Max Biaggi and friends enjoy some sort of media product printed on thin sheets of wood. Biaggi rates his chances at Miller: 'This could be tough'. image by dwayne young

"This could be tough," says four-time 250 champion Max Biaggi about his chances at Miller this weekend.

Speaking outside his garage moments ago at Miller Motorsports Park, Biaggi showed me his left hand, with broken little finger and nail ripped from his ring finger. The two are taped together but Biaggi says the repair does little to alleviate the pain.

"It's going to be hard to throw the bike around," he said.

Biaggi inferred that Ducati teams are at a disadvantage here at Miller because the Kawasaki/Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki teams received set-up info from their AMA brethren. With no AMA Ducati Superbike team in the series, Biaggi sees a disadvantage.

Despite the bad hand and untested bike, Biaggi will give "Max" effort this weekend.