(Editor's note: in it's original form this story stated Ben Bostrom rode on a semi-factory L&M Ducati while previously in World Superbike. As anyone who follows the series should know, Ben's bike was a factory Ducati. Both the writer, copy editor and editor on this piece are scheduled for lashings later this afternoon.)

The 2005 World Superbike Championship begins this weekend when production motorcycle racing's global showcase hits the track running at the Losail circuit in Doha, Qatar. It's all change within certain areas of the organization and presentation of the Championship--some healthy changes, too, it must be said. After two relatively weak seasons in the depth of the rider entry list, as well as machinery diversity, 2005 may be a rebirth of sorts for the once ultra-competitive World Superbike series.

Along with changes in rider personnel and a shake-up in the racing calendar comes the return (in broader terms than it has been in the recent past anyway) of the Japanese factories. It would appear that the "Ducati Cup" tag can be removed from the necks of the organizers, and the World Superbike series can begin 2005 with a newly found level of optimism among the fans and the press. The genesis of a new era may be upon us this season.

A multi-national field comprised of veterans, former Grand Prix stars, European and Antipodean youngsters, established WSC racers and a returning American--all racing on the Pirelli control tire--will get it on across three continents over a racing season almost nine months in length.

The series will visit old established stomping grounds with Phillip Island, Brands Hatch, Monza, Assen and Misano all included on the 2005 calendar. And, there is a return to the infield layout at the Lausitzring in Germany, and Brno in the Czech Republic, which gets a round for the first time since 1996.

With visits to Magny Cours, Valencia, Silverstone and the haunting Imola circuit confirmed, and with the new event at Qatar kicking things off for the Flammini brothers (owners of the series), the twelve-round series provides plenty of choices in terms of venues. Although, it has to be said, for a world-level championship, twelve rounds is a little "light in the leathers."

There is, however, still the possibility (although it appears to be an increasingly slim one now) that an American event may find its way onto the calendar at a later date. If a contract can be signed in time to make a US round logistically possible, we may see a late alteration to the running order of events--this after Laguna Seca swore an allegiance to MotoGP for 2005.

For the first time since 1995, there will be no round at the Californian facility after the track owners' management committee decided not to re-sign a contract with FG Sport for this season, and instead, signed a deal with Dorna to host a Grand Prix meeting for the first time in a decade. Prior to 1995, the only other US circuit to see World Superbike action was Brainerd. That track hosted a round for three successive years, 1989-1991.

So, to action, and we mentioned change is afoot, but just where will change show itself for 2005? Who are the main protagonists this year, what team structure changes have been made, which factories look the strongest, and why? Let's take a look at the key players and include a brief summary for the "best of the rest" in the Superbike class for 2005.

Winston Ten Kate Honda:
The Ten Kate Honda team is racing again in 2005 and will be sporting an all-new livery that will be seeing its racing debut in Qatar, thanks to the addition of Winston as title sponsor for the Dutch-based team. Team principal Garret Ten Kate, tuning wizard and fastidious team boss, will run two CBR1000RR motorcycles and has in his employ two of the leading Australian riders in production racing today.

Chris Vermeulen will again mount his assault for the WSC title from within the Ten Kate team set-up, and the man who finished fourth in the 2004 standings will be joined by last season's World Supersport Champion, Karl Muggeridge. The amiable "Muggas", as he's known in racing circles, steps up to the senior class this season and with both riders enjoying factory-backed support, we could well see Ten Kate Honda playing a major role in the proceedings this year.

At the recent team launch in Italy, JTI (Japan Tobacco International) sponsorship executive Daniel Torras and Yutaka Negishi, President of Honda European Motorcycles (who are backing Ten Kate Honda) made it clear that this team effort has been established for one thing, and one thing only--to win the World Superbike title.

So, with two solid and progressive riders in the saddle, with a year's development under the fairing on the CBR machines--with factory support and with MotoGP team bosses watching Vermeulen with great interest--take time to study how balanced the chassis is and how their bike gets the power to the floor. It's great to watch, believe me.

Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra:
Francis Batta returns to the Superbike paddock for 2005, and with support from Suzuki's European distributor, Suzuki International Europe, behind him, his team looks to be strong challengers for the team and rider titles this year. His riders have brand-new 2005-spec GSX-R1000 motorcycles to play with and factory support from Japan to assist them, and the rider signings themselves are an indication of Batta's intent.

