Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

circuit. It was to catch out even him in race two, but in race one Chili survived a first-lap melee, which was sufficiently severe to bring out the red flags for the race to be stopped and restarted. Chili himself, Ducati Fila's Neil Hodgson, Foggy Petronas' Troy Corser and Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom were all involved after Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates fell in turn two. Pushed to the inside by a stream of fast riders, Yates misjudged the apex of the first corner, hit it, fell and took out Chili comprehensively, who in turn skittled a few more. Chili looked hurt at first, but it was Eric Bostrom who was forced to withdraw - with a dislocated right shoulder and a compressed thorax, but all other riders took part in the second start of the first race. Four riders led the full-distance restart at various stages, although early pacemen Regis Laconi and the NCR Ducati and Xaus fell in separate incidents. Laconi claimed to have fallen on a piece of fairing or screen from the earlier crash, after he strayed off line on his privateer machine. Unlucky in the extreme, Laconi was once more in the thick of it all weekend, and once more Xaus had a rollercoaster weekend. Both he and Hodgson had fallen in practice, but it was Xaus on his knees and then in his glory as race one's slip became race two's leap to brilliance. "The tire was a hard compound to be fast around this circuit, and that corner is slow," Xaus said. "It hit the bump on the tarmac, and I just went down. It was an easy win. I knew I could do it." In the opener the departure of that particular pair of leaders gifted Chili a lead of two seconds over Hodgson, and despite the championship leader pressurizing for most of the last few laps, the race was taken by Chili, fully 3.068 seconds ahead of the Englishman. "Last week I said in the press that I have to start close with the guys like Neil and James and maybe I can win," Chili said. "Ten days or so later here I am the winner. Thanks to all for your support." Hodgson was later to say that all three podium men were lucky to finish on the top steps, but HM Plant's James Toseland had a first race of toil and ultimate reward. "Obviously, I'm a bit pleased that the first race was red-flagged," Hodgson said. "I saw Frankie come off in front of me, but there was nowhere to go, and I fell off. They red-flagged it, so obviously there is a God. That's the best result I could have earned because it was a very difficult race." Hodgson's compatriot and former teammate Toseland had an eventful start before the first flash of the green lights. He stalled and had his bike lifted over into Pit Lane, was erroneously allowed to start from Pit Lane by an AMA official - but not fast enough to catch up with the mass of riders on the start. As Toseland wove his way back to the pits the start went off, the crash ensued, and it was therefore some form of blessing for Toseland, who ran out third in the "real" race, after Mat Mladin dropped from the lead after some initial excellence. The Australian AMA rider finished fourth overall, top wild card. He elected not to race in the second event, blaming tiredness after his busy weekend, provoking cries of derision from some of his rivals. "I stalled the machine and had to get back to the pit lane," Toseland cue I e said. "I was allowed to start on the lap, but then the race started up ahead. The crash meant I could restart. We had to change the clutch, and it was a bit nervy waiting to see if . we could get it done before the restart. I tried as hard as I could, and it's great to be on the podium after what happened." With Mladin and Yates hardly on the dominant form in real race conditions as they had been in qualifying, it appeared that there was still some gap between the highly rated AMA riders and the newly combative World Superbike Championship, even if lap records and race times were again slower than last year. Track conditions played a part, especially as race two was slower than race onebecause of the hot track conditions - 127 0 in race two. "After this weekend I am just out of gas," Mladin said in a release from his team. "It's just been too big a weekend. About halfway through the first race I realized I just couldn't keep up the pace. I've just had too many laps at too high a level. With all the crashes and what happened to Eric Bostrom, I just didn't want to go out and try to be a hero. I'd rather play it smart." Fifth in race one was HM Plant teamster Chris Walker, a good result from a third -row sta rt, but his weekend would get better; Yates was secure in sixth and somewhat chastened by his World Superbike experiences. Both Yates and Mladin had ragged on Hodgson hard in practice, as Hodgson struggled to find a Michelin and a race setting for the race, but the champion-elect and the World Superbike Series in general (no wild card on the podium) had the last laugh. Ducati Austin's Giovanni Bussei was another wild card finisher in race one in seventh, and a total of eight n e _ S • JULY 23,2003 9

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