us at Phillip Island.

“That long straight is going to be hard work, but we'll certainly be trying as hard as we can to keep in the slipstream. I really love racing at Phillip Island and hopefully we'll have a good time there!"

Team-mate Loris Capirossi, meanwhile, admits he is still smarting from his retirement in Portugal, but he remains confident that he will be in better shape in Australia.

"I am still disappointed by what happened in the race at Estoril, but I am confident of doing much better at Phillip Island than we have in the past on the GSV-R because of the developments we made in Portugal.

“I had a tough race in Australia last year, but we did improve on lap-times and with the new bike I think we should be aiming for an even better result this year. We have struggled at Phillip Island in the past, but we are certainly going there in a much better state of mind than we have done for previous visits."