The fourth round of the 2008 World Superbike Championship takes place at Assen on Sunday and for the second year in succession this popular race meeting occupies an early season position on the calendar.

The legendary Circuit van Drenthe has been much revised over its long lifespan and the last reduction in its overall length took place in 2006, forming what is now a 4.555km ribbon of asphalt. It still features many unique aspects in its design and layout, including a few trademark positive cambers in some of its untouched corners. The track is now, however, much more like a purpose-built venue than the open road circuit it once was, even if the recent work was entirely necessary to provide much-needed space for spectators and parking areas.

After a podium for Troy Corser, and then a stunning win for Noriyuki Haga in race two at the previous round in Valencia the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team is determined to secure even more points and podiums, to help Corser move on from fourth in the championship and get Haga back on the same points level as his main championship rivals. Having weathered some early season issues Haga was back to his old best in the second race in Spain, and to add to his pre-race confidence this weekend he already has experience of standing on the top step of the podium at Assen, after winning race two there in the 2000 season.

Both Corser and Haga can be lifted further by the fact that four-cylinder power in general has had great recent success at Assen, with 1000cc fours of some kind winning five of the last seven individual legs. The entire team arrives in Assen fresh from a test at another high-speed circuit, Monza, although weather conditions in Italy were so wet that little real high-speed testing could be done.

Noriyuki Haga
At the previous race in Valencia we changed our machine settings on Saturday night and I got a lot better feel for the bike. Even though I fell in race one we got our first win of the 2008 season right after, and that has given me real confidence to take to Assen. We always try to win the races and Assen will be no exception. Last year we were second in race one and then retired from race two so we would like to get two strong results this year. Anyway, I like Assen and I will try my best to win the races.

Troy Corser
It was a pity that we lost so much testing time at Monza because of the rain but Assen is a different kind of track from most anyway. The circuit is not the same as it was in the past but I feel we can go there with confidence. We are learning more all the time because it's our second year with the bike.

Technically speaking - Assen according to Dave Marton (Crew chief Troy Corser)

Although the tracks are very different in some ways, I think we will arrive in Assen with settings close to those we ran at Valencia in the last round. We will also look at the race setting from Assen last year, and see what the differences are in what we intend to run this year. The easiest way to do that is to change the settings in one bike to the specification of Assen 2007, then have the other one pretty close to the base setting we run at the moment. In general, the chassis setting of the bike should be more like the one we had for testing in Monza than the one we had at the races in Valencia.

The track has changed a lot over the years and the previously flowing early section is now basically just a slow double right, but from them you have a curving back 'straight' which is fast and flowing and there are still a few fast corners. On the last sector the pace is pretty fast and the riders would use different lines around there. The first sector is pretty much one-line.

We have the same bikes as last year, but they have had a lot of development and updates, specifically using the variable air intakes of the road model. In terms of the basic chassis geometry, rake, trail, and so on we are using the same basic settings as last year, there has not been the same degree of change in that area.

Because of the low altitude of the Assen track and the cool weather conditions we expect to have on race weekend, the engine response will be sharp. That means we will need to work really well on the engine mapping and have a good traction control set-up. Both our guys like Assen, and we know from previous experience that they can go fast there on this bike, so we're hopeful.