1996 World Champion Troy Corser has broken free of his shackles at Foggy Petronas Racing and has moved on to a four-cylinder motorcycle for the first time in his World Superbike career, and after posting the fastest time at the first pre-season test at Valencia on a 2003 spec machine, Corser is a real danger to the likes of defending Champion James Toseland, Regis Laconi, Frankie Chili, Chris Vermeulen, and Noriyuki Haga.

And the same can be said of Corser's teammate for 2005, Suzuki factory-paid rider Yukio Kagayama. A hard-charging fan favorite, Kagayama (a former GP wild card and British Superbike regular) is a prodigious talent and if he can learn the tracks on the calendar quickly enough, he could prove to be an able foil to Corser. In fact with Kagayama finishing fastest overall at the Qatar FG Sport test this past weekend with Corser second, the team looks strong going into Round 1 at the same circuit.

With two fierce competitors in the saddle, two factory-backed motorcycles under them and with a solid team infrastructure, the Corona Extra-sponsored Batta team could provide the Suzuki factory with its best hope yet of taking a World Superbike title. And, if the new incarnation of the Suzuki GSX-R1000 can match the performances of its predecessor, which won both the US and British Superbike titles in 2004, who's to say Suzuki won't be celebrating a World Title for the first time since Kenny Roberts Junior won the 500cc Grand Prix World crown back in 2000?

Ducati Xerox:
Davide Tardozzi returns once again as team principle for the Bologna-based factory Ducati Superbike team effort for 2005, and he will use all of his team-leading and political gamesmanship experience to again guide a Ducati twin motorcycle to World Superbike glory.

The man who guided Carl Fogarty to his four title wins, and Neil Hodgson and James Toseland to their single Championship trophy successes, again picks up the reins and attempts to fend off the resurgent Japanese charge and keep a dwindling Ducati entry on the top step of the factory podium. With the Fila sponsorship contract having ended after two seasons, the factory Ducati team now have Xerox on board as title sponsor after that organization and their cash parted company with the Steffano Caracchi-run NCR satellite team.

As in 2004, both British rider James Toseland (reigning World Champion) and Frenchman Regis Laconi (Vice Champion) return to defend Ducati honor and this season will be aboard their newly revised 999F05 machines and attempt to quell the onslaught from the four-cylinder bikes sure to be snapping at their heels.

With Ducati having won thirteen of the seventeen World Superbike constructor's titles and eleven of the seventeen rider's titles since 1988, is it a sign of change on the horizon that in 2005, there is only one solid team effort in terms of support in the series this year from Bologna? The only possible exception being the SC Caracchi set-up who may run Fonsi Nieto and Lorenzo Lanzi.

Certainly at the team's media launch in Bologna earlier this month, Tardozzi and Xerox's Head of Marketing Communications, Richard Wergan, together with Ducati Corse CEO, Claudio Domenicali, stated that Ducati's factory effort would be as progressive as it has been for many years and they want the championship trophy in the cabinet in Bologna at the end of 2005 again--where they say it belongs.

Can Toseland defend his title against much stronger opposition this season and can Regis Laconi beat not only his teammate this time around but the plethora of four-cylinder competition roaring up on his exhaust this year?

Yamaha Motor France-Ipone:
Former Grand Prix race winner and factory stalwart in that series, Norick Abe, has left behind Valentino Rossi and the likes and has been placed by Yamaha on the newly revised for 2005, factory-supported Yamaha YZF-R1 in this season's World Superbike series. The veteran Japanese star swaps the only world he's known for the past decade for the new surrounds of the Motor France squad, European-based of course, and managed by Martial Garcia. Abe also has young hotshot Sebastien Gimbert to deal with in the bargain this season.

Gimbert has extensive knowledge of the R1, having taken part in continued testing with the bike and having ridden a previous incarnation within this team structure last season. Abe needs to acclimate himself to the relaxed paddock in Superbike, get some testing time on the machine and adapt, as certain others do, to the Pirelli race rubber. Potentially, Abe could be a danger but only if he's quick out of the learning blocks and adapts to the feel of the bike, which will have a softer chassis and less power than the M1 prototype he rode last season in MotoGP. Experience-wise, he is up there with the likes of Corser and Haga, but it may not be enough, for this season anyway. Abe finished the Qatar test in eleventh position; his fastest time set on a race tire. Gimbert came home fifth at the same test.

