Fan favourite Noriyuki Haga will make his Xerox Ducati World Superbike debut at Kyalami on Wednesday but it will be a baptism of fire as he will be on track with all the other WSB teams and riders. And he will finally step into the big boots of Troy Bayliss...
The Samurai of Slide will have to lock horns with the Ten Kate Honda men, who are all experienced on their Fireblades and with the Alstare Suzuki squad, fresh from their tests at Phillip Island.
Not only that, but Haga will also be lapping with AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies, who was very impressive during tests at Portimao on the new long-bang R1, who took over from him at Yamaha Italia.
The BMW pairing of Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus will also be present, and Max Biaggi and Shinya Nakano will also be testing the Aprilia RS4.
This is the first time the Aprilia and BMW have been seen in tests with other manufacturers, so it will be interesting to see how they compare, presuming Corser has got over his giant Sunday hangover.
