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SIJl rac. ., six victories for Nell Hodg_. Steve Martin, first away on his DFX Pirelli Ducati, almost crashed during his disappointing Superpole ride. Pedercini Ducati's Nello Russo nonetheless managed that very thing in bizarre and injurious fashion shortly after. The Italian rider's appointment with pain started after he had a lurid rear wheel slide on the entrance to tum three. Being kicked up into the air, Russo left the track still holding onto the bars and with one foot on the outside peg. Instead of bailing off, Russo attempted to hold onto his machine all the way, then appeared to sidestep his left foot over the bike, only to be dragged along on his toes, still holding the handlebars - riding his bike with only his elbows at high speed on the grass. His trajectory took him on an oblique course toward the crash barriers on the outside of the tum, and man and machine fell and entered the foam track barriers seemingly as one. A nasty-looking accident could have been a lot worse had he crashed at a less wellprotected sector of the track, and luckily, according to the action replays, Russo did not quite get hit by his machine, although that is how it first appeared on live 1V. The session was duly red flagged, the rider immediately attended by swarms of trackside medics and transported to the medical center with unspecified injuries. According to initial medical reports, none of his ailments were of the serious variety, although he was airlifted by helicopter to the Sendai hospital to undergo precautionary scans. The first of these showed a small hematoma on the back of his head, which (all being well) wili lead to a minimum of 48 hours' observation in the hospital and a few days in Japan before he would be allowed to fly home. More checks are being conducted on the Italian privateer. With the rest of the sessions delayed the restart was a nervous time for aiL Troy Corser put himseif to the lead of the pack for a while, then Toseland, Walker and an impressive Lavilla all had a go to lead. Atsushi Watanabe, on the provisional front row, failed to beat Lavilla's time, guaranteeing the Spaniard at least a front-row start. Third last-away Regis Laconi went .432 of a second clear of the next best, with only Pier-Francesco Chili and Neil Hodgson left to run. The slightest of wobbles for Chili left him .020 of a second behind Laconi, and even this year's perfect Superbike animal Hodgson failed to beat Laconi's best, and Hodgson finished fifth. Thus the first Frenchman for 11 years took pole in Superbike, and Laconi scored his first career pole in the traditional four-stroke class. but luckily did not aggravate his earlier injuries too much, and he was allowed to restart in race two. He could have saved himself the pain, as he was to fall in that event, too. It was one of the much-injured Walker's eventful weekends once more, but not an event he will remember fondly. Clear championship leader Hodgson, now out front by a margin of 44 points, had to start from fifth place in each race, but he enjoyed a sevensecond win over second-place man Regis Laconi and his Ducati NCR in the 25-lap opener. HM Plant Ducati's James Toseland escaped the first-corner race-one collision and ended up third, but only after local wild card rider Watanabe went straight on at one corner on lap five, returning to finish eighth after restarting in last place. A veritable tornado of rolling adrenaline, Watanabe was let down somewhat by his bike's weird behavior while on the brakes and paid the price more than once with off-circuit expeditions. "I was thankful for a bad start because as I was tipping into the first corner, I saw a Petronas bike come up the inside, and I could see that he wasn't going to make it," Toseland said. "I couldn't back off because I was on lean, and he went into the guys in front, and there was about five or six riders go down. Fortunately for me I sawall the dirt that was on the track in the first turn for the next lap and thought it was going to be red-flagged, and again fortunately for me it wasn't, and I was fourth. I saw the opportunity and tried to tag on to cue I e Neil [Hodgson] and Regis [Laconi] for as long as I could and pull away from the other guys behind." For Xaus, Sugo proved to be a major obstacle to his championship ambitions, as he fought his way to a pair of fourth places. Starting from row three, Xaus was held up in the first-race mess, but just like race two, he fought back to score fourth. With Hodgson in devastating form, this wasn't enough to stop his gentle slide back from Hodgson's perfect points score of 150, with Xaus now on 106. The much-fancied local wild card rider HHoyasu Izutsu could only finish sixth in both races on his Honda, failing to emulate his Kawasaki double race win in the 2000 World Superbike. On a factory Honda twin, albeit on Michelins, Izutsu could have hoped for a podium. Clementi made up for his exit in race one with a fighting eighth in the rerun, ahead of DFX Ducati's Juan Borja and Bertocchi Kawasaki's Mauro Sanchini. The last top 10 places in race one were shared among Lucio Pedercini in seventh, through Watanabe, Foggy Petronas' James Haydon, and Borja. "I obviously inherited a few of those places, but that's racing," Haydon said. "Unfortunately I won't be able to use the same bike in race two because of a problem, but this is my first top 10 of the year, and to do it here I'm pretty pleased. It's a hard circuit to do it at, and it's my first time here, so I'm pleased for me and the team." The Pirelli guys were not in it at all n e _ S • MAY 7, 2003 27