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
when Bostrom came through at Hawthorn, only for Hodgson to retake him into the next right at Westfield. Chili's Suzuki was battling with Ducati mounted Bayliss on lap 24, although the final placing went to the Suzuki rider, as Bayliss had a deficit of a poor grid placing and a poor first half of the race to make up for. On the final lap, Hodgson held Bostrom off to take the checkered flag first, although aggregate times meant he lost out to the American by just over 1.5 seconds. Third was Edwards, more than nine seconds adrift of the leader, with the end of lap ] 0, he was looking to Chili fourth. Bayliss started way back in ] 4th place, ended the first half of pass Hodgson into the awesome final the race in seventh and took advantage of the restart to take fifth place As the pair crossed the line to start the ]] th lap, Bostrom shot up the corner. at the flag. Xaus was in sixth place on inside into Paddock Hill Bend. The his Ducati, followed by Stephane Chambon's Suzuki. Corser was eighth order at half distance was Bostrom, on the Aprilia, followed by Sean Emmett's Red Bull Ducati. Toseland and Chambon. Kawasaki's Yanagawa was in lOth place, with Toseland in ] lth. Castrol Honda's Tadayuki Okada was 12th with Goddard getting more points on the new Benelli for 13th. gap to Hodgson went up from three RACE TWO Hodgson, Chili, Edwards, Bayliss, For the next three laps, Bostrom's thousandths of a second to seven tenths of a second. On lap ]4, Edwards made a move ahead of Chili into Hawthorn Bend to retake third. Hodgson led into Paddock Hill Hodgson started to claw back the deficit to Bostrom, which has grown Bend after the lights went green. On to almost nine tenths of a second at the first lap, Spaniard Juan Borja fell the end of lap] 6. at Graham Hill Bend. Hodgson led, One lap later and he'd almost from Edwards, Bostrom, Chili, Hislop, halved it to around five tenths, and by Toseland, Laconi, Corser, Chambon and Reynolds. the end of lap ] 9 the gap was just. 16 of a second. On lap 20, Hodgson was From lap three, the top four of looking for a way past Bostrom as Hodgson, Edwards, Bostrom, and they braked for Druids Hairpin, but a Chili pulled away. lap later the gap was back up to On lap three His- lop retired to the pits, while Bayliss almost four tenths as Bostrom overtook Toseland for fifth. responded. Lap five saw the leading trio of Bayliss was also on the move, Hodgson, Edwards and Bostrom pull chipping away at the gap between himself and Chili in fourth. away from Chili, with Hodgson holding a two-tenths gap on Edwards. By Eventually, on lap 22, he passed the end of lap five, Virgin Yamaha Chili on the run into Surtees - a tough wild-card James Haydon came into pass. the pits to retire, his skinned leg A lap later and he was chasing causing him too much pain to contin- Edwards and shaping-up for a move ue in a position to score points. on the World Champion into By the next lap, Bostrom started to Hawthorn Bend, but instead he waited shape up for a move inside of and made the move stick going into Edwards going into Surtees, but Dingle Dell. decided against it. At the front, Bostrom had eked out With Edwards fending off Bostrom, an advantage of ].2 seconds at the Hodgson's gaps increased to six end of lap 23 and 1.6 seconds at the tenths, and Chili closed back up on end of the penultimate lap. Bostrom. After just seven laps, Craggill retired. With the gap between leader (Abovel Pier-Francesco Chili (41 had a good pair of races at Brands, finishing fourth in both outings. (Above rightl Bostrom celebrates his fifth straight World Superblke victory. r!l!@f?D@) @[jf)fj)®f?rBfj)@[f(l [fJDD@f]@ rPDmDrBDD The Supersport races at Brands Hatch have been in the epic variety in recent times. Nothing was going to eclipse the all-time great race which made Jorg Teuchert champion last year, but this season at least. Teuchert still delivered the killer blow right on cue. The Bavarian clawed his way back from fifth place at the end of the first lap to lead when it mattered - over the line, but only just. He beat Australian Andrew Pitt by eleven thousandths of a second, with Britain's Jamie Whitham only five thousandths of a second behind that, an incredibly close race, and one which had the crowd rocking in the grandstands. It was so close, the results were held back until timing checks were carried out to validate the results, with a photo finish verifying the ultimate outcome. A closer race we will be lucky to see all year. With as many as nine riders breaking away in the leading group early on, it came down to a three-way slug-out on the closing laps. After Whitham's charge to the front in the first few circuits, Pitt's Kawasaki was leading for the last few, followed by Teuchert and Whitham. A late spurt from Alstare Suzuki's Katsuaki Fujiwara did him not that much good, as he fell away when it mattered. His teammate, Karl Muggeridge, clashed with Whitham and slid into the gravel at Druids, his challenge for the win fmished. Paolo Casoli also had a near contact with his teammate Whitham, and was livid afterward that his supposed team orders, which were to have Whitham stay behind him, were ignored - to the point whereby he claimed that Whitham could have had him off. With Casoli down in seventh, nursing his wrath, the run up Clearways, the final looping comer, became a game of nerve and skill for the leading trio, a game that Teuchert was to skillfully win. As Teuchert passed Pitt on the inside, Whitham went through on the outside, and almost won the race himself. Some luck was involved, as there always is in these situations, but Teuchert appears to be able to think on the edge of adhesion with a clarity some others cannot summon as often. "I did not have a plan for that last lap, just try to get past Pitt," Teuchert said. "I was behind James on the second-to-last lap and lined him up to pass on the long straight, which worked out. Coming into the last corner I was a Iittie too far behind Pitt but he had a small slide and ran a bit wide. Then I realized that I could go up the inside. I managed to pass him but I think that part was just luck. I wasn't sure if I had crossed the line first - but I believed it." Teuchert's win puts him to the top of the table, ahead of Belgarda Yamaha's Paolo Casoli, 113-109. The Italian, who has led the series for most of the season, finished in seventh place after avoiding an incident between teammate Whitham and Muggeridge's Suzuki and then Whitham's apparently infamous overtake. Fourth was Fujiwara, on a Suzuki, with Fabrizio Pirovano just behind on another GSX-R. Pere Riba squeezed past the fading Casoli for sixth, with Karl Harris an impressive eighth, nine seconds down on the leaders on his British Championship Suzuki. Fabien Foret was ninth on the other ten Kate Honda, with Christian Kellner, Teuchert's teammate, 10th. lain Macpherson crashed out of the leading bunch on lap eight, with new Supersport inductee Steve Plater also out, one lap earlier. He eventually gets the win over Hodgson by 2.58 seconds, as Hodgson slowed and Bostrom sped up to make sure of the full points. Hodgson and Edwards up to a sec- Third was Bayliss, fourth Chili - ond, lap eight saw Bostrom put a who took Edwards as they crossed move on Edwards into Paddock Hill the finish line - sixth was Toseland, Bend. He immediately pulled clear, seventh Reynolds, eighth Akira Yana- while Chili also caught Edwards and gawa, ninth Stephane Chambon and passed him into Clearways. By the end of lap nine, Bostrom has closed the gap on Hodgson to Xaus ] 2th and Corser a disappointed just three tenths of a second, and by 13th. Andrew Pitt (81 led, but he didn't win. The race came down to a photo finish with .lorg Teuchert topping PItt and .lamie Whitham In a photo finish. 10th Sean Emmett. Laconi came home]] th, with I:N a U c I ... n ... _ os • AuGUSTS, 2001 9