Phillip Island, Australia - 2001 World Superbike championship round three / 2001 World Supersport championship round two - Sunday April 22

The reigning World Superbike champion, Colin Edwards arrives in Australia confident of making amends for a day of mixed fortunes in round two of the championship three weeks ago in South Africa. Edwards won the opening race but was agonisingly forced to retire from the second Kyalami outing, seconds after taking the lead.

"We know what we've got to do in Australia and I'm confident I can win both races at Phillip Island," says Edwards. "The Castrol VTR has always gone well at Phillip Island and since the last race at Kyalami three weeks ago the Japanese engineers at HRC and our own Castrol Honda team staff have been working very hard. A Honda retiring from a race is almost unheard of in motorcycling and they now want to guarantee it will never happen again."

Edwards added: "Michelin have worked very hard over the winter and what they achieved for us at Kyalami in the last round will also come into play at Phillip Island this weekend - I'm confident we have the right package for the Australian round."

Luckless Tady Okada, a newcomer to World Superbike and Edwards' team-mate in the Castrol Honda squad, is still to score his first points but the talented Japanese rider lists the Phillip Island track as one of his favourites and he is intent on success in Australia on Sunday.

"It's been a difficult start to the year for my team," admits Okada. "I'm disappointed not to be on the championship leaderboard but I'm not bothered too much for myself, more for the team. I've seen them work very hard in the opening two rounds and it's for them that I want to do well at Phillip Island on Sunday."

Okada adds: "I now feel more comfortable than I've ever felt on the VTR machine and Phillip Island is a great track for me so I want to repay some of the team's work and grab my first points of the year this weekend."

Aprilia's Troy Corser continues to lead the championship, by a slender two points from Ducati arch-rival and fellow Australian Troy Bayliss - second in all four races so far this season. Corser set the pole position time and was a winner at Phillip Island last year in damp, tricky conditions but this will be Bayliss's first Phillip Island event on a factory Ducati - the affable Australian joined Ducati following Carl Fogarty's career-ending crash at the picturesque Australian venue last year.

Ben Bostrom moved into third place in the championship with a second race victory in South Africa and the Dunlop-shod Ducati rider will be hoping to improve on two disappointing, lower leaderboard finishes at Phillip Island last year.

The World Supersport championship hopefuls return to action in Australia this weekend with Honda's Pere Riba hoping to repeat a dominant opening round victory in Spain six weeks ago. The G. Ten Kate Honda-riding Spaniard was unstoppable as he recorded an immediate win for the new Honda CBR600F Sport machine at Valencia. " "Phillip Island is a circuit I really like," says Riba. "But I'm conscious of not trying too hard early in the weekend. It's been six weeks since we raced and every rider will be keen to make a strong impression from the first session on Friday morning. Phillip Island will take some thought, it's the first time there with this machine and we need to keep improving th 0D achine during Friday and Saturday."

Italian Yamaha rider Piergiorgio Bontempi lies second in the Supersport points standings, virtue of his second place at Valencia, with German Christian Kellner, also Yamaha-mounted, third.

A trio of Australian Honda riders will all be out to impress on their home soil this weekend. Castrol Honda's Chris Vermeulen crashed out of ninth place in the opening round and will be want to turn that disappointment into joy. Since the March 11 season opener in Spain Vermeulen has won the opening round of the British Supersport championship - as a wild card rider - at Donington Park.

Vermeulen explains: "That Donington race was perfectly timed for us. It came right in the middle of a six-week break between the Spanish and Australian world rounds plus, riding at Donington helped Michelin with some testing time for the world round there next month."

Vermeulen is joined by fellow, Honda-mounted countrymen Adam Fergusson and Kevin Curtain as the Australian riders aim to give their home fans something to cheer.

Fergusson - the Phillip Island lap record holder - makes his championship debut on the Alpha Technik Honda after missing the opening round of the season after cracking his pelvis in a test session in February. Curtain, on a BKM Honda, arrives at Phillip Island having taken fifth place in the Spanish opener.

Phillip Island data:

Superbike:

2000 qualifying, fastest: Carl Fogarty (Ducati) 1m 33.159s 2000 Superpole: Troy Corser (Aprilia) 1m 33.321s 2000 winners: Anthony Gobert (Bimota) and Troy Corser (Aprilia) Lap record: Troy Corser (Ducati) 1m 33.019s (1999)

Supersport:

2000 pole position: Ruben Xaus (Ducati) 1m 36.995s 2000 winner: James Whitham (Yamaha) Lap record: Adam Fergusson (Honda) 1m 37.973s (1999)

World Superbike championship points after round two of 13:

1 Troy Corser /Australia/Aprilia./ 82 2 Troy Bayliss / Australia/ Ducati/ 80 3 Ben Bostrom/ USA/ Ducati/ 54 4 Colin Edwards/USA /Castrol Honda/48 5 Gregorio Lavilla/ Spain/Kawasaki/45 6 Pier-Francesco Chili/ Italy/ Suzuki/36 7 Regis Laconi/ France/ Aprilia/31 8 Akira Yanagawa/Japan/Kawasaki/ 29 9 Ruben Xaus/Spain/Ducati/ 26 10 Neil Hodgson/GB / Ducati/ 24