THE A14 autobahn between Berlin and Dresden passes through a small town called Donington, writes NEIL BRAMWELL.

And how Neil Hodgson must wish that he were back at his favourite track this weekend.

For the World Superbike championship has crossed the old east-west divide to the unchartered territory of the Eurospeedway circuit in former Eastern Germany for the seventh round.

Like many recently-constructed venues, the 4.265km of track has been crammed into a confined space near the town of Lausitz.

And the resulting tight and twisty circuit is not to the liking of the Burnley rider.

Having tested there this week, he recorded the ninth fastest time, although he was only 0.6 seconds behind pacesetter and championship leader Troy Bayliss.

"I am right up there, but it's not a fun track. It's not a true racing circuit - somewhere like Brno, Brands Hatch, Spa or Assen.

"It has no character and is a bit dangerous in places.

"It's surrounded by a kind of domed banking, so they have not had much space to play around with.

"So all the corners are first or second gear, which does not make for exciting racing in my book."

The nearest comparison to the Eurospeedway is the Valencia circuit at which Hodgson suffered his worst display of the season. Since then, however, despite a few blips along the way, his fortunes have slowly improved until his dramatic display at Donington (England) two weeks ago, when he claimed his first win of the year and followed that up with a closely fought second placed finish.

The GSE Ducati rider now finds himself fifth in the championship standings, just 53 points behind Bayliss.

And the inconsistency of the leading pack, which also includes Troy Corser, Colin Edwards and Pier-Francesco Chili, means that his outside hopes of a late championship challenge are not flights of fancy.

Another boost for Hodgson, as he started today's first official practice and qualifying sessions, is that he is already convinced that his team has found the right race tyre.

That leaves today and tomorrow to concentrate on the correct gearing, an essential part of the set-up on the slower circuits.

He said: "I struggled for the first three sessions of the test but at least we now have something to build on.

"I was only 0.2 seconds behind Ruben Xaus in fourth so I have still got every reason to be confident for Sunday's races."

The Spaniard, who is being brought on by Carl Fogarty, who is commentating on speedway from Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Sky Sports this weekend, also struggled with the Eurospeedway circuit.