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World Superbike Championship Round 1 : Kyalami. South AfricaRACE HEAD On the final lap, Edwards (2) passed Haga (41) on the brakes into the chicane to score the victory. Fogarty held on for third. the next opportunity, the entrance to the Vodacom Bowl to sneak in under Haga, with Fogarty right on their tails waiting for a mistake from either rider. A fast and wide line from Edwards gave Haga no chance to pass on the final corner, and Edwards gave Honda the fairy tale start they had been hoping for. Edwards was elated to win his first race on the all-new Honda RC51, emulating the feat of the Ducati 916 in 1994, but the American's win did not come in the fashion he expected. "I thought I could stretch a lead over the chasing guys, but I couldn't make the break," Edwards said. "I had to work hard on the last lap to get back into the lead, but it's a case of mission accomplished for me right now." Bostrom I recognize," said the eighth and ninth place finisher. "I don't think I have ever finished any race as low as I did today; maybe in my first year in AMA, but not for years. I know it's a long season, but I want to be competitive now." Another rookie with more reason to be happy with his performances was Alessandro Antonello, Corser's Aprilia teammate, who was unlucky to run off the track in race one but finished a very credible 10th in the second race in only his second World Superbike race ever. Seen by many as just a development rider for Corser's equipment, Antonello has already proved to be more than that. "I had a slight problem with the rear brake in the chicane on the second lap and went of the track, which dropped me back a lot," Antonello said. "I am happy with the lap times I did, but not very happy with the result." The last of the full works men down to do the full series, Anthony Gobert, had opposite experiences at the hands of lady luck, with a retirement in one race and a hard and heavy ride to 12th in the other, showing all his old flair and audacity. "The whole team is very happy to have a good points score in our firstever race meeting," said Gobert's team manager Virginio Ferrari. "Four months ago there was nothing at all in the race department, no people, nothing. Now we have a good team a talented rider and some points." In the remainder of privateer-land, a much rougher and more difficult part of the World Superbike world than it has ever been before, Giovanni Bussei, homebody Lance Isaacs, 8 APRIL 12, 2000' cue I e Andy Meklau and Alessandro Gramigni a II had strong points scoring rides, with Castrol Honda stand-in Simon Crafar in an unimpressive 14th on both occasions, swimming with the relative minnows on his shark of a VTR. RACE ONE A stunning start to the World Superbike season saw Edwards eventually win a three-way fight for the honor of taking the first race win of the season, holding off the close attention of eventual second-place man Haga and Fogarty. Edwards nailed the holeshot to clear off into what looked like it would be the middle distance, gapping the entire field by almost a second in one lap and then growing that differential by infinitesimally small increments until the chasing Haga reversed the trend on lap 10. An indication of just how hard he and the others were pushing in the early stages comes from the fact that they all set their best time of the whole race on lap two, with a new lap record of 1:43.270 going to Edwards. Shortly after this mark had been set, welcome World Superbike returnee Anthony Gobert was out, a broken ignition pick-up blamed by his team for the engine's early demise - with the young Aussie in an unlucky 13th place at the time. Another Italian V-twin rider, Alessandro Antonello was experiencing lesser machine difficulties, with failing rear brake causing him to overshoot after one lap and drop 10 places. A spirited fight took the rookie contender back to 18th. Early second-place man, Corser, ne'UVs found himself overwhelmed by first Haga and Fogarty, then on lap four by Chili, until one of his trademark late surges took him back past Chili for an historic fourth place and more Aprilia Euphoria. Chili's early run actually made him a prime candidate for a podium place until his tires started to fade somewhat and he had to content himself with fifth. Lavilla had a tough race to a fine sixth place, fighting against his broken wrist injury to overhaul rookie Aoki, having an aggressive ride in the early laps until Lavilla passed him for good on the sixth lap. With Edwards being slowly caught by the Haga/Fogarty express, the race moved into its most exciting stage. By lap 16 Haga was shaping up to pass the American, and soon after the Japanese was probing Edwards' defenses, especially at the entrance to the Wesbank hairpin. Even the intervention of two backmarkers failed to help Haga pass the fast Honda, so the Samurai of Slide used his vast experience of Dunlops to try the old fashioned method make a gap where there wasn't one around the outside. After attacking as hard as he dared for a few laps, with both riders fishtailing their rear tires on the brakes to try and outbrake each other, Haga finally took his chance at the entry to Goodyear corner, squeezing past with barely a micron to spare. A mistake from Haga on the last lap at the Wesbank hairpin caused him to run wide, giving Edwards a small chance of passing on the inside. With the door slammed hard in his face, Edwards had to wait until The top three riders all finished within .225 of a second of each other, making it one of the closest World Superbike races in history. Yet another landmark for the series was made when once more this weekend when the top six manufacturers finished in the top six positions. RACE TWO A far less closely contested battle in race two was hardly in the near classic league of the first encounter, but it still contained drama-arama. First up was Haga, barging past Fogarty, Corser and several others on the first la p to go second behind the fast-starting Edwards. Chili was quick out of the blocks on his Suzuki, but Fogarty was having a torrid time, run-ยท ning wide and losing places on lap one. But it still took him six laps to pass Corser, on a mission again, but made his moves stick like glue as he chased and caught Haga and Edwards. Haga San had stuffed Edwards on the first lap and Fogarty, right up Aoki's chuff at the time, nearly crashed when Aoki lost and recovered the front and the Englishman lost more time to the leaders. Fogarty was not the only Ducati Infostrada rider to be driving through the field in chase of faster men, as Bostrom looked to be going fast and loose in a visible way as early as the third lap. The leading four, Haga, Edwards, Corser and Chili, had done the rest by a full second after only four laps, with Fogarty setting the new lap record of 1:43.270 on lap five, drawing himself to them like his Ducati were a big red magnet. On the same lap, Corser ran on at the Kink, letting Fogarty past, and losing his touch with the leaders. The battle of the front-runners was still raging with Chili going for it big style at the entrance to the Kink