Renegade Koji:
It's the return of the California Kid. Ben Bostrom, the sideburn-wearing former World Superbike factory Ducati rider and ladies favorite, is back in Europe and factory-backed for the 2005 campaign--but a whole host of questions need to be answered with regard to Bostrom's chances at a title push this season.

Can Ben master the Pirelli tires? His last taste of World Superbike action saw the L&M-sponsored full factory team man struggle on the A-spec Dunlops in 2002, and Bostrom returned home to the AMA series to ride for Honda in 2003 and 2004. With the seven-time World Superbike race winner (one of those wins being as a wild-card for the Vance & Hines team at Laguna Seca in 1999) having only completed two days of testing on a European-prepared Japanese factory-backed CBR1000RR on those Pirelli tires, it seems highly unlikely that Ben will be at the sharp end come Sunday's two races in Qatar. He needs test mileage, something he should get before Round 2 at Phillip Island at the beginning of April as there is a test pencilled in at the Valencia circuit in Spain beginning, as we are led to believe, on the 13th March.

And what about Ben's temperament, as it said about him on many occasions that when he is hot, he is almost impossible to stop but when he's off the pace and struggling, he can hit a downward spiral, and self-belief and motivation appear to be something he finds difficult to correct in any great hurry. Can Mark Griffiths, team boss at Renegade Koji, keep Bostrom (who is the sole rider on the team) motivated and focused, and can Honda keep providing the support to keep the American's eye on the ball?

Klaffi Honda:
He's Italian, he's 40 years old, and he still has the desire to win the one title that's eluded him for a decade. He is Pierfrancesco Chili, or "Frankie" to his legions of fans. The World Superbike veteran is still fast after all these years and is back on a four-cylinder machine for the first time since leaving the Corona Alstare team at the end of the 2001 season.

His Ducati performances have been sporadic throughout his career, even during his battles with Carl Fogarty in 1997 and 1998, but he is a real hero with the fans not just because he's passionate about his riding but because of his never-say-die attitude and easily approachable manner.

Klaffi Honda team boss and owner, Klaus Klaffenbock, insists that Chili can be a force to be reckoned with on board the Fireblade and is hopeful that Frankie can use all of his experience to place the team in a position to challenge for the title this season. 2005 will be Chili's eleventh consecutive World Superbike season, and the Bologna-born racer will contest his 240th race this coming weekend.

The tires, as with Bostrom, may be a problem for Chili, as they don't appear to give him the durability his riding style demands at certain tracks, and that worries Chili. But, that said, with the power characteristics of the Honda engine being thought of as more user-friendly than the twin Ducati, Chili and new team-mate, Max Neukirchner, may be able to support Vermeulen, Muggeridge and Bostrom effectively for Honda, as they try and wrestle the constructor's title from Ducati while attempting to land the team title for Klaffenbock.

Yamaha Motor Italia:
The Yamaha Motor Europe factory-backed, and Milan-based, Motor Italia squad can expect great things from 2005 if their number one rider returns to form on a four-cylinder machine while riding for the factory where he has seen the most success in the Superbike class.

Legendary World Superbike racer, Japan's Noriyuki Haga, an eternal favorite with fans the world over, is back on his favorite brand, with his favorite engine configuration after riding the booming Ducati V-Twin in 2004. The former Yamaha and Aprilia Grand Prix rider (he also rode for Aprilia in World Superbike in 2002) is hoping to pick up where he left off with Yamaha in 2000 after he lost the title that year by a whisker to Colin Edwards--partly because a drug ban lost him vital points.

He burst onto the scene in 1997 with several rides in the World Superbike championship that announced him on the world stage as a genuine threat. That same year, he won the All-Japan Superbike title, and all of that was preceded by him winning the 1996 Suzuka 8-Hour event with Edwards as his teammate.

Winner of 17 World Superbike races in his career, Haga did most of his damage on the 750cc Yamaha. The man dubbed "Nitro" Nori put in some sublime performances in the process and made a reputation for himself as a swashbuckling hero, although he was always respected by his peers as safe. The sometimes mean, moody and magnificent Haga, who has perplexed a few team bosses down the years with his skittish temperament, will have his good friends Norick Abe and Yukio Kagayama in the paddock to give him solace this season, solace being something Haga appears to need from time to time.

