World Supersport Championship - event preview
Round seven - Brno, Czech Republic (15-17 July 2005)

CHARPENTIER JOINED BY CRAIG JONES FOR CZECH CHALLENGE

World Superpsort championship leader, Sebastien Charpentier, will have a new
team-mate for this weekend's seventh round event at Brno in the Czech Republic.
The Winston Honda rider will be joined by Britain's Craig Jones, who replaces
the injured Katsuaki Fujiwara.

While Charpentier seeks his fifth win of the season and an extension of his
series points lead over Fujiwara, Jones heads for the 5.4km Brno circuit direct
from last Sunday's British Supersport race at Snetterton, following which he
holds second place in the UK domestic championship.

Ronald ten Kate - team manager:

"We're sorry that Kats (Fujiwara) won't be with us in Brno but wish him a speedy
recovery from his back injury. Gerrit (ten Kate) has been following Craig
Jones's career in the British championship for the last couple of years and, of
course, we saw his performance as a wild-card at the recent World Supersport
event at Silverstone. As one of the brightest young prospects in British racing,
Craig was a natural choice for us to replace Kats at Brno. It's always difficult
riding as a replacement, though, so we won't be putting any pressure on him. We
just want him to enjoy the experience and to get a taste for life in a world
championship team. Of course, it's our first visit to Brno as a team so we'll be
working hard to give Sebastien a good race set-up that will allow him to
continue his domination of the series."

Sebastien Charpentier - championship position 1st, 140 points:

"I was very sorry when I heard about Kats crashing in Japan and look forward to
welcoming him back to the team at the Brands Hatch round. He has given me the
strongest challenge this season and has taken two race wins to show how strong
he is. But I'm looking forward to welcoming Craig to the team and giving him
whatever help I can. It'll be good to know that he's on our side for this race
because he was certainly impressive at Silverstone in May. I've heard a lot
about the Brno circuit and think that it will suit both my style and the CBR's
characteristics. I know our main challengers from both Honda and Yamaha have
tested there already so we will need to get up to speed very quickly to help the
championship, which is our overall priority."

Craig Jones:

"I feel very sorry for Kats and hope he recovers quickly but, as you can
imagine, I am very excited to have been given this opportunity. I'd like to
thank Gerrit and Ronald of course, but also my team manager in the UK, Gary
Ekerold, who has been kind enough to release me for this ride. I really enjoyed
the Silverstone event and managed to qualify on the front row, even though I had
a mechanical failure in the race. I've wanted to ride for Gerrit for a long time
and I can't wait to get on one of the famous Ten Kate Hondas. I hope the fact
that most of the other riders haven't been to Brno either will give me a level
playing field to start with, but I understand the team won't put any pressure on
me. I'm just really looking forward to the whole experience."

World Supersport Championship points after six of 12 rounds:

 1 Sebastien Charpentier FRA (Winston Ten Kate Honda)  140
 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN (Winston Ten Kate Honda)      106
 3 Kevin Curtain AUS (Yamaha)                           93
 4 Fabien Foret FRA (Honda)                             74
 4 Broc Parkes AUS (Yamaha)                             60
 5 Stephane Chambon FRA (Honda)                         46
 6 Michel Fabrizio ITA (Honda)                          42
 7 Gianluca Nannelli ITA (Ducati)                       41
 9 Tauto Lauslehto FIN (Honda)                          36
10 Javier Fores ESP (Suzuki)                            36

Brno World Supersport event schedule:

Friday   15 July - 09.35-10.20 free practice
                   13.15-14.00 qualifying
Saturday 16 July - 10.00-10.45 free practice
                   13.45-14.30 qualifying
Sunday   17 July   09.50-10.10 warm-up
                   13.20 race (18 laps, 97.254km)