This weekend sees the return of the World Superbike Championship after the traditional summer break and the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team are fired up and raring to go. With Haga in second place and 66 points behind the current championship leader, the team has worked hard during the weeks since the last round at Brands Hatch to ensure that the fight for the title will go right to the wire this weekend at the German circuit in Lausitz.

The Eurospeedway circuit is Germany's youngest track and was built in Lausitz to help rejuvenate the old mining area following the closure of many coal pits. Although the circuit was first conceived in the 1980s building work didn't start until 1998. Development of the circuit was dogged by financial crises as well as local petitions both for and against the track but it was finally opened in August 2000 in front of an 110,000 strong crowd. The circuit is built on 370 hectares, which is almost twice the size of Monaco and features seven different track layouts.

Prior to the summer break, the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team claimed three podium positions at Brands Hatch, with Haga taking a second position finish while Corser took second and third. Yamaha also took their 150th WSB podium with Corser's race one second place.

Troy Corser
It's been good to have a rest from racing for a few weeks as it's given me time to get some training in. I now feel a lot more refreshed and am focused and raring to go for the last three rounds. Lausitz is quite a different track to many of those on the calendar and I like it for that reason. It's a bit like an American track with the infield section and grandstands around the outside. From a riding point of view it's quite challenging for set-up and you also have quite an unusual turn at the end of the straight where you join the infield section. This weekend I'm going all-out to win; I've gone well at Lausitz in the past and Nori's previous results there show that the Yamaha also goes well so it should be a good weekend.

Noriyuki Haga
Last year was a difficult race for me at Lausitz because I hurt my wrist there in the last practice session on the Saturday. I'd been doing some long runs and was on a final one when I almost high-sided twice which sprained my wrist. I had to have pain killing injections for the race which, in my opinion, hampered my results. Even though I got two second places I feel I could've done better under other circumstances. The bike was good then and it's even better now so this weekend I'm determined for the race win. During the summer rest period I've given much thought to how I can improve my riding and I'm going to be trying a slightly new riding style this weekend to see if it has any effect. Don't worry; the usual Haga-style will still be there though!