Easingwold's eight-time sidecar world champion Steve Webster blows the dust off his leathers and resumes the battle for more honours in Italy tomorrow.

After opening the 2003 World Championship Series with victory in Spain, Webster and his passenger Paul Woodhead have had to wait an amazing 11 weeks for tomorrow's second round.

They'll be tackling the ultra-fast 5.792-kilometre Monza circuit, near Milan, where the top speed of Webster's Castrol Suzuki GSXR1000 machine won't be far off 180mph.

With a win under their belts after the comfortable opening round victory at Valencia, in March, the duo know the rest will be playing catch-up.

"It's been a long time since the opening round. Maybe it was a bit to early in the year perhaps, and we did well in Spain because we used the bike exactly as it was from last season, whereas most of the others were not quite as ready as they wanted to be," said Webster.

"This race will be a bit harder after they've had a bit more time to test and set up their outfits, and they will have caught us up a bit.

"We've had to spend a lot of time sorting out our new race transporter, and it's been a bit of rush to get ready - but then it's always like that before we set off."

It'll be Webster's fifth visit to a Monza track where he notched up wins in 1999 and 2000, had a non-finish in 2001 and was just out-slipstreamed by Klaus Klaffenbock on the last corner last year.

The North Yorkshire star said: "It's going to be a tough race, and someone with a fast engine can do well there - it's a real horsepower track.

"Slipstreaming will be very important, and you have to make sure you can get a big enough gap to break the 'tow' or else someone can just catapult past at the end of the straights as 'Klaffy' did to us last year.

"Fair play to him, it was good race tactics, but I want to get my own back. We've got a really good team this year, and I'm back to running it all myself again.

"I've spent the last few years driving for others, and it's better than I can now make the decisions the way I want to. It means more work off the bike organising things, but it's worth it to be able to do things the way we want to.".

It'll be Webster's first time at Monza with the 185bhp 1000cc GSXR motor, and he anticipates the lighter, lower power unit will be a significant factor.

"'Klaffy' used a 1000 Yamaha last year when we were still on the big old 1200. The lighter weight meant he could out-brake us and that's how he got the win.

"While our top speed may a bit down, I expect the lap times to be pretty much the same because of the better handling. We'll make up time into and out of the corners."

The race in Italy is the start of four races scheduled in the next five weeks as the nine-race season really kicks into top gear.

Updated: 11:32 Friday, May 16, 2003