The World Superbike will make its first visit to Italy this season as riders head to Monza for round five of the World SBK season.
Leon Haslam is the season leader right now, but he might not be the favorite going into this weekend's race. Jonathan Rea is coming off of a stellar double victory at Assen, Leon Camier just got his first taste of the podium, and Max Biaggi seems to be on his way to the best season of his career.
Haslam does have a 20 point buffer zone between Max Biaggi, who is in second place, which should ease a little bit of pressure from the onslaught of upcoming competition.
Ducati riders Noriuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio have had a lackluster start to the season, but the Monza track has always been good to Ducatis. In fact, Ducati has won 18 out of the 36 races they have competed in at Monza.
"I had a good weekend here last year and am very happy that my first ever Superbike race win came in front of my home crowd, at Monza,” said Fabrizio. “We've not had an easy run of things recently but testing went well at Misano last week and I'll be doing everything to put on a great performance this weekend. We need to start to make up lost ground."
Carlos Checa, the privateer Ducati rider, will also try to take advantage of Ducati's good record at Monza. Checa already has a win to his name, and sits in fourth place in the overall standings.
BMW also has high hopes for Monza. Veteran Troy Corser is one of four WSBK riders that already has a win at the famous track, and the BMW bikes have gotten faster throughout the season.
"At Monza two things are key: good acceleration and good brakes. The circuit is, in effect, a succession of long straights and tight corners,” said Corser. “At Assen we were really quick on the straights. If we can build speed quickly out of the corners and look after our tyres over the full race distance, I'm very confident we can have a good race weekend."
The historic Monza track will see a series of close competition this weekend. Whoever ends up on top, one thing is for sure, they will have to fight for victory at Monza.
