Final hurdle approaches for Kawasaki WSS squad.

After a season of incident and occasional glory for the Kawasaki Racing team, the final round of the World Supersport Championship takes them back the point of origin for most of its team members.

Run out of French headquarters, the Kawasaki team is predominantly Gallic in composition, making Magny-Cours a home venue at which to end an exciting season.

World champion Fabien Foret continues the French theme in the team, and a repeat of his Misano race win would be the perfect way to see the season out. The second riding talent in the works squad is Pere Riba, and the Spaniard will gunning to score his season high point on a circuit he and Foret have tested at in the recent past. After ten of the eleven rounds making up the 2003 season, Foret is overall eighth, and Riba eleventh, but each has a realistic chance of improvement before the final curtain is drawn on the year.

Magny-Cours is a well-known venue to each rider, with Foret about to experience the thrill of home crowd shouting support for him for the first time, this being the first ever World Supersport round in France.

"This will be a special race because it is in France," said the 2002 champion, "That means there will be a little more pressure, because you always want to do a bit better in your own country. Anyway, it's a race like every other one, and I want to sign off as well as possible with Kawasaki. I know the track very well, even if it is not my favourite track in France. I will do my best and if I can finish on the podium I will be very happy."

Riba is also glad that he has had some opportunity to test at the recently modified Magny-Cours venue, an impressive facility in the French countryside, built close to the town of Nevers.

"The test we had was a great help to us for the basic settings of the bike, but I'm sure the track temperature will be different which will affect tyre choice," said the experienced Spaniard, a WSS race winner in his own right, "This is the last race and I cannot do anything about winning the championship, but I will be trying to
put in as good a race as I can.

"I hope it is raining because there has not been a wet race so far, and rain often evens things out. Normally there are a couple of wet races, so thus has been a very unusual year."