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Worl d Supe rb ike Champion s h ip Roun d 7 : E u r o S pee d way Lau s it z C ircu it, G e r m any (Above) Edwards (1) leads Neil Hodgson (100) and Troy Corser (3 ) In race one. Polesltter Hodgson finished eighth In race one, but found himself on the podium In se cond In race two. (Below right) Bay liss (2 1) le ads Hodgson in the wet second leg, they went on to finish 1- 2 at the checkered flag. could no t do tha t I j ust tr ied to ke ep my position and attack when I could. I was more d isappoi nted w ith race two. The co nd itions were bad , I know , and it would 've b een so e a sy t o crash . So I d ecid ed to ride stea dily and get as high up as possib le. In th e end I'm q uite hap p y wi th my tw o finishes today: Ti res were the main topic of postrace co nversation again this weekend , the real reason for most of the hits or misses from most of the riders , with Michelin men Edwards, Bay li ss and Okada overhauling the Dunlop boys as each lap wore on and their tires w o re out in the dry opener. Hence Hodgson, promised a tire that wou ld start to perform after 12 la ps , actua lly had a ti re that was good fo r no more than ten, as his slowly wilt ing lap ti mes demonstrated, and he fell from a pot ential winner to eighth place. A tense and complicated weekend it may have been , but the good news fo r all those with a love of competi ti o n and exc itement, i s that t he c h a m pi o ns h i p race is now . j ust maybe, going to be a four - or even five -way battle , with Hodgson just 74 points behind points leader Bayl is s, and Edwards 23 adrift of the Aussie, and Corser and Chil i in there in third a nd fourth . W ith six meetings , 12 races and 300 po ints up for grabs, you nev er know what is going to happen , c ert a in l y not in th is confus ing and al most trend -free year. 26 JUNE 20, 2001 • cue I ... Corser, now in th ird, wi ll h av e a job to keep Chili off his back in the next race at Misano, although Frankie seems to tra ditionally reserve most of h is bad luck for his home venue. F or t h e le sse r sta r s i n Wor l d Superb ike - however di spleasing that titl e ma y be t o th em - Laus itz was an o th er sp a nki ng a t the v e n g efu l hands of th e Gods of ch ance. B e n B o strom w as w ay off pace a gain , co m p l a i n i n g o f h i s i nj ure d sho u lde r, a poor ti re ch o ic e in race one and an al most co mp let e lac k of confidence in the wet second race . An 11 th and a 20th place on the resu lts sheets were dark and depressin g t o Superb ike 's most co lorfully pa inted team . " I chose full we ts for th e seco nd ra ce but I j ust d id n 't ha ve n ... _ s a ny c on fi d enc e on them ," Bostrom said. "I could have done with another hour of rac ing to get u p to some kind of proper speed . I made the wron g tire choice in race one . I have to learn a lot abo ut ra cing in the rain . I am so looking fo rwa rd to so m e d ry trac k s." T he maint enanc e o f Bostrom's sixth place in the cham pi ons hi p had al most as much to do with the woeful perform ances of Ak ir a Ya n ag awa ( 12 th and te nt h , al t hou gh one was bec au se he was nudged at th e begin ning) and (in one race at least ) Gregorio Lavil la - ride rs w ho are now seve nth and eighth overall . A piece of goo d , o ld -fashi o ned luck to sweeten Bostr om's spl ash of bitter s? Whatever it was, the under- perf o rming tr io have no w been fu rt her deta ch ed from the leaders more than eve r. Lav illa was a distan t sixth and a d re a ry 16th in th e races , espec ially depress ed as Hitoyas u Izutsu , back fo r another dip in the g lobal po ol , was an excellent fou rth in rac e two. Okada , al though suffe ri ng from a lack of c o nfi denc e in h is front ti re during th e wet race two , was on fu ll fo rm in race one ; eno ugh to record a podium fi n is h , a n d j u m p i n t o h is rightful pos it ion in the championsh ip top t en. " I was confid ent th at I c o uld w in here in the wet, but the surface is a lo t different to that in Phillip Isl and ," Oka d a affirmed . "I was really strug g lin g for g rip wi th the fro nt wh eel. I d idn 't ha ve the confi de nce I needed to go fast er. I am p leased to have got th ird in the fir st race, tho ug h, and to g et int o the top t en of the c ha m pions hi p tod ay ." Reg is Laco ni had another invisible week end , only sho wing flashes of form, while Chambon had the pleasure, if not th e great ho nor, of beating O k ada in th e second race and taking tenth in the cham pi ons hip points ta ble. The award for nearly man of th e week end goes, once again, to Ruben X au s , wh o manages t o k nock h i s lan k y fi gure off the p odi u m on frequent occas ions after running strong in th e ra c es . Th i s weekend was no d ifferen t , with the Span ia rd run ning 19th in th e wet and a t antalisin g six th in th e dry , wh ic h cou ld have been a lot m ore. "Th is is th e th ird time th at I have almost made it o nto the podium , but I kn ow I will get there soo ner o r later," Xaus said aft er w ard . " T hi n g s wen t re all y we ll in race two but I feel bad abo ut race o ne because I could ha ve done be tt er : Th e expected presence of Steve Martin among th e leaders came to little , with th e tal ent ed Aussie 15th and 14 th on h is dry an d wet Pirelli tires , respectivel y .