2004 was a good year for Yamaha, with victories in MotoGP and the World Endurance Championship earning them two out of the three FIM road racing championships. This year's World Endurance Championship is set to be a tough challenge, and Yamaha must square up to strong opposition from Suzuki and Kawasaki.

Two of the Yamaha front runners have significantly strengthened their rider line-ups this year, with Gwen Giabbani joining Igor Jerman, Horst Saiger and Thomas Hinterreiter at Yamaha Austria, and Yamaha Phase One teaming double World Endurance Champion Warwick Nowland with Andi Notman and Damian Cudlin.

Suzuki have hit back with Keichi Kitagawa joining the strong pairing of Vincent Philippe and Mathieu Lagrive at Suzuki Castrol, and have thrown in a completely revised GSX-R1000.. The K5 bike specifications have been enough to cause at least one team (Suzuki Austria 76) to switch from Yamaha to Suzuki.

2004 was a development year for Kawasaki's ZX10R in the World Endurance Championship, but with teams as experienced as Bolliger Kawasaki now able to play to the machine's strengths, the compact and powerful ZX10R is expected to be a force to be reckoned with this year.

Round one of the World Endurance Championship takes place over the Easter weekend at Assen. With six manufacturers already represented in the entry list, we'll have to wait until then before making any predictions…