Preview - Monza.

After three rounds of the dazzlingly competitive 2006 World Superbike Championship have been completed the strongest field imaginable now heads to Monza, one of the most historic centres of European bike racing, for the fourth round of the series.

The former royal park of Monza, where speed is still king despite a proliferation of chicanes designed to slow riders at key points around the circuit, is the oldest purpose built circuit in Europe, with its first incarnation coming into being in 1922. Ever since then it has provided a tough challenge to all comers, making a win at Monza something extra special.

Troy Bayliss on his Ducati Xerox has dominated the early season testing and qualifying sheets but despite his speed it took until the fourth race of the year to win his first event since his return to the championship. His double win at Valencia two weeks ago was a further masterful achievement but in his countryman and Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider, Troy Corser he found rock hard competition in each 23-lap race. Corser was the Superpole winner at Valencia to boot, snapping Bayliss's previously unbroken chain of qualifying strength.

Lorenzo Lanzi, Bayliss's team-mate scored his first podium finishes of the season at Valencia, and will carry the hopes of most local fans at Monza. An up and down start to he season for Corser's team-mate, Yukio Kagayama sees him thirteenth overall, but few doubt his prowess on the GSX-R1000 when things go his way.

Thus far three riders have won races - three for Bayliss, two for Corser and a single for 2004 champion James Toseland with his new Winston Ten Kate Honda team. His early season Qatar victory was followed by two podiums in Australia, and then a seriously challenging weekend at Valencia, where despite being top Honda in race one, he scored only ninth and eleventh places, dropping him to third in the championship. He is expected to be a major player once more when the series gets to Monza, thanks to a circuit that should suit the Hondas more than the twists and surface trickery of Valencia. His team-mate, Karl Muggeridge, makes a welcome return after suffering compressed vertebra during a crash at recent official tests.

Of the five supported Honda riders in SBK 2006, Alex Barros on the Klaffi Honda has been the closest challenger to Toseland and the top two, despite a disappointing Valencia weekend. His bike, which is getting more and more like a full-spec race machine every weekend, should suit Monza very well, with the only question mark how quickly Barros finds his way around the modern Monza layout.

With local hero Pierfrancesco Chili out of action for some time due to a pelvic injury, his team-mate Michel Fabrizio and Chili's stand-in Gianluca Nannelli will be flying the DFX team's read white and blue livery under the red, white and green canopy of national expectation.

The headquarters of the Yamaha Motor Italian team lies a short stone's throw from the Lesmo corners at Monza, making any race at the Parco a perennially important one for team regulars Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga. Haga lies overall fourth in the championship, and like his team-mate has a single podium finish to his credit this season. Norick Abe on the Yamaha Motor France Ipone stunned Haga with his double podium finish in Spain, but at Monza it may be another story, on home soil for the Italian team. Back from Endurance World Championship duties, Sebastien Gimbert will complete the regular Yamaha Motor France Ipone line-up, enhanced this season by Japanese rookie Shinichi Nakatomi.

The relatively lowly championship positions of the three rider PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Superbike squad gives little indication of the scope and scale of the overall effort from the green corner this year. Bad luck in races has frequently followed some impressive base-line performances, and thus Fonsi Nieto, Chris Walker and Regis Laconi will be out to make the powerful engines in their ZX-10Rs count for every available point at Monza. Franco Battaini on board the Bertocchi Kawasaki is looking to Monza and home soil to kick-start his rookie SBK season.

With 100cc less than all of their opponents' bikes, Steve Martin and Craig Jones will be hunting for slipstreams more than most at the high speed Monza circuit. Nonetheless, with two consecutive front row qualifying positions to his credit, the vastly experienced Martin has already shown that even in its final year the FP-1 possesses many a virtue in terms of handling and cornering. For Jones, Monza will be another step on the learning ladder in his rookie SBK season, having been plucked from British national racing in the winter.

Ruben Xaus who is running the Sterilgarda Berik Ducati has enjoyed five points scores out of six races so far in 2006, despite a fall in the most recent race at his 'home' circuit of Valencia. The 2003 season championship runner up has pace aplenty and, armed with his well-supported Ducati, Monza will hold no fears for him. Another private 999 machine, that of class rookie Roberto Rolfo on the Ducati SC Caracchi is expected to bounce back from a disappointing Valencia meeting, as he takes his first home race of his World Superbike career in his stride. After a few races to get used to the characteristics of Ducati power, Max Neukirchner with Pedercini Ducati should enjoy Monza, as should the increasingly competitive Fabien Foret on the Alstare Engineering Suzuki one of many riders making a jump to Superbike this season.

Sebastien Charpentier with Winston Ten Kate Honda has made a simply perfect start to his championship defence since the first round at Qatar, having scored every pole position spot and each of the three race wins. Were it not for the almost equally metronomic and competitive Yamaha Motor Germany rider Kevin Curtain, Charpentier would have an even greater lead in the championship than the 15-point he enjoys at present. Such has been the real raceday reliability and pace of the top two, that the next nearest rider, Robbin Harms of Stiggy Motorsports Honda is some twenty nine points behind Curtain, forty four shy of Charpentier.

Most other top riders will have points of a different kind to prove at Monza. Charpentier's team-mate Kenan Sofuoglu and Curtain's fellow Yamaha rider Broc Parkes want to bounce back to podium status, with Sofuoglu particularly keen to make up for two crashes in race conditions so far. The Italian-based Megabike Supersport team, featuring the cosmopolitan talents of Japanese Katsuaki Fujiwara and Frenchman Yoann Tiberio have enjoyed and endured a busy start to their season, but with fast engines propelling them at Monza, podiums are far from a remote possibility.