Rea ready to run riot on home soil

World superbike makes its only English stopover this weekend, at a circuit which started the whole four-stroke production based championship in 1988 - Donington.

After eight of 14 rounds, the series is delicately poised, with Japan's Noriyuki Haga still leading by a comfortable margin on his factory Ducati, but facing constant pressure from dogged American Ben Spies (Yamaha) and his Italian teammate Michel Fabrizio.

Haga, who has won at Donington in the past, currently leads by 48pts from Spies, with a maximum of 300 still available in the final six rounds.

Donington, unlike most circuits this season, is a venue where Spies has visited before. He raced a Suzuki in last year's MotoGP event at the 4.023km circuit in between his American superbike commitments, qualifying eighth before finishing 14th..

That's probably just as well, as the Texan's biggest issue this weekend could be a quartet of British riders taking vital points away from him.

Jonathan Rea, Leon Haslam, Tom Sykes and Shane Byrne are all expected to be lightning fast at Donington, especially Rea.

The Honda rider knows that Donington could not have come along at a better time, after he claimed his maiden world superbike win at Misano last weekend and moved to clear fourth in the championship.

"It felt amazing to get that first win under my belt and I think it all bodes well for the remainder of the season," said Rea. "To be honest, I've never set the world on fire at Donington, but it was the same at Misano before I went there last week.

"I hope it's a good one because the British fans will only get to see one world superbike meeting this year."

Meanwhile, Haslam (Honda) and Sykes (Yamaha) are both on the tail of Aprilia's Max Biaggi in the championship, and could go past the Italian if they score some big points at Donington.

As a wildcard, Sykes was second in race one last year behind Bayliss, with race two won by Japan's Ryuichi Kiyonari.

After a superb pre-season, Byrne (Ducati) has probably been one of the biggest disappointments so far this year, but a second place in race one at Misano was a welcome return to form.

As usual, Australia's Troy Corser will have a lot of work to do to get his BMW up to speed, after a disaster at Misano when he crashed on the warm-up lap.
 
"The best thing I can do is forget Misano and concentrate on Donington and that's what I am doing," said Corser. "Crashing out before the first race in Misano was very unfortunate because I think I would've managed okay in the wet on the bike.

"Donington is a tough track and it's certainly going to give us something to think about, especially in the first two sessions.

"We have a lot of work to do, as usual, but if we can get a good set-up early on and qualify better in Superpole, then we can chase a far more positive result."

With Karl Muggeridge and Brendan Roberts still out injured, Newcastle's Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) completes the abbreviated Australian presence at Donington, as he continues to tease - tantalisingly fast on occasions, but unable to put it together consistently.

In the supersport category, championship leader Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) is at extremely short odds to make it a fourth win in the last six races.

The Briton was second behind Kiyonari in race two of the superbikes last year -- he was a wildcard like Sykes -- and he's pushing his Yamaha YZF-R6 right to the limit in 2009.

Anthony West (Honda) is now the leading Aussie in fifth position, ahead of Andrew Pitt (Honda) in seventh.

"I like Donington a lot and have done pretty well there," said West. "I just have to see how the bike performs. I think for the first part of the track it should be good, but the other part I am a little worried with the package we have at the moment.

"I hope we can do well, and hope we can make some changes so I can be happier with my racing and get some better results."

West qualified seventh for the British MotoGP round at Donington last year, one spot ahead of Spies.

There will be live coverage of round nine on Fox Sports 3 at 8.30pm Sunday, and a one-hour highlights package on SBS at 12.30pm on July 5.

Superbike standings (after round 8 of 14):

1 Noriyuki Haga, Japan, Ducati 292
2 Ben Spies, America, Yamaha 244
3 Michel Fabrizio, Italy, Ducati 237
4 Jonathan Rea, Great Britain, Honda 167
5 Max Biaggi, Italy, Aprilia 135
6 Leon Haslam, Great Britain, Honda 134
7 Tom Sykes, Great Britain, Yamaha 130
8 Carlos Checa, Spain, Honda 109
9 Jakub Smrz, Czech Republic, Ducati 108
10 Ryuichi Kiyonari, Japan, Honda 98
17 Troy Corser, Australia, BMW 36
18 Broc Parkes, Australia, Kawasaki 25
26 Karl Muggeridge, Australia, Suzuki 4
27 Brendan Roberts, Australia, Ducati 3

Current supersport standings (after round 8 of 13)

1 Cal Crutchlow, Great Britain, Yamaha 160
2 Eugene Laverty, Ireland, Honda 146
3 Kenan Sofuoglu, Turkey, Honda 108
4 Joan Lascorz, Spain, Kawasaki 86
5 Anthony West, Australia, Honda 75
6 Andrew Pitt, Australia, Honda 73
7 Fabien Foret, France, Yamaha 63
8 Mark Aitchison, Australia, Honda 65
9 Michele Pirro, Italy, Yamaha 48
10 Massimo Roccoli, Italy, Honda 39
12 Garry McCoy, Australia, Triumph 39

For full results and standings, click here.