Wild cards gear up for World challenge.

In several rounds of the World Superbike Championship, the local wild card riders are considered nothing more than a nuisance, slow and untidy with a tendency not to get out of the way whilst being lapped. Not so at Laguna Seca.

In each round of the World Superbike Championship, the event organisers are given a designated number of entries which they may give to the top riders in their respective National Superbike Championship. The standards of each National series varies considerably, some are very strong including the British and American series, while others not so - witness the starring performances of Guin Roda and Javier Rodriguez at Valencia recently.

As already stated the US National Superbike Championship is amongst the most competitive in the world and the upcoming WSB round at Laguna Seca will provide them with an excellent opportunity to upset the apple-cart on Sunday.

No less than five wildcards have been granted an entry this weekend and all five are more than capable of scoring an outright victory as Ben Bostrom and Anthony Gobert did last year.

Leading the charge is tough talking John Kocinski who won the World Series in 1997 and raced 500GP's last year, Kocinski started the campaign late after being drafted in to replace Infostrada bound Troy Bayliss. The American has the advantage of a Vance & Hines prepared Ducati underneath him and has an intimate knowledge of the challenging Californian track.

Scott Russell is another ex-WSB Champion who will be challenging for victory on Sunday. The 1993 Champion dropped out of the World Series after a disappointing year in 1998 but has shown this year that he is still capable of obliterating the opposition when he wants to. Maybe he will want to this weekend.

Perhaps the biggest threat for overall honours comes from Mat Mladin. Mladin is the defending US Series champion and has been in crushing form so far this season. Unlike the others, Mladin has never had a WSB ride and is hoping that a sparkling performance this weekend will put him the shop window.

The last two wildcard riders, Doug Chandler and Miguel Duhamel, both bring with them years of experience and possibly have the best knowledge of the course of the entire field. Chandler raced extensively in GP's and is a three time US National Champion whereas Duhamel has no less than five US Supersport 600 titles under his belt. Both are still fiercely competitive and are crafty veterans who are more than capable of picking up a victory of opportunity.

One WSB regular who will be praying that the wildcard riders do well is Noriyuki Haga. The Japanese Yamaha rider is suspended from the event after his drugs test failure appeal was rejected by the TIA. If any of the wildcard riders can finish on the podium they are taking points away from Haga's title rivals which would keep him in contention for the Championship.

For one weekend at least, Haga's luck might just be in.