The race Proton have been waiting for...

On Saturday, June 30, Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh will race in his home Grand Prix, at the classic and demanding Dutch TT circuit of Assen, on the best bike he has ever ridden.

That bike is the Proton KR3, which combines the straight-line speed of the V4 MuZ with the ultra-high corner speed of the V-twin Honda that Jurgen put on the front row in his first year in the 500 class.

The result is the strongest home race challenge ever for Holland's top GP racer.

The race is important for the team, because the light and agile three-cylinder Proton KR3 is tailor-made for the sinuous curves of the 3.759 mile/6.049km track, the longest of the year. The complex layout, with fast corners leading one into the next, takes the emphasis away from sheer horsepower and hands the advantage to a machine capable of faithful and accurate steering and high corner speeds. This defines the Proton to a 'T'.

The Dutch TT, seventh of 16 championship rounds, follows a couple of strong races for the ever-improving KR3, now in its second year of racing. The new-for-2001 bike and rider combination is really beginning to show its paces.

Assen is also the first of what team owner Kenny Roberts has tagged "The Big Four" - Assen, Donington Park, Sachsenring and Brno. These are all "handling" circuits, and the tracks the team has been looking forward to all season long.

At the Catalan GP at Barcelona, Jurgen qualified on the second row of the grid - in the thick of the class leaders - for the second race in succession. He finished ninth, his best result of the year so far, and his second top ten. Two weeks before, he'd finished tenth in the rain-hit Italian GP.

Van den Goorbergh has yet another trump card to reinforce an already strong hand. Three weeks before the race he tested at Assen. Firstly, this was an opportunity to consolidate various improvements to the machine during the season, and fix a couple of niggling problems. Secondly, it gave a base-line for gearing, suspension settings and tyre choice. Thirdly, it was a valuable chance to familiarise himself with the KR3's special character at this most difficult of circuits.

"We tested at Assen before Barcelona, and for two days I had a happy smile on my face," confirmed van den Goorbergh. " I have never been so quick during testing at Assen, but the lap time wasn't the point. We were working on chassis developments, and we found a really good balance. At Assen it's very important to keep on line, and for the bike to be quite stable. We also found some more power. The Proton is the best Assen bike I have ever ridden. Nowadays, a lot of people are capable of getting on the rostrum. I think it's also possible for me at Assen.

"This is the first of the tracks we've been looking forward to, where the Proton KR3 should be most competitive," added Chuck Aksland. "Our tests here went well, and Jurgen was very confident afterwards. He was achieving good lap times very easily. At Barcelona the bike was pretty decent to start with, and just went round and round getting better and better. With that momentum we're hoping for good qualifying sessions at Assen, and to keep rolling. We have a really good baseline for the bike, and Jurgen will have a bit of extra adrenaline in his home crowd. It's an important race."

The 2001 Dutch TT, seventh round of the 16-race season, is historic for two reasons: Like all the races this year, it is the last for 500cc machines only. In 2003, the two-stroke dominated class will be open also to 990cc four-strokes, giving a way back into racing for the more traditional type of engine.

It is also the last time the current version of the historic circuit will be used. This layout was adopted in 1984.

Motorcycle racing started at Assen in 1925, and it is the only one of the original 1949 World Championship venues still used for Grand Prix racing today.