Xaus ‘hopeful’ about Imola return

Ruben Xaus remains hopeful that he will make his return to racing at this weekends round of the World Superbike Championship at Imola.

Xaus suffered a huge crash during the opening race at Brno in July leaving him with a badly broken right Femur.

The 31 year old Spaniard has undergone intensive physiotherapy in an effort to regain fitness in time for this weekends race.

He has also received extra motivation to make his return given the team’s impressive development of the BMW S1000RR.

Xaus said: “My physiotherapy and rehabilitation has gone very well and I think I will be able to race in Imola.

“Just before the race, I will get on a bike and see how my leg behaves and how it feels when I get off the bike.

“In the normal scheme of things, I should really not be on a bike at all before the final rounds at Portimao, but everything has gone well so far and I am very eager to get on my bike and race.

“I saw the progress with the bike at Brno before I crashed and I am itching to get back on track to see how much progress the team have made since then.

“There is no absolutely final decision about Imola yet, but I am very, very hopeful.”

Xaus’ team-mate Troy Corser is enjoying his best form of the 2009 season following improvements to the ride ability of his BMW.

In the last four races the Australian has secured his best results having led both races at Brno and secured a best result of fifth place.

He said: “I am looking forward to riding my bike again as I believe that we have made really good progress recently and I want to see how this progress continues in Imola.

“Hopefully the weather will be better than the Nurburgring and we will get a good crowd and a good result.”