Valencia saw Winston Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR rider
Chris Vermeulen score two second place finishes, and even more pleasingly for the non-partisan WSBK fans, Kawasaki re-emerged as a true threat, with Chris Walker on the PSG-1 Kawasaki machine also tasting top-three champagne, in race two. The presently all-conquering Suzukis have been fastest out of the starting blocks this year, but Honda and Kawasaki have already shown that any of the current breeds of litre road bikes can form the basis of a race-winning challenge.
The factory Ducati squad, and the few Ducati privateers in the series this season, will be hoping that home advantage for their machinery will turn the recent tides of their fortune.
After an unfortunate entanglement with a back marker in morning warm-up at Valencia, Factory Xerox Ducati rider
Regis Laconi could not start either Spanish race and dropped down the leader board, to sit fourth in the current rankings. 2004 champion
James Toseland, Laconi's team-mate, has had a troubled start to his championship campaign continue through all three rounds and six races to date, his tenth place in the championship a true reflection of how hard his title defence has been.
Ducati privateer
Lorenzo Lanzi on the SC Carrachi machine will be present at Monza, albeit still recuperating from collarbone surgery after a high-speed crash at Valencia, when avoiding a competitor's somersaulting motorcycle.
The relatively new technical rules and regulations in World Superbike, combined with the latest generation of Japanese road going machinery, have allowed several new and existing WSBK teams to mount serious challenges, even with riders new to the whole discipline of Superbike racing.
