Zoom Troy Bayliss

This coming weekend at Donington, the HANNspree Superbike World Championship takes up again where it left off exactly one month ago with a round on British soil, the eleventh appointment in this year's exciting championship and the first of the final four that will lead to the crowning of the 2008 champion.

The first weekend in September is a new date for the East Midlands circuit, which will host a World Superbike round for the seventeenth time in its history, having been the venue for the first event of the production-based championship way back in April 1988.

The question on everyone's minds as they line up for the final part of the season is whether or not anyone can prevent Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) from taking a third world title. There are four rounds and eight races left, with 200 points on the board, but an 82-point lead for the Australian, currently on 334 points, is now starting to look increasingly unassailable.

Not even the memories of a nasty crash at Donington twelve months ago, which cost him the loss of a piece of finger, should prevent the incredibly tough Australian from administering his lead in the best possible way. And just to underline the current situation in the table, while Bayliss hammered home his advantage with a dominant double victory at Brno, his closest pursuers, Max Neukirchner, Troy Corser, Carlos Checa and Noriyuki Haga have only been able to put together one win between them in the last three races.

Neukirchner (Alstare Suzuki) is in second place but the German's position is coming under fire from Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB), who has looked more and more competitive in this mid-part of the season, the Australian scoring eight top-5 finishes since the Miller event to move up the points table. His form has been inversely proportional to that of Spain's Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda), who has failed to go any higher than fifth in the races since his double win at Miller. Checa, fourth on 233 points, has raced numerous times at Donington in MotoGP so the Nottinghamshire track will be no mystery for him, unlike many of the circuits this year.

Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) is in fifth place just three points behind, but he was almost back to his best at Brands Hatch, challenging his fellow Japanese rider Kiyonari for the win, and is a three-times previous winner at Donington, including last year, so he could spring another surprise this time around. Fonsi Nieto (Suzuki Alstare) scored two fifth places at Brands Hatch, his best results for several races, but will now certainly have to watch out for the hard-charging trio of Max Biaggi (Sterilgarda Go Eleven Ducati), Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox), separated by five points in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively, and all on a roll of positive results. Four podiums in the last five races for Biaggi have helped to boost confidence for the Italian as he looks to finish off the season in the best possible way, with one eye on his future.