European STK600 Championship on start blocks at Assen
With so many young riders taking part in what is often a first ever season of international competition, the on-track action is unpredictable throughout the field. And what a field in 2011, with riders from 12 countries - including those outside Europe - all competing to emulate the feat of former champions Claudio Corti, Xavier Simeon, Maxime Berger, Loris Baz, Gino Rea and most recently Jeremy Guarnoni.
The riders in 2011 hail from Italy, Romania, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia, Spain, USA, Denmark, UK, France, Belgium and Slovakia and represent some 19 individual teams. They will run with Yamaha, Honda, Triumph and Kawasaki machinery this year, and based on the results from 2010, all of those machines should have their chance of a day in the sunlight.
Some riders, like Berardino Lombardi and Romain Lanusse, can even be considered to be seasoned veterans by comparison to some of their competitors; these include two former AMA Supersport champions of the calibre of Joshua Day (Racedays Kawasaki) and Austin DeHaven (Yamaha Trasimeno), as well as several other highly-rated youngsters such as Ten Kate Junior Team's Michael Van Der Mark, Nelson Major (Team Falcone Competition), Joshua Elliott (WMT Yamaha) from the UK and Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Sport Team) from Australia, who won last year's final round at Magny-Cours.
On machines which are very close to street spec and have to conform to very tight technical regulations, however, every rider has an even chance to shine in this star making class of competition.
