Ace Cal fired up for title charge; MOTORCYCLING.

Byline: Alan Poole

CAL CRUTCHLOW can take a massive step towards clinching the World Supersport title at his first attempt when he lines up at Imola on Sunday.

After notching three victories in his last four outings, the Coventry ace is 22 points clear of closest rival Eugene Laverty with three rounds to go.

And he will be in ultra-confi-dent mood following the YaS maha team's successful test session at the Italian circuit earlier this summer.

"The test went very well," he said, "and I intend to carry on where we left off after the last race. I'll keep on putting in 100 per-cent to win - the plan is to keep the championship lead this weekend and increase on it as much as possible to get closer to the title win."

Yamaha team boss Wilco Zeelenberg agreed: "I think Cal is ready to race wherever we go; he will be as strong as he was at the Nurburgring last time out.

"Hopefully we'll have a situation where we will be able to get enough points to be able to decide the title at Magny Cours - that's the dream scenario anyway.

For now we're going to focus on this race. We know Cal still has Eugene to deal with, so we need to make sure the R6 is up there at the front."

Following Sunday's race, the WSS season concludes with the trips to Magny-Cours on October 4 and Portim...o on October 25.

CAPTION(S):

SPEED DEMON... Cal Crutchlow hopes to take a step closer to title glory.