Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128116
By GORDON RITCHIE PHOTOS BY GOLD [, GOOSE BRANDS HATCH, ENGLAND, JULY 28 or a rider who was looking downand-out at one stage of the year, Big Ben Bostrom has been pretty competitive of late. So on the pace in fact that he has scored wins in every one of the last five World Superbike races. An impressive feat of arms from any rider, and one that threatens the impossible - a genuine chance of the championship itself - if the cards, and his competitors' fortunes, fall right. Still well behind the overall leader Troy Bayliss, but right on Colin Edwards' increasingly worried tail, Bostrom, if he continues in anything like this form for the rest of the year, may well be able to capitalize on any slip by Bayliss. He doesn't even see the other guys as his main competition now. "Neil's [Hodgson] the one to beat at the moment as in the last six races he's been the consistent one I've been racing with," admitted Bostrom after race two. "Five wins in a row are amazing, but I just want to keep winning - I just don't want second place. I followed Neil to save my tires then zapped him for the lead and just went as fast as I could. With the next four weeks off, I'm going to hang out with my brother, go swimming, and then hopefully come back and win some F more races." Bostrom catching Bayliss may be highly unlikely, but a rider winning five in a row is tantamount to impossible. And Bostrom's just done that. Bostrom was nothing short of immaculate at Brands, running away with both victories during a day that saw a record 122,OOO-strong weekend attendance announced. Some would say it was a convenient 2000 more than the previous record, but either way, it was without question a bit of a pack-out on the s\>ectator banking. Bostrom's fifth win in five attempts was a remarkable performance for a rider who suffered a serious shoulder dislocation at the Monza round early in the season, and is planning to have a restorative operation in the winter. A fairly dramatic program of action unfolded early in front of a sun-bleached crowd in the Kentish countryside, with the first race stopped after 10 of the scheduled 25 laps when James Haydon's crashing Yamaha collided with Robert Ulm's Ducati and sent both off the track at Surtees. The subsequent fuel fire from Ulm's busted tank was fierce enough to stop the race, with a 15lap restart announced - some 25 minutes later. Ulm had a fortunate escape. "I was very lucky out there when I crashed into Haydon's bike, because I could feel petrol all over me and I got up and ran off just in time," Ulm said. "One second afterwards, the bikes went up in flames." Troy Bayliss, Pier-Francesco Chili and Colin Edwards go at it after the restart In race one. Bostrom was leading the first leg at the stop, having passed early leader Hodgson, and went on to win on aggregate time, despite being headed by local favorite Hodgson in the restart. Trying his best, Hodgson was outgunned and even just out-ridden by Bostrom this time around, even with the Californian's Laguna Seca hometown advantage reversed. For Hodgson it is a simple case of man and machine. "I got a good start. My plan was not a tactical one - just to go as fast as I could for 25 laps! I had a lead and then reading my pit board it suddenly disappeared. When Ben went past I wasn't too upset, I wasn't playing a waiting game or anything like that, I was just going as fast as I could." Hodgson's race-two engine showed the strain of 86° F temperatures and beyond more than most when it spat out coolant on the final couple of laps. "I had a small problem towards the end," said Hodgson, "when the engine leaked a little water. It sprayed on to my visor and I thought perhaps it had started raining. The engine temperature started to creep up to 115 and 120 degrees and I lost a little bit of power. I had to work harder to keep similar lap times to what I'd been doing previously. One thing I'm sure of, is that I'm fed up of looking at Ben's backside." Surprisingly, Hodgson felt little disadvantaged over Bostrom's factory machinery. "We're not too down on power compared to Ben's works bike. He can pull a bike length on me, perhaps, but Brands is a rider's circuit, so it doesn't make too much difference." Hodgson, an aggregate second in race one, headed up Edwards, who was fighting his way forward to take the final podium place. "I've got no answers," said Edwards after race two. "One minute we're there on the pace, the next we're struggling. I just couldn't get any rear traction in that second race whether it's tires or machine set-up or both I really don't know. I was ready to challenge and did my best in the early stages of the race but, in the end, I was going backwards fast: Unhappy, to say the least. Unhappy with once more an unpredictable RC51 to ride, Edwards is staring defeat in the face and he finds it way ugly. Bayliss, the World Championship leader, was only fifth in the opener, a result partly of his lowly 14th place in Superpole qualifying. His improved second race was more like it, but there is a suspicion that Bayliss is keeping his absolutely best powder dry. Or so his comments seem to indicate. "I ended up not losing a point to Colin [Edwards] this weekend, and I'm still 53 clear - so it all worked out fine. " One rider was incensed at what he saw from Bayliss. "Troy Bayliss did not deserve third in race two, because his Ducati is so fast: Pier-Francesco Chili said. "He is not a fast rider, he brakes before us on the straights and then goes slower around the corners. Then he opens the throttle and pulls away: In the second race, Bostrom was again the winner, heading Hodgson by over two seconds in an event which was easier for him when Hodgson's machine developed the small water leak. Bayliss came through the field strongly to score third. Fourth was once more Chili, who had one of his better meetings of the year on the number-one Alstare Suzuki machine. Edwards' fifth place in race two, after being destroyed by the competi- The pack of Superbikes roars away at the start of the second leg, with Bostrom leading fellow American Edwards and the rest of the group. e U e • e n e _ S • AUGUST 8.2001 7