By G O RD O N R IT CH IE
PH OT OS BY G O LD £, G O OSE
ASSEN, HOLlA ND, SEPT. 7
aybe a ps ycholog ist or anthropologist wou ld make some sense out of
wh y both th e Bri ti sh rid ers wh o have had what it takes to be World
Sup erb ike Champions hav e hai led from gritty industrial to wns in th e sam e
northern county o f En gland . only a few m il es ap art. Th ey eve n started
m otocros s at th e same clu b - and had at least one of th eir chil dren b6rn
on Sept em ber 2. Bot h are also left -h anded, if you nee ded any more
simil ar pec uliarities to call on.
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Th e rest of us non p rofessional peop le analysts may just put this all
down to noth ing m or e tha n the prevalence of the best British racers in
any particular yea r to hail from the northe rn edges of the sma ll island. of
Br itain. Whatever the reasons that both four-time World Cha mpion Carl F ogarty and new World Champion Neil Hodgson come from the co unty of lancashire , from the nearby towns of Blac kburn and Burn ley , respectively, there
has to be a link of sorts.
Now Ho dg son , who was simply crushed as a racing force in his tou ~ of
World Superbike du ty in the offi cial Du cati team in 1996 and '97 - by his
teammates John Kocinski (fi rst) and then Fog arty - can now hold his h~ad
high as winner of both British and World Superbike Championshi ps .
His title win came after only one rac e at Assen .
A full 140 points cl ear in the run-u p to ' th e Du tch we ekend,
almost a Briti sh race itself j udg ing by th e co lors in the
76,000 -st rong wee kend crowd, Hodgson ha d to do some:
th ing stupid at Asse n not to win .
N ot on ly that, but his team m ate Ruben Xa us had to edo
someth ing pr etty specta cu lar to stop Hodg son even bef6re
th e day wa s out at Ass en .
Both ri de rs had the ir A ssen up s and downs t o so m e
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