Superbike World Championship preview: Brands Hatch

This weekend sees the Superbike World Championship move to the famous Brands Hatch circuit in England for round eight of what is proving to be a pulsating series.

Brands is traditionally the highlight of the season, with the year's biggest crowd flocking to see some of the best racing of the year. An old-fashioned race track, Brands Hatch provides a challenging mix of fast, blind corners and radical elevation changes to test the riders' skill, bravery and machine set-up skills. It is a circuit rated by many riders as their favourite.

The Yamaha Motor Italia squad travels to the UK in good form, having seen Noriyuki Haga close in on series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) last time out in Brno. Haga currently lies second in the series, 73 points behind Bayliss, and Brands Hatch is one of the Japanese rider's favourite venues, having taken his YZF-R1 to the win there last year.

He explained: "I like Brands Hatch a lot and last year I had two great races with Troy Corser. I was disappointed after Brno because I thought that I could win. I was very fast in qualifying, although I had big grip problems in both the races. It is going to be two more hard races this weekend but I am confident that we can be back fighting at the front again."

Haga has been a busy man since Brno, competing at last weekend's Suzuka 8-hour endurance event with Colin Edwards, although mechanical problems following a small crash during Edwards' first stint meant that he did not actually compete in the race.

Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt goes to Brands Hatch out to avenge a Brno nightmare. Having won his first world superbike race at Misano, the Australian had high hopes for the Czech race - only to be denied two potential podium finishes due to technical problems. The Australian enjoys riding at the British circuit posted a sixth and seventh place finish there last year.

In the 600cc world supersport class, Kevin Curtain closed the gap on Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) at the head of the championship with a win in Brno. The Yamaha Motor Germany rider now trails the Frenchman by just 10 points with five of the 12 races remaining.

"Things are in our own hands now," said the 40-year-old Australian. "We're working with a new bike this year and maybe we've made taken a few wrong turns with the set-up in the first part of the year. But we showed at Brno that the package is very good and capable of winning races. I was so happy after Brno and I'm really buzzing about Brands."

Broc Parkes made it a Yamaha Motor Germany one-two in Brno and currently lies third in the championship, just 18 points behind his team-mate and also right in contention for the title with five races remaining.