Hannspree Ten Kate Honda riders Jonathan Rea and Max Neukirchner head to the Czech Republic this weekend (9-11 July) for round nine of the 2010 World Superbike championship, which takes place at the famous Automotodrom in the country’s second city of Brno.

The CBR1000RR-mounted duo will be looking for improvements to the set-up of their machines, which restricted both to frustrating and unsatisfactory results last time out at Misano in Italy.

Rea suffered his worst weekend of World Superbike results at Misano, and the 23-year-old was bitterly disappointed with 13th and 12th place finishes at the Italian circuit where he scored his first championship win in 2009.

“After the disaster we had at Misano, I’m really looking forward to turning over a new page at Brno this weekend. I’ve really enjoyed riding the circuit in the past and took my first World Supersport win there a couple of years back,” said Rea.

However, the Northern Irishman was encouraged by a positive test, which took place with a number of his championship rivals at Imola in Italy last week, when he finished with the fourth fastest overall time.

“ I’m hoping that my team will be able to take the information we got from Misano and then at the Imola test last week and translate that into a strong package that will allow us to challenge at the front again,” said Rea.

“ We worked a little more outside the box at Imola to learn more about the bike and tried some fairly radical things. It gave us a small step forward but, at this level and in this environment, it’s really difficult to find big chunks of time. I’m happy that the team has been changed around slightly to help us maintain our challenge and it’ll be good if we can start at Brno on Friday with the same feeling we finished with at Imola last week.”

With some adjustments to the way his crew is set up, Rea is looking forward to re-visiting the 5.4km circuit Brno circuit where he took his debut world championship victory in the 2008 World Supersport race.

Neukirchner, too, was encouraged following last week’s test at Imola.

“I had a bit of a fever last week during the test so the first day wasn’t so good and it was a bit frustrating that we weren’t able to make any progress. However, I felt better on the second day and me and the team got through a lot of work and tried some new things. We made some small steps forward and I was able to go faster during the afternoon but then, during a quicker lap, I had to slow down because of a crash,” said Neukirchner.

The German is buoyed by the fact that Brno is relatively close to his home town of Chemnitz in eastern Germany. Several coach-loads of his home fans are expected to make the four-hour trip to support the 27-year-old this weekend.

“I am looking forward to Brno very much and, although the results there have not been fantastic, I like the circuit. We’ll have to see how the work we did last week works there, but I’ll certainly have some extra support at Brno, so of course I will try my best for all the Germans fans there,” he said.

Team manager Ronald ten Kate is confident the Misano test produce positive results for the team.

“The problems we experienced at Miller and then again at Misano were, of course, our biggest focus during the test at Imola last week. We definitely improved the bike and found something of a cure for the chatter that has plagued both riders and we’re looking forward to trying that solution at Brno this weekend. With some luck, it should put us back to the top of the results sheets where we know we should be,” he said.