The season-opening Phillip Island round of the 2011 Superbike World Championship is still four months away, but the countdown has already begun with a number of leading teams set to start testing today at the new Motorland Aragon circuit in Spain.

In 2011, Aragon will appear on the calendar for the first time, and the likes of BMW Motorrad, Aprilia, Kawasaki and Suzuki will be confronted with a challenging 5.077km layout that has plenty of elevation changes and a vast number of blind corners.

The circuit has already been used for numerous events, including a MotoGP race, and the track and its facilities have drawn great praise from all quarters.

Aragon will hold plenty of interest, with a number of riders continuing to familiarise themselves with new teams, including Leon Haslam as Aussie Troy Corser’s new teammate at BMW, and Italian Michel Fabrizio at Suzuki.

Following the Aragon shakedown, a number of other private tests will be held from November to January at circuits in Europe and Malaysia before the two official pre-season tests at Portimao on 26-28 January and Phillip Island on 21-22 February.

That will be the second year running that all the top Superbike and Supersport teams will make their way to Phillip Island for the second and final official test, before round one is held back at the high speed layout from 25-27 February.

There is enormous intrigue heading into the 2011 WSBK campaign after a major end of season rider shakeup, which sees only two of the six factory teams running the same line-up campaigned in 2010.

For the other four teams it’s been a mixed bag, including drafting in a MotoGP refugee, recycling former riders, and opening up opportunities for the rich vein of talent that’s been lurking in the Supersport class.

Kawasaki will again pin its hopes on Aussie Chris Vermeulen and Tom Sykes while Spaniard Joan Lascorz could well make it a three-bike mega team with its all-new ZX-10R, and Aprilia has retained the services of reigning world champion Max Biaggi and Briton Leon Camier.

Vermeulen, who is set to make his return to riding in early January after a knee operation shortened his 2009 campaign, will be one half of the double-pronged Aussie offensive alongside dual world champion Troy Corser, who now has a high quality team-mate in world No. 2 Haslam.

At Yamaha, the addition of Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty has added even more spice and depth to the WSBK grid, so it’s very unlikely we are going to see a repeat of the Biaggi-like domination of 2010.

Melandri is the latest rider to seek a fresh start in world superbike after an unfruitful few years in MotoGP, while Laverty is making the jump from World Supersport as one of the most highly credentialed rookies. Twelve months ago, Cal Crutchlow was in the same position, and he’s now scored a MotoGP ride with Yamaha.

And just to strengthen Laverty’s claims, he was the fastest in a two-day test immediately following the final round of this year’s championship at Magny-Cours, impressing the team with his calm and measured approach.

Meanwhile, there is some strong intelligence which suggests that Melandri’s erstwhile contemporary in MotoGP, Alex de Angelis, could also be cajoled into signing as the second rider at Honda alongside Jonathan Rea.

Yamaha’s new look has come at the expense of double world champion James Toseland, who was sent packing but has now found sanctuary at the nascent BMW Italia team, which has apparently already hired a number of key personnel from the now defunct Ducati factory equip.

And the ex-Ducati factory pilots, Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio, will also remain in the WSBK fold, with Fabrizio returning to his old friends at Suzuki while Haga will link up with a privateer Aprilia operation.

Carlos Checa, Sylvain Guintoli and Jakub Smrz are also expected to uphold the privateer cause on their Ducatis, with the former coming off an excellent third place in this year’s title behind Biaggi and Haslam.

Based on his 2010 form, and the fact that his Aprilia V-four is already a proven race-winning package, Biaggi must start as the favourite to win his second successive title in 2011, but we will know a lot more once the official pre-season tests have been held at Algarve and Phillip Island.

Tickets are now on sale for the 2011 Yamaha Australia World Superbike Championship opener at Phillip Island.

Visit www.worldsbk.com.au or tel SBK HOTLINE – 1300 728 007 for tickets