Having won the World Superbike crown in 2002 with
Colin Edwards, Honda pulled out of the top class to concentrate on the development of a new four-cylinder racer for 2004.
However, HRC has maintained its presence in the World Supersport series, now entering its fifth season and stronger then ever.
The popularity of 600cc sports roadbikes have always been an important factor in the growth of Supersport racing, with the middleweight class running machinery more closely related to mass produced roadbikes than any other form of global motorcycle sport.
The 2003 championship looks like being one of the most hotly contested for years, with the big four Japanese manufacturers - Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Hona – all represented.
Impressive recent testing performances by the eight officially backed Honda pilots – led by
Chris Vermeulen – means that the Japanese legend could well be looking at an opening round victory this Sunday at Valencia.
Vermeulen will be riding for Ten Kate Honda in 2003, the outfit which won last years Riders' World Championship with Fabien Foret, and while Foret has switched camps to Kawasaki, Vermeulen and team-mate
Karl Muggeridge look capable of repeating the Frenchman's feat.
"We've had a good test and the bike is working very well," confirmed Vermeulen. "It's very adjustable and we've tried lots of tyres to select good race options. The main thing is the race next weekend, not this test, so we spent most of our testing time working towards a proper race set-up."
No other rider in the Valencia tests could get near Vermeulen's best of 1min 37.331secs but behind the young Aussie the times were nonetheless very tight - as always in this category of racing.
Muggeridge was the closest Honda man to his fellow Aussie Vermeulen, after spending a lot of time working on chassis set-up in race trim. Ronald Ten Kate, team boss of the Dutch team explained the impact the new CBR has had onhis riders' pre-season progress.
