Assen is due for some major changes after this weekend, with large parts of the fast and flowing Northern loop being removed to make space for more parking and an amusement complex. And probably a supermarket. Yes, really. The official line is that the circuit is currently too long and the fans don't get as good enetertainment as a result because a full distance race is still only sixteen laps. I guess it's a fair point but it will be a real shame to see one of the best circuits in the world being changed so dramatically. Ah well, such is progress.

With the season rapidly approaching its last gasp, Assen is always a meeting which offers excitement in spades. Occasionally we see the championship made, or broken, here. More often it's an herculean effort to close down a gap or extend some room before the last rounds. But whatever the state of play, Assen is a great circuit for racing, with plenty of overtaking opportunities, enthusiastic fans and great facilities. It has become something of a home from home for British fans over the years, being probably the easiest overseas circuit to reach and being in a country where most of the population speak better English than we do. And they're friendly with it...

Anyhow. Qualifying and Superpole saw the usual mix of excitment and routine. Man of the moment James Toseland dominated qualifying and free practice. He's always said he likes Assen and this time it seems that his team got the right settings for his bike straight away and he set about getting his name indelibly stamped at the top of the charts in fine style. The Ten Kate pairing of Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge proved to be on fine form as well, both taking some time at the top on what is effectively their home circuit. Ducati team-mate Regis Laconi had a torrid time, crashing on Friday morning when he lost the front and then following it up with a nasty highside that saw him pinned under the bike as it slid across the track. The resulting lacerations to his elbow and some tendon damage saw him ruled out of Superpole and the race, and with some doubts over his fitness for Lausitzring next week. Nori Haga nearly outdid even his normally ebullient riding style with a 90% highside exiting the last chicane on his Superpole lap but hanging on for a fourth place. Troy Corser seemed to struggle with a setup on the big Suzuki at a circuit where he has never won. And that struggle continued through practice and into Superpole, where the most successful Superpole rider ever could manage no better than third behind an on form Toseland and pole sitter Vermeulen. Karl Muggeridge overcame the injuries he sustained at Brands a few weeks ago to head up the second row with Andrew Pitt, Yukio Kagayama and Steve Martin on the underpowered but fine handling FP-1. Frankie Chili continues to have a torrid time, qualifying ninth at a circuit which has seen him win races and lose championships.

Race day dawned and James Toseland continued to dominate in the warmup session, lapping smoothly, consistently and damn' fast to boot. Troy Corser seemed to have banished the gremlins, running a close second while Vermeulen appeared to have forgooten where the track went, languishing in seventh. But the warm-up doesn't necessarily mean anything important, and as the riders lined up on the grid for the start of the first race it was all eyes on Vermeulen in his first ever pole position. Would he fluff it up? Would he emulate his countryman Corser and just clear off?

Lights out and it was Haga who made the running from Vermeulen, Corser, Pitt and Toseland who was obviously not paying attention when he should have been. Further back down the grid, Jurgen van de Goorbergh, making a guest appearance on a British Superbike Rizla Suzuki, totally outbraked himself and nailed the luckless Chris Walker. Walker was thrown from his bike, breaking his elbow and (from personal experience) probably wrecking the rest of his season, while the Dutchman rode through the gravel trap and rejoined, albeit at the back of the pack. At the front, Kagayama and Muggeridge were hard on Toseland's heels with Abe and Lanzi behind them. Lap two saw Corser surge past both Vermeulen and Haga to take the lead in his normal style while Toseland ducked past Pitt, follwed by a similar move on Haga on the next lap, putting the Englishman on the podium for the first time in a while. That all changed, though, as Vermeulen pushed past Corser and Haga repassed Toseland on lap four before in yet another reversal Toseland passed both Haga and Corser to take second place behind the rapidly vanishing Vermeulen. We were then treated to eleven laps of ding-dong scrapping between Haga and Toseland, neither able to make the break or catch Vermeulen, but both still running faster than Corser who sat patiently waiting to pick up the pieces should it all to go wrong. But it didn't, and one of the best races of the year, certainly in terms of at the front action, ended with Chris Vermeulen taking the chequered flag some three and a half seconds ahead of Toseland with Haga a second and a half back, a similar distance from Corser. Pitt was a distant fifth with Kagayama a couple of seconds behind him, just holding off Lorenzo Lanzi who rode an astonishing race on the semi-privateer Ducati, while Max Neukirchner just pipped fellow Honda pilot Karl Muggeridge to eighth. Muggas by this point was suffering from the hand injury he sustained highsiding at Brands Hatch, but still managed to remain ahead of the ever pressing Frankie Chili who rounded off the top ten.

Race two again saw Haga and Pitt take the holeshot, though this time Toseland stayed with them ahead of Kagayama, Vermeulen, Corser and Muggeridge in an unusual front of the field group. Toseland progressed to second place in lap two, moving into the lead on lap three while behind him the train rearranged itself with Vermeulen charging through the field, Kagayama dropping back and Corser again struggling to find form. More Haga/Toseland scrapping ensued, with the pair swapping the lead a few times before slowing each other up enough that Vermeulen was able to pass them both. The scrap continued unabated, though, with the added spice of trying to keep Vermeulen in sight and hold off Troy Corser, who had by now woken up and shrugged off the challenge presented by Andrew Pitt to close down the lead group. The front scrap became a three way affair for a while as Haga caught, and passed, Vermeulen before yielding again just two laps from the end. Toseland, having destroyed the tyres on his Ducati, wisely accepted third place rather than risk everything to the end, while Corser continued to be plagued with the wheelspin problems that had held him back all weekend and could do no better than fourth. Pitt again came fifth, a long way ahead of Lanzi who still finished a highly respectable sixth. Neukirchner again got the better of the recovering Muggeridge while the pair stayed some way ahead of Norick Abe and Ben Bostrom.

So there we have it. Some of the most exciting racing we've seen this season, the first time this season that Troy Corser hasn't been on the podium for both races and the end of any hope of keeping the chamionship out of Australia. With three rounds left there are only two people who can possibly win - Vermeulen and Corser. Laconi could lift second but would need to do the double three times while Vermeulen would have to never finish better than fourth. Things are close enough that even sixth placed Kagayama is in with a theoretical shot at second place, though the likelihood of the Japanese rider winning everything with Vermeulen never doing better than eighth has to be remote. With Laconi possibly out of the next race, Toseland could conceivably lift himself into fourth or even third place though the last time Superbikes went to Lausitz he scored a pair of seventh place finishes against Haga's fourth and fifth. Haga, Toseland and Walker are the only current riders to have raced at Lausitz, back in 2002.

Next week is going to be interesting, that's for sure...

Race One

1 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
2 James Toseland (Ducati)
3 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
4 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
5 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
6 Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki)
7 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
8 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
9 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
10 Pier-Francesco Chili (Honda)

Race Two

1 Chris Vermeulen (Honda)
2 Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
3 James Toseland (Ducati)
4 Troy Corser (Suzuki)
5 Andrew Pitt (Yamaha)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Max Neukirchner (Honda)
8 Karl Muggeridge (Honda)
9 Norick Abe (Yamaha)
10 Ben Bostrom (Honda)

Championship Standing after nine rounds:

1 Troy Corser 370
2 Chris Vermeulen 284
3 Regis Laconi 214
4 Noriyuki Haga 203
5 James Toseland 197
6 Yukio Kagayama 187
7 Chris Walker 130
8 Pier-Francesco Chili 119
9 Andrew Pitt 117
10 Karl Muggeridge 100