Parkes prepared for title run

From Yamaha Racing

Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) has a clear goal to get back into championship contention at the forthcoming Vallelunga race, with three rounds remaining in the overall series.

The Australian rider is well placed to make his mark again after a strong testing performance at this venue close to Rome earlier in the summer, proving that he and his YZF-R6 can be a potent force at yet another circuit in 2008. So far Parkes has one win and two further podium finishes to his credit, as he sits fourth overall in the pre-Vallelunga standings.

Last year Parkes was fourth in the corresponding event, on the previous version of the R6, but this year he will be aiming for nothing less than a podium finish, and ideally the win at the 4.110km circuit.

Eugene Laverty will once more be with Parkes as he replaces injured regular rider, Fabien Foret. It will be his second race for the team in 2008 and the Ulsterman was 12th at the previous Donington event.

Parkes is fully ready for his Roman weekend after some poor luck in recent weekends, and ultimately wants to win his second race of the year.

"I am looking forward to Vallelunga because we had such a good test there in July," he said. "We were very close to setting the best time, but the main thing was that we found a good race set-up on the second day. The last round at Donington didn't go the way we wanted, so we will be out to get ourselves back into the top end of the championship again.

"The Vallelunga track layout is a little bit tough but it is also a bit of a rider's track. When everything is working well anything can happen there."

Laverty is looking forward to his first experience of the Vallelunga circuit.

"I have never ridden at Vallelunga but the team has been there for a two-day test so they have some information for the bike," he said. "That means I should be able to just jump on and concentrate on learning the track by myself. It seems to be a bit more like a typical British track and the first section, the fastest part, looks really interesting."

"We struggled at the last race at Donington but Broc was really fast here in the tests," said Yamaha World Supersport team manager Wilco Zeeenberg. "We checked out the Donington data and all the equipment seems to be fine but I think we suffered from a lack of dry track time for Broc and our bike. Our bike was backing-in a bit under braking last time out, but I see no problems like that for Vallelunga because we were very fast and consistent in testing. Gearing is critical at the fast parts of the Vallelunga circuit, we made good progress with fast cornering during the tests."