Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Hodgson (100) rode "ke a man pouesseel at Brands Hatch· especially In race one, where he made life dltftcult for both Bayll. . (1) and Edwards, proving that he deserves the full-factory Ducat! that he will ride next season. If he hadn't have raced, it would have been sour, and I don't want the championship given to me." Missing out on the post-event press conferences to rest up in between races, Bayliss was in severe pain and is glad simply to be home for a while to rest his beaten frame. "I was really sore after that, I must say: Bayliss said. "Every time I come here, I seem to have a difficult time for some reason. I need to get home and get myself back to full fitness and get ready for the last three rounds. I feel that I've been dealt a cruel blow for the last couple of rounds, so I guess I'm due for a to Edwards in race one, and even had well. I can sit here relaxed knowing I gave my best. I couldn't be more change. I've been really sore at the last two rounds, at Laguna and here. I new lap record, 1:26.690, in the first proud. It's a real honor to see all these fans wearing my t-shirts and race. He was going for it, despite the pain, and earned the congratulations of even his biggest rivals for his attested Hodgson. "Colin rode a fantastic race; at the end I was making shouting my name." Proof that Edwards was under at speed under difficult circumstances. Edwards acknowledged Bayliss least some pressure from his main publicly - and praised the champi- in-roads and I could see and hear the crowd for the last four laps. The Dun- rivals, Bayliss and Hodgson, came from the fact that Bayliss, despite his lop tires worked really well, and the cracked rib and damaged foot (a onship fight - with the statement: "Troy did a great job today considering the condition he's in. It's impres- many dips and hollows in the track that it puts a lot of strain on your back. I couldn't do any more than I did in race one. I could have caught bike felt good and it was accelerating legacy of his pre-race fall), took the sive and good for the championship. Neil, but I don't think I could have to give best to Bayliss as well in the second. "The plan was to ride as hard as I possibly could, and I was flat out: ~[jjJ[fJ&[X][fJ@[1&g {){}@[JiJD@li®l!i!l[JiJ [X]@~G!JDli Cometh the Superpole, cometh the confident. Or, in Neil Hodgson'S ClOse, the super-confident. ArgulObly the supreme test of lOny rider's nerve, Superpole looked like it would be scrlOpped out between mlOny riders, but not this time. After HM Plant DUClOti'S Hodgson obliterlOted his own Superpole lap lOt BrlOnds HlOtch, moving it from 10 1:26.381 to 1:25.752, the fight WlOS 1OIwlOyS going to be between him. the second-fastest man in regular qualifying, and Colin EdwW'ds, who, like most of his peer group, had improved on his first-session time (when the world returned to normal lOfter BlOyliss' and Xl>us' by now infamous crash [see Briefly...]). SpIrited 1Oiong on a wave of lOir hom blasts lOnd cheers from the enthusilOstic British crowd, Hodgson was up at every split and was only threatened by the former World Champion until he made his own first split over .3 of a second down on the Englishman. Hodgson knew he had done something cool, for himself and his fans. "ThlOt was 10 good lap," he said, needlessly. "As with all qualifying laps, afterwards you feel you could have gone quicker. I think there were two corners where I could have opened the gas a bit elOrlier, but it's 10 fine line between keeping smooth or highsiding and ending up In Ashford! Tomorrow will be the usual story, I think Colin will be the main man along with Troy, but I'll be going for the race wins. I'm not thinking lObout my chlOmpionship position and I'd rlOther tlOke two wins here and finish fourth in the chlOmpionship than tlOke 10 couple of thirds and finish third in the ChlOmpionship." Despite setting IOn excellent lap time of 1:26.050, Edwards could not come close to Hodgson's mark, finishing 101most three tenths shy of the new record, albeit .25 better than Hodgson's 2001 time. Edwards was - lOpparently - not thlOt upset to rniss out on another pole. "I SlOW the 1V monitor and Michael Rutter had set a 1:26.70 11Op, so I knew whlOt I hlOd to do to be on the front row. That's all I WlOS bothered about," Edwards attested. "Being on pole position is always nice. but it counts for nothing, really. It's the two rlOce wins I'm concentrating on. It was disappointing to see Troy's CflOsh this moming, and I'm plelOsed he's OklOy, but there's not just i'roy to worry lObout here, there's three or four riders who cIOn be in the fray for race wins. Troy's a hard man and I'm impressed. My mmn rival will be Neil and the other British wiJd-clOrd riders, who lOre going well. I think, after about 10 or 12 11OpS, we will see how the rlOCe pIOns out, I did about 20 110PS on 10 rlOce tire lOnd it felt good. I Wl'S lOble to lap consistently in the high 26s or low 27s. which is flOster than my