World Superbike Championship - event preview
Round six - Misano, Italy (24-26 June 2005)

VERMEULEN AND MUGGERIDGE SET SIGHTS ON MISANO

Winston Ten Kate Honda riders, Chris Vermeulen - who celebrated his 23rd
birthday last Sunday - and Karl Muggeridge, head for round six of the World
Superbike championship this weekend at Misano in Italy. The 4.06km Autodromo
Santa Monica circuit lies near the Adriatic coast, 35km from San Marino.

With summer heat sure to play a part in this weekend's proceedings, the
Australian duo's confidence is high following a successful test at Magny-Cours
in France two weeks ago. The team tried a variety of rear swingarm and linkage
combinations in an effort to improve driveability on their Honda CBR1000RRs and
both riders declared themselves happy with the improvements.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"We found a good direction at our recent test in France and head for Misano with
the new components that we need to give both riders the combinations they
prefer. Having lost a lot of testing time before the season started, this was
our first real chance to address some of the problems we have encountered.
Hopefully, our rivals haven't improved as much as we have and this should give
us the chance to finish strongly and get the kind of results that the team's
efforts deserve."

Chris Vermeulen - championship position 3rd, 141 points:

"I've spent the last few days in Florence with my leathers supplier so I'm
getting acclimatised but I think it'll be pretty hot this weekend. We've
definitely made some improvements to the bike which I hope will help me fight
for at least a couple of podiums this weekend. Last year's Misano race was the
fourth round of the season so we were still getting used to the new bike and the
weather was a little more unpredictable. I like Misano but I've never had much
luck here and never finished on the podium in Supersport, although I did qualify
on the front row in 2003. As far as this year's championship goes, I have to be
looking at podium finishes and would like another win this weekend. Troy
(Corser) is fast in Misano and the Ducatis will be strong here so I'll be
looking to get the most of the recent improvements we've made."

Karl Muggeridge - championship position 12th, 50 points:

"The two days at Magny-Cours were really good for me - we got to test properly
for the first time and tried a load of new things on the rear of the bike to
improve grip and the driveability out of corners. We need as much grip as
possible this weekend because when it's hot in Misano, any problems you have
seem to get exaggerated, so the test in France came at just the right time of
the season for us. I think the new swingarm and linkage combination we've gone
for should work well here. I really like the place because I had my first
official World Supersport race here for Castrol Honda in 1998 and I won the race
last year. But, after the test two weeks ago, I felt that I was really getting
somewhere with the bike so I'm looking forward to putting that feeling to good
use this weekend."

Championship points after five of 12 rounds:

 1 Troy Corser AUS (Suzuki) 222
 2 Yukio Kagayama JPN (Suzuki) 144
 3 Chris Vermeulen AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 141
 4 Regis Laconi FRA (Ducati) 112
 5 James Toseland GBR (Ducati) 98
 6 Chris Walker GBR (Kawasaki) 74
 7 Andrew Pitt AUS (Yamaha) 70
 8 Noryuki Haga JPN (Yamaha) 68
 9 Pierfrancesco Chili ITA (Honda) 66
10 Norick Abe JPN (Yamaha) 62
12 Karl Muggeridge AUS (Winston Ten Kate Honda) 50

Misano World Superbike event schedule:

Friday 24 June -   10.30-11.30 free practice
                   14.15-15.15 qualifying
Saturday 25 June - 11.00-12.00 qualifying
                   14.45-15.45 free practice
                   16.00 Superpole
Sunday 26 June -   09.20-09.40 warm-up
                   12.00 race one (25 laps, 101.5km)
                   15.30 race two (25 laps, 101.5km)