Next Monday, on ‘Memorial Day’, the Miller Motorsports Park circuit in Utah will welcome the US round of the 2012 Superbike World Championship. After reaching the landmark first WSBK victory at the previous round at Donington Park in the UK, the BMW Motorrad Motorsport team is travelling to Salt Lake City full of confidence, especially Marco Melandri who goes down in history as the first ever WSBK race winner on the S 1000 RR.

“Miller Motorsports Park is a nice racetrack,” said Marco. “It is quite fast and smooth but not easy, although it should be a good circuit for my riding style. At the moment, I don’t want to expect anything special – I just want to take it day by day. This season has shown that the championship is very open and different riders can win at any racetrack. I just want to get 100 per cent out of my RR and myself, and then we will see where we are compared to our rivals.

“For sure the WSBK victory gives us extra self-confidence. To get this first win was more difficult, because although we tried not to think about it, we knew it would be a first victory for BMW Motorrad, so that put more pressure on us. Now we reached that milestone we are more confident in ourselves. This was the first victory, but I am sure that we will get more.”

For team-mate Leon Haslam, missing out on his own first WSBK victory on the RR through no fault of his own was a bitter pill to swallow after race two at Donington, but the determined Brit is intent on putting that behind him and continuing his championship challenge at a circuit where he finished on the podium in 2010.

“Every weekend we have been challenging for podiums and have been really close to the win, so we want to do the same in the USA,” said Leon. “Last year, it was one of our worst race weekends so I am interested to see how the RR works this year with all the improvements we have made. One problem last year was that the conditions were changing so quickly, so it was not easy to find a good set-up. We have been looking at the weather forecast and it seems to be promising, with temperatures perhaps up to 30 degrees so hopefully we are going to have sun.

“The circuit at Miller Motorsports Park is a mixture of many different things. For whatever reason, Carlos Checa’s way of riding seems to suit this track. But I finished second there before, so we know we can be strong.”

The layout of this modern American racetrack is technically very demanding with 24 turns for riders to deal with – more than any other track on the current WSBK calendar – not to mention the effects of altitude, as it sits at approximately 1,350 metres above sea level. According to Head of Race Operations Andrea Dosoli, this all adds to the challenges the team has to overcome in preparing the best package for its riders.

“One of the characteristics of the Miller Motorsports Park is the unusual altitude which affects the engine performance – but the engine of our RR is strong enough so the loss of performance has no particular negative effect on our bikes,” said Dosoli. “Regarding tyre wear, this track could be difficult for all the four cylinder bikes. Last year, we had extreme wear due to the severe weather conditions but we are convinced that with the latest developments on our RR we have also improved in this area. So we are looking forward to the US round of the 2012 championship, which has so far shown a well balanced performance between the competitors. For sure we expect Carlos Checa to be strong on this track where he has won several times, but we believe that our riders will also be in a position to fight for the podium.

“We are all highly motivated, especially after the one-two victory at Donington. And we are looking forward to getting back the points we lost in the last corner of race two of the British event.”

All American stunt riding fans will be delighted to get to know that four-time world champion Chris Pfeiffer will be performing one of his stunning shows during the race weekend. Photos and videos will be available right after.

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