Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

D n I D n World Superbike Championship Round B: Silverstone, Great Britain read race the bike is not fast enough, and I am disappointed about that." A moral victor for sure, his patience was tested by his otherwise admirable fourth and sixth places, John Reynolds was relegated to tenth in race two after clashing elbows and brake levers with Ruben Xaus at the entrance to Club. He felt that Xaus had taken his elbow just as he was touching his front brake lever, causing him to run on and dropping him down the order, four places behind his race one sixth place finish. One thing was proved beyond doubt in England this weekend; that was that the big fours can really fly if they are tuned correctly; that the restrictors are masking the power almost not at all. The expected decision to ditch ·restrictors next year and run sort of Supersport/AMA Superbike rules will go down well in most quarters, but Ducati and any prospective or returnee twin-cylinder manufacturers may not be so pleased. Michael Rutter, second in the UK series at present, was good value at Silverstone, eighth and ninth and only seconds down, but Chris Walker is still evidently not fit in body and confidence, and thus he was a battling ninth and eighth, when he really should have been in the top five in his own mind. "That wasn't too bad," Rutter said. "I just wish I could have hung in with the leaders a bit longer; that's all. To be six seconds off the lead at a World Superbike, I shouldn't really moan ... it was a hot pace, and it's good to be up there with them. We've got a few things to try for the second one, so I'm looking forward to that." Behind the big fight for the top nine or ten places, an all-Italian fight for the last few biscuits on the points plate saw that Marco Borciani had an impressive ride to tenth in race one, JUNE 25, 2003' "" Y "" I from the crowd, all desperate to see a bike at least partially British mixing it up in global competition. A dreadful weekend for the Petronas team, who appear not to have engine packages to suit their well-regarded cycle parts. With the exception of the belea- sound and feel of Superbike racing. There were 18,000 people at least at e Silverstone who came by motorcycle, some of them just like the ones out on the track, an important factor in the continuing popularity of a series many others around the world see as third rate this season. Well the racing was top drawer anyway, absolutely premier league, unremittingly competitive and unpredictable. And yet we have the same winner again. What does it mean? It means that Neil Hodgson is SBK racing's Valentino Rossi this year, but on the weekend that Rossi was finally overcome by Europe's premier racing factory, Hodgson delivered the goods in his own world - not once but twice - and under sustained multidirectional pressure like he has never felt before. He didn't quite cry when he dedicated his double wins to his recently deceased friend David Jefferies, and this is as much of an indication of Silverstone allowed all the top men to enjoy an embrace from the goddess of Victory. but only Hodgson got to take her home after the prom yet again. guered Petronas boys and girls, everyone pretty much went home with wondrous memories of the sight, Xaus (11) and Toseland (52) continued their battle for second in the championship. Toseland's 165 points leads Xaus' 158, bu1 both are a long way behind runaway leader Neil Hodgson. 24 ahead of Pedercini, Yamaha-mounted Giovanni Bussei, Mauro Sanchini, Ivan Clementi and Nello Russo. Rutter's teammate Sean Emmett crashed out on lap 18, and a host of retirees included Steve Martin, Juan Borja, and Walter Tortoroglio and nonstarter David Garcia, who still has so little power in his broken and wasted left wrist that it takes two hands to pull in the clutch lever. The last few points in race two were shared out from 11 th-place man Lucio Pedercini down to 15th finisher Vittorio lannuzzo, who recovered from his big Superpole crash. The men filling the gap between the Italian privateer sandwich were Bussei, Borciani and Sanchini. No points were evident in the Petronas camp, the long faces all round after qualifying, hardening into stony expressions as Troy Corser went off the track in race one at the first complex of corners, hurtling across the grass like an aquamarine arrow, loosed off in entirely the wrong direction. It was easy to think that Troy would call it quits after missing Superpole; he carried on and finished 16th, eight seconds from scoring a point. He came out for another dose of character building in race two but pulled in after 14 laps, his machine sliding back into the pits with electrical problems, to supportive applause ne""s Hodgson's new found maturity (call it manliness H you will) than even his two outstanding performances - on a day of similarly outstanding rides from the top ten riders - could do. WORLD SUPERSPORT As someone said after the 19-1ap Supers port race had reached its now customary climax - with Ten Kate Honda rider Chris Vermeulen away and clear from the highest caliber WSS grid ever assembled - "Those Ten Kate guys are sure making that Honda look good." Well there's truth in there, and maybe the chap in question was referring to the fact that other than Vermeulen's Honda, you have a top ten in the championship largely featuring non-Hondas. After Silverstone only three Hondas are in the top ten, and two of those are powered by engines from Ten Kate and run by the official Ten Kate team. Why, even in qualifying Karl Muggeridge has been - up until Silverstone - the man with the stopwatch plan, having been on pole at Monza and Oschersleben, Vermeulen the quickest Saturday man at Phillip Island. The Rizla Suzuki GSX·Rs of wildcard riders Yukio Kagayama (64) and John Reynolds (61) were competitive all weekend, with Kagayama finishing in second position in race one. It has been said that Vermeulen may been making the Honda and Ten Kate look good - or a mix of all of the above may be a better conclusion. The fact is, however, that Vermeulen's domination in the Supersport class on his yellow painted CBR600RR is like no other rider in history; even the awesome combination of Fabien Foret and his eBR last season was not quite this potent. Six races in, Vermeulen has won four, all of them by a long piece of string indeed - 12 seconds at Silverstone is the best, however. Chris could miss both of the next races and still be almost guaranteed to be leading the championship; such is his 47 -point lead of Silverstone pole position man Jurgen van den Goorbergh. "The weekend didn't start as we planned," Vermeulen said. "Being on the second row was okay, but I wanted to be up front with Jurgen. We did a lot of work on the bike, and Pirelli gave me a new tire to try in warm-up, which worked well. In the race I got my head down and tried to get to the front group. Jurgen ran wide, and I got the lead, and then I pushed really hard, and soon I was being given plus four and plus five on my pit board - it kept going up. Then from about halfrace distance I stayed smooth and concentrated on getting it to the finish." Still a bridesmaid in a class he has adapted to very well, van den Goorbergh's domination of the stopwatches in qualifying made him a hot favorite fOT the race win. But after a short and unsubtly tactile meeting with Vermeulen at the start of the race, it was clear that only Vermeulen, or an errant engine part, was going to be able to beat the Aussie once more. "I made a pretty good start, and going into the second corner it was me and Chambon, and I thought I'd keep it open because I wanted to lead the race and see if I could run the pace and get away," van den Goor-

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