Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World S u p erbik e C h a m p ions h ip Round 4: Don ington P a r k , E n g la n d It was a dange rou s t ime fo r th e fro nt runner s , with Edwa rds s lithering a bout on the edge of traction from the first to la st la p, Wa lker and Hag a takin g t urns almost h ig h s id in g out of . co nte nt ion, and Hodgso n to start m a king progress from sixth place. Up to third by lap four, Hodgson wa s already 1 .8 seconds down on Edwa rd s , who had Ch ili close beh ind - a mere half second down. The secondary group of riders was now in a nice messy bunch, consist ing of Hodgson , Walker, Haga , James Ha y d o n , Yanagawa and John Reynolds . Three seconds down on the 10-lap m ark , the c ha s e rs had not given u p hope quite yet and at that moment Chili decided to pass Edwa rds on the Carl Fogarty made a lap in a car prior to the race - much to the delight of the British road racing fans. inside at the downhill Old Ha irpi n , sweeping though majestically. Tr ying to re - pass at Fogart y 's Esses , Edwa rd s was obvio usly -not ready to let Chil i s it in front, but with the Italia n in a determ ined mood , he was blocked at every opportunity. It too k until lap 14 , wh en Chili was distracted removing a t e a r-off, th a t Ed wa rds got his chance to make his fa vorite outbraking move at Fogarty's stick, and set about tr y ing to brea k Ch ili's tow. He never quite succeeded, but in among st the backma rkers , th e cat a nd mouse exercises got even mor e \!ll®[J{}ri! @[I[}[fJ@[]0[jXiJ[?{] ©0iJ&JUiJiJ[flJO@m00iJO{JJg {]]®[I[}mri! ~ [1DOOD@ [jJD~'J--[liJ--=--@] _DD_ _ A start -to-finish win for Stephane Chambon in the 23-lap World Supersport Championship race took him to within one point of James Whitham and the championship lead. Getting the holeshot with a faultless start . Chambon's clear track proved to ' be the difference between him and the others, who were either tripping each other up or forcing their way through from bad starts . . Christer Undholm, fourth on the grid, made the most of his starting position, but a rear tire spinning on the rim dropped him back slowly but surely, despite fighting tooth and nail for each place as he was engulfed first by the awesome Karl Muggeridge. Largely unsponsored, the privateer Honda lead the chasing pack for no less than 12 laps before crashing on the exit of the Old Hairpin, making it two crashes and a sixth in what has been a hard season for the likeable and talented Australian. The main gainer from his off proved to be Whitham. Unable to get any closer to Chambon than Frenchman desired, the Englishman nonetheless attacked with all his might for the remaining nine laps. J org Teuchert finally joined Chambon and Whitham on the podium after another slow start saw him back in 12th on lap one. Eating his way through the order, Teuchert just ran out of laps in the sap ping heat to finish third, one place ahead of fast rookie Andrew Pitt on the Eckl Kawasaki. Pitt even had a similar race to Teuchert, moving through the field with some clever overtakes and inteliigent riding. Undholm's problems bottomed out with him in fifth place, faring a lot better than his unfortunate teammate. Wilco Zeelenberg, who had to retire after his pre-race crash ended his race after two laps. la in Ma cpherson , fighting so me obvious problems that upset his machine, was a disappointed sixth, one better than Christian Kellner, who faded somewhat in what he later described as the hardest race of the year so far. Ducatl 's Supersport team once more had a night· mare weekend, with Paolo Casoli only capable of eighth, a nd Ruben Xaus crash ing once more . Faulty front brakes caused Xaus' bizarre exit at the entrance to Macleans Corner, and he collected Nigel Arnold along the way. Arnold was lucky to escape injury as he was flung high into the air and landed on the ta rmac at spee d. Blameless, Xaus, one of the previous champlonship favorites, is still pointless after three races. Christophe Cogan was a fine eighth, and more fortunate than Aussie sta nd-in (for Allemand) Kevin Curtain, who ended another spirited ride with a cras h on lap 10. 