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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127839
ROAD RACE WORLOSUPERSIKECHAMPIONSHIP SERIES UIfJ 3: Donington Park (Above) Round three of the World Superbike Championship gets under way in Donington Park. (Left) Carl Fogarty (4) leads teammate Neil Hodgson (9) and Italian Ducati rider Pier-Francesco Chili in race one. By Johan Vandekerckhove . Photos by Gold & Goose OONINGTON PARK, GREAT BRITAIN, MAY 4 or the first time this year, the rain tires stayed in the trucks on race day, despite a small shower on Sunday morning. And with the new weather came a new points leader. Blackburn's own Carl Fogarty is back on top of the points heap after a long hiatus, the Briton riding to second place in race one after leading most of the way, then returning a few hours later to take a record 40th World Superbike victory and secure his new lead in the championship. Castrol Honda's Aaron Slight and Ducati's Pier-Francesco Chili were both in the fight for the lead in each race, with Slight getting the better pair of finishes of the two as he rode to victor:y in race one after a late-race pass on leader F Fogarty, then landed the final rostrum position in race two. While Chili's race-two result - second behind Fogarty - was something to be happy about, his race-one result more accurately reflected how the Italian's season has gone thus far: He crashed while .running in the top five and did not finish. The Kawasaki camp continues to impress, even in the absence of Akira Yanagawa, who did not race a a result of a crash during practice. The Kawasaki teamster who did make it to the start line, Simon Cnifar, once again impressed as he rode .to third in race one and only missed making the podium in the second race to finish fourth. After struggling at the last round in the wet, Yamaha's American team of Colin Edwards IT and Scott Russell had their troubles in the dryas well. Edwards fared the better of the two as he rode to fifth- and sixth-place finishes, leading Russell across the line both times. In stark contrast to his Castrol Honda teammate's success at the technical English circuit, Joh n Kocinski struggled during both races, his best result a fifth in the second race, that co~g after a raceone lOth. Fogarty's pair of podium finishes puts him in the driver's seat in the championship as he now holds the lead with 110 points. Slight leapfrogged past teammate Kocinski for second and leads the Arkansas native, 99-96. Crafar is now fourth with 81, while Edwards is fifth, with 59. . RACE ONE Only some 20,000 spectators had shown up at DOnington Park, most of . whom were'hoping to see Fogarty storm to victory in his home race as well as perhaps to witness national favorite James Whitham lead the Suzuki squad out of its ongoing problems. Fogarty at least did not let them down. The Ducati Corse rider took the point position right from the start and led his teammate Neil Hodgson, Chili, Edwards, Crafar, Piergiorgio Bontempi, Slight and. Russell at the end of the first lap. After some fouf. laps a clear pattern was emerging with t·he three Duca tis building a small lead over the rest, and for the first time this season it looked as though the V-twins might monopolize the rostrum positions. They wouldn't. Ten laps into the 25-1ap race, Fogarty was still leading Hodgson and Chili, but as an indication of things to come, Slight was making his way up through the field after his somewhat slow start, while Bontempi was traveling in the opposite direction to ultimately finish 11th. The Kawasaki of Crafar, meanwhile, had settled in between Yamaha teammates Edwards and Russell. A few laps later, Slight made his way past Edwards for fifth, Crafar soon followed, and they left the Texan to fight it out with his Georgian teammate for sixth. Deep in the pack and well off the pace, points leader Kocinski had struggled his way through a group battling for ninth consisting of James Whitham, Bontempi and John Reynolds, but was pointing furiously at his rear tire every time he passed his crew in the pits. Up front, the now-fourth-place Slight began feeling pressure from a trailing Crafar and decided to start his attack on the lead trio. With seven laps remaining in the race, the Castrol Honda rider passed third-place' Chili under braking at the chicane at the end of the long straight, then did the same thing with Hodgson one lap later. On the next lap and with only five more to go, the charging Kiwi stole the lead from Fogarty in exactly the same spof and with. the same technique.