Noriyuki is a star whatever way you look at it. If the bike is sorted and Haga is up to the task, he could, with factory backing, make the 2005 series his own and take teammate Andrew Pitt (former WSS title winner from 2001) along with him for the ride. Certainly team boss Claudio Consonni will be hoping that is the case. Haga finished in ninth place overall at last weekend's Qatar test, without the aid of a qualifying tire.

Best Of The Rest:
It's hard to see the Foggy Petronas team making much of an impact against the ultra-competitive four-cylinder machines with the regulations on tuning that are in place not helping the team much. And, with the machine being 100cc down on power output, even with a weight advantage and a sweet handling chassis, riders Garry McCoy and Steve Martin look to be in for a tough season. McCoy, for me anyway, will always be a two-stroke racer and Steve Martin, even with his Pirelli experience, may well find it a struggle. The pair finished 24th and 27th respectively at the Qatar test, with Martin some three seconds in arrears of fastest man Yukio Kagayama. Maybe some engine upgrades on the way and some time at a European venue away from the sand of Qatar will give us a better indication of the team's potential.

There is always hope, maybe not of a title push but hope of some inspired performances throughout the season, by the SC Caracchi team, with former GP man Fonsi Nieto and Lorenzo Lanzi aboard a well-developed 999RS. There is some factory support for Nieto and Lanzi, Nieto also brings cash and Lanzi is a star for the future.

The same might be said for the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team with British veteran Chris Walker and Mauro Sanchini on the sweet sounding, and finely tuned Kawasaki ZX10R. The team green line-up for 2005 is completed by Team Bertocchi who have sometime AMA racer Giovanni Bussei and Ivan Clementi riding for them, but again, you can only imagine brief flashes of brilliance coming from either team with Walker possibly the best hope now that he's back on a screaming four-cylinder machine.

Rules, History and the Wrap-Up:
With the rules seemingly being more affable towards the four-cylinder bikes for the first time in a decade, and with Ducati's efforts in MotoGP not allowing the same level of support for Ducati motorcycles in production racing (certainly in Europe, anyway), are we seeing a return to how the series was initially intended to look when it was first introduced back in 1988 by the "father" of World Superbike, Steve McLaughlin?

McLaughlin, who won the first-ever AMA Superbike Championship series race held at Daytona on March 6th 1976, riding a Butler & Smith BMW R90S, went on to be a leading light in bridging the gap between the European and Japanese factories with regard to a world championship for production motorcycles. And, after much hard work against almost insurmountable odds, he made it happen when the inaugural World Superbike season kicked off in 1988. That series, in turn, thanks to McLaughlin's persistence, made riders such as Fred Merkel, Davide Tardozzi, Marco Luchinelli and Raymond Roche household names.

It was only after the marketing company McLaughlin used to promote the series hit financial difficulties that McLaughlin was effectively frozen out of his own series, but his conceptual idea for the championship was a winner and many racing enthusiasts remember the early years of World Superbike with great affection.

They were the good old days, some would say, before the Flammini Group took charge of the series rights ownership and appeared to then become somewhat twin-cylinder-biased for many years--with exotic rulings and incoherent reasoning. Have the cries of the fans and manufacturers to equalize the rules and ease the political atmosphere between the European organization (FG Sport) and the Japanese, actually had any influence, or is Ducati's reluctance to push the twin-cylinder formula to a totally new plane made life easier for the Flammini brothers?

Only time will tell, but on paper anyway, there is at least a hopeful glow to the entry list and a feeling of true sporting competitiveness back in the paddock. So, with all that said, we look forward with great interest to the 2005 World Superbike Championship and may the best man (and motorcycle) win.

My pick for the title comes down to one of two: Troy Corser or Chris Vermeulen. I pick Corser, but only just. In my opinion, Chris Vermeulen's future lies in MotoGP. The race for third, well, it could come from a whole host of riders, but I pick Haga to round out the top three this year.

As far as Qatar goes for Round one, it's the first competitive action of the year prior to Daytona in March, so the usual Soup rules apply: Roll out the surround sound, make your fridge a libational haven, place a gagging order on the kids, and let's get it on. Motorcycle racing is back?and, it's about time!