Preview - Qatar
BAYLISS AND FABRIZIO READY TO RACE IN THE DESERT
WINDS OF QATAR
Despite today's extremely strong winds, Bayliss and Fabrizio
(Ducati Xerox) are both enthusiastic and ready to race the
Ducati 1098 F08 for the first time in the opening round of
the 2008 World Superbike Championship, taking place this weekend
at the Losail International Circuit. The Superbike championship
will this year incorporate 15 rounds across 13 countries.
Both Ducati Xerox Team riders have been competitive during
winter testing and are now eager to begin racing. Bayliss
remained in Qatar after last week's testing session in order
to complete further training to ensure he is as fit as possible
for the first races.
Troy Bayliss
"I hope that staying here to train between testing and
this weekend's races has been beneficial. I've been going
to the gym, cycling and generally doing everything I can to
be ready for the first round. We're finally under way today,
starting with the FGSport press event this morning, and now
I feel like we're back in race mode. I'm looking forward to
getting on track, although I hope the strong winds that we
have here today calm down for the next couple of days. We'll
see how we go tomorrow and hopefully improve on our performance
each day. We've had a bit of a tough time at this track in
the past so hopefully that wont be the case this year."
Michel Fabrizio
"I'm ready to get going and take the bike out on track.
The championship officially starts tomorrow so we will see
how we go but I can say we're at a good starting place. I
was happy with the way we progressed last week when we tested
here and so we start from that point tomorrow. I'm just hoping
the wind dies down a bit as it will be very difficult to race
if it stays this way."
THE CIRCUIT
Name: Losail International Circuit
Length: 5.380 km
Pole Position: right
Finish line length: 1068 metres
Race distance: 2 x 18 laps/96.840 km
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