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/128218
World Superbike Championship Round 6: Oschersleben, Germany By GORDON RITCHIE PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE OSCHERSLEBEN, GERfIIANY, JaNE I e may have been in Germany, but there were two different blasts of the same foreign national anthem at Oschersleben, and five out of the six podium places went to natives from a small island west of mainland Europe. (n other words, it was a Britfest of epic proportions, as three British riders shared a podium for the first time in history in leg two, and only the brave tricolore of Italy's Pierfrancesco Chili broke the British hegemony in the opener. Strange as it may sound, Oschersieben - in the middle of the flat German countryside, featuring a generalIy pretty featureless track layout, and situated a long way from the UK - is a popular destination for the ranks of red, white and blue Britbikers, and they sunbathed their blue-hued skins and their pride simultaneously in glorious sunshine. Ducati Fila's Neil Hodgson and HM Plant Ducati's James Toseland took one win apiece masterfully enough but in very different circumstances. Hodgson's was his ninth straight maximum points score of the season, equaling Colin Edwards' record from 2002. Toseland's was his first-ever SBK career win full stop and came after some side-by-side jousting with Hodg- W 20 JUNE 11, 2003' cue • son in the early laps, contact close . ._ ...; , _........_ - _..........._"", enough that it displaced the stickers from the side of Hodgson's machine. Hodgson thought at first that his clutch lever had been knocked off, not just displaced on its pivot by Toseland's defense of what he thought was his line - Hodgson's adventurous overtaking maneuver having failed on the exit of the chicane. "I think I'm going to be a bit dazed until I get home and see the family, but ('m happy and pleased for the team having both riders on the podium," Toseland said. "Big thanks to Neil; I think he taught me a bit too well when I was with him for two years. Things are going well for us now, and thanks to Dunlop and the team. We're all trying really hard, and it shows that if you pull together, you • n • _ s can do well. After the first race Chris [Walker] told me to stop showboating by going into the gravel and coming back to finish third and to get on with it. And when I came out the penultimate corner on the last lap, I thought to myself, 'I've won,' but it didn't register. Neil pushed me all the way; he got held up by the back markers, but until then it was really close. (t was nice to lead the race from start to finish, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season." "I didn't have my lucky underpants on for the second race, but I've had them on for all the other races this year," Hodgson joked. "I can tell you, because I have had some good luck this year. Don't get me wrong, I've been trying hard, but this afternoon it didn't go my way, and you can't win them all. Losing to anybody is not nice, but (' d rather it be another Brit, and with it being James is nice. World Superbikes is big in the UK, and with James winning a race, it's a good thing, and it stops people getting bored of me winning. James has been trying really hard and has had three seasons in WSB, and all credit to him. He didn't make one mistake in that race, and that's why he won it. He was quick all through the weekend, and ( knew he would be a threat, and ('ve got a lot of respect for him. The best man won on the day." Add in Chris Walker to the list of race-two podium Englanders, and you had the first all-British podium ever, according to all available sources that is, there being no definitive list of all SBK race winners to hand. A strange statistic in a class which has for so long been a fond one for the British fans - but although there are numerous incidences of two Brits standing together in various combinations, it became a trio for the first time this weekend. "We've done a good job all weekend, and I'm very happy," HM Plant Ducati team manager Colin Wright said. "It's been a long time since the last win, and it's been made even better by the fact that James, Chris and Neil were all on the podium, because