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/128381
World Superblke Championship Series Defending worW Champion James Toseland (1) had never won a WSBK event on home soil, but he got fir.t In race two at Silveratone. Here, he lead. Troy Coner (11) and Norlyuki Haga (41), who had a machine failure in race one but faund hi. way onto the podium in roce two. ter lots of pre-race talk about new rules in the near future to provide Ducati with a fighting chance to compete 'n World Superbike "properly" again, the two red lions operating in England's fields and greenery this weekend helped themselves to their rightful share of the spoils. Ducati Xerox's Regis A Laconi won race one, and his teammate and World Superbike Champion James Toseland scored his first-ever SBK race win on home soil in the second outing, to the delirium of the locals. It had been a long drought for all parties in the red copier camp, and the British Bank Holiday crowd heralded the second race result like it was the second coming. To put it simply, after great qualifying performances and so-so Superpoles, the factory Ducati Xerox team showed it still had teeth and claws in race conditions at Silverstone after two epic superbike contests, held in front of a claimed weekend crowd of 70,000. The Brits went wild celebrating a battling victory for reigning World Champion James Toseland in the second leg, his first ever on home tarmac despite his World Championship number plate. "I was pretty happy," Toseland said. "Can we go on the long circuit next time? Because it seemed we had done the whole race after only about 18 laps. It was a long, old race, and I did it the hard way again. I had to chip away, but once I got on the tail of them, it was hard. Noriyuki [Haga] was looking up the inside of Troy [Corser] almost every lap, so it was like a small wall in front of me. 1got past both at the same place; I was quite confident into the hairpin. To win at home in front of friends and family is the most important thing. I told everyone that I have not won a race at home, and last year I achieved one of my goals by becoming champion; now I have achieved another one. II A great start from Yamaha Motor ltalia's Haga put him in contention for the win for most of the race, but a technical problem with his fuel pump ruled him out late in event, leaving three riders to battle it out. Laconi held off Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki's Corser in a close battle right to the end, and after Laconi had passed three riders. Local hero Toseland scored third place - a taste of things t<;> come. Such was the pace of the leading three that fourth-placed rider, Winston Ten Kate Honda's Chris Vermeulen was I I seconds down on the leaders, and Laconi set the new circuit lap record of