fastest lap from 110st yelOr. I've got to go out there and lOpply the pressure, that's alii need to do." had a few painkillers before the races, but it didn't seem to help that much as my whole lower back was sore. My back was already tender from the Laguna crash. Here, there are so passed him, so I settled for third. I was trying really hard in race two and Another local rider, MichlOel Rutter, went up to third pllOce lSfter 10 controlled but lOggressive ride on his Renegade Ducati 998RS. A one-time third-place finisher in a previous BrMds SBK event, Rutter hlOS grown in stature In the British series this yelOr lOnd WlOS clOpl>ble of lifting his glOme 10 little for the challenge of the big circus lOglOin. "That wlOsn't the best lap, but it 90t me third," said 10 brutlOlly honest Rutter. "' WlOS hoping for a second-row start so to be on the front row is excellent. I did 20 llOPS on a race tire, and it was sliding around a fair bit by the end, so we hlOve a couple of small changes to make in the moming." The severe belOtings taken by Troy Bayliss after his recent laguna and elOrly-moming falls held him blOck little, and he rode through the pain blOmer (lOt tutto gas) to claim the final spot on the front row. Heroic it WlOS, especially after being gingerly carried into the Clinica Mobile. Super-smooth as always, Pier-FrlOncesco Chili claimed fifth place on the grid, the NCR Ducati rider (a previous Brands Hatch winner) riding strl!light and true lOS usual. A poor showing from HM Plant DUClOti'S James TosellOnd in regu11Otion qualifying sessions was tumed to gold in Superpole, with the young EnglishmlOn scoring a superb sixth place. An equally delighted Juan Borja put his SplOziotel Ducati privateer machine in seventh overall, one of his best performances of the year. In new colors, Borja looked like a man rebom, especially concemed to the likes of Lucio Pedercini and so on, who were clisplaced from Superpole by the 10ClOi wild cards. Borja even beat his former Ducati Infostrada telOmmate Ben Bostrom (now of the l£M Ducati squad), and Bostrom was cheesed off about it, royally. Shane Byrne (Rutter's teammate, and another British ChlOmpionship round winner In 2002) slumped from the second row to the third after his Superpole lap, Still an Impressive performance from Byme, he hlOS done his reputation 10 world of good this season so far. Ninth overall. Byme held off popular local rider Kawasaki's Chris Walker in the grid classification. Noriyuki Haga was an UnhlOppy camper after qualifying, and 10 slightly snoozy one also. "I'm very angry. I've always gone like a bomb here and I relOlly was hoping to make front row," slOid Haga. "But, unfortunately, we had lots of problems today lOnd I wlOsn't at my best. In the moming, I rode well, but in the lOfternoon I started feeling the fatigue of my flight from Japan and the jet lag.' Ruben Xaus, so fast in the untimed session, fought the effects of a fever to go 12th fastest on his Infostrada Ducati and was once more pilloried for getting involved in a needless clash with another rider. Something of a mini-phenomenon on IOn outclassed bike, Hawk Kawasaki's Glen Richards ripped his way to 13th, with Steve Martin, Suzuki's Gregorio Lavilla lOnd British privateer Dean Ellison finishing off the top 16. Peter Goddard, fuming that his good engine was unusable. had 10 hlOrd time corning to terms with his 23rd place out of 27, but with Vann Gyger not qualifying on his White Endurance VTR, it could hlOve been marginally worse. there was no way I was going to give Colin any additional points. I felt as though I was pushing the bike pretty hard, and I guess we suffered from the missed practice time to get a better setup. I was having a lot more slides than Colin was having." Aprilia's Noriyuki Haga and Infostrada Ducati's Ruben Xaus had strong rides, albeit some way behind the top three, and took fourth and fifth respectively in race one, despite a high-speed collision which saw tire smoke billowing from Haga's rear and Xaus' front at the start of the main straight. A horrifying-looking crash looked to have already happened, with the checkers in sight, but both riders managed to hold on. Everyone else managed to stifle the thought that Xaus must have some kind of unidirectional tractor beam emanating from his machine, such is his amazing ability to find his rivals and have contact with them on track. "My front tire got too hot because I was pushing so hard," Xaus said. "I got to fourth place in five laps, but the front wanted to tuck at every corner. Haga had a good setup over the first half of the track, but I was faster over the second half. He knew this and was closing the door and braking early, and we nearly hit two or three times. On the last lap, we touched coming on to the straight, I was in Haga's slipstream and he went through the dip and I dosed on him and we touched. I stayed flat out, but it was no problem because we were cue' • n _ _. • AUGUST 7, 2002 31

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