5tephan e Chambon won Pere Riba rounded out the top 10 after being up as high the World Supersport race at Don ington Pa rk. as seventh in the early laps. 16 M AY 24 , 2000' cue I e n eVIl's inte re s t ing, with both riders sli di ng co ns ta ntly in th e h igh temperatures . A b ig re a r t ire s pi n from Chili at Coppice on th e 23rd lap of 25 gave Ed wa rd s the weapon he needed to break down the S u z u k i r ide r 's resolve, althoug h C h ili had enough rubber and determination to hold off Ho d g s o n , who had closed to within 1.8 seconds again. With tim e running out for them a ll, those three riders gave us the 1-2-3, not to mention an intriguing contest. Behind Hodgson , Ha ga was leading Wa lker, d ing -dong ing with Hay don like they were a t any othe r British Superbike ra c e . A good day for the loca l riders saw those two finis h in fift h a n d s ixth , with t he ne xt best of th e reg ulars be ing Yanag awa, in seventh pla c e . T he return of Slight to com petitive act ion after missing th e first t hree ra c es of the season, delivered him a drea m ninth-place finish , much to his delight and the crowd 's approval , with Corser just ahead of him during a nightmare of a weekend. John Reyno lds got six points for 10th , wi t h La v illa , Hislop , Ulm , ' Meklau and Bostrom stea ling the last few plac es fro m Gra m ig ni, Antonello and new boy Mar kus Barth on a slow R7. RACE TWO A bigger on e-man s how th an Elv is in Vegas, th e second race was Chili' s all the way - from th e holeshot to the chec ke red fla g . Onl y it ne ver quite turned out like th at in the fina l a na lysi s , a lt ho u g h Chili lo oked to have the situ ation behind him un der co ntro l even after a couple of laps . Es pecia lly after Ed wards , lo oking fo r his first doubl e o n th e RC5 1, fe ll off on lap 11 - for no appar ent re a s on and w ith n o logic al exp lanat ion to offe r afterwards . Edwards had loo ke d pretty coo l for his easy second place, hav ing dis posed of the young British pretenders Wa lker and Hodgson on laps three and four. The wa y th ings were turning out, he was well out of it, as the two Brits , p lus Haga , were battl ing it o ut like e ve ry corn er wa s the la s t one they would ev er see. Haga , adm itting afterwards that he had never had th e doors closed on him so forcefull y in his life before , had a few tr ic ks of his own as he blasted pa st Wal ke r on th e insid e at Schwantz Curve , a 130 mph left hand sweepe r which takes guts to g o ro un d fast at th e best 'o f tim es . Wal ker soo n g ot him bac k p erma nently on lap 14 , with th e sa me typ e of a udac iou s (re a d sc ary ) m o ve up the inside a t Foga rty's . Well , it wasn 't like Wa lker ha dn 't had practice , as he a nd Hodgson were attacking each other at every corner. The net result of a ll thei r fa iring bashing and line stea ling was to drop Haga (s uch was their pace ) and lose rea listic touch with Chil i (s u c h was his pace). Four seconds was the gap at the 19th lap , with the British crowd on one hand desperate to see more o f the mayhem ic overtaking their senses had been assa ulted with for about 35 minutes , yet on the other hand urging them to calm down and start attacking Chili as a unit. As it transpired, they had no need, as Chili was succumbing to the p ressure both physically and m ec ha n ic a lly, whic h was slowing him down . A .9 of a second gap fro m first to second on the last lap, by which time Hod g son ha d ju st dropped Wa lker enough no t to interfere , sti ll lo o k e d too much , but in true never-sa y-di e s pir it, Ho dgson ho ned in o n th e purp le Suzuki. A n e ar highs ide on th e exi t of the fin a l pa rt of Coppic e corn e r by Ch ili let Hod g s on t hro ugh , with Wa lker re p e a ti n g the performance o n the approach to Fogarty's. Holding h is nerve an d beating off a last gasp attempt to win from Walker, Hodg son crossed the line to win his firstever World Supe rb ike ra c e - a nd in qu ite brilliant style. "T h a t ' s the sweetest 16 po ints I'v e ever collected in one race , ' Hodgson sa id. "It' s been about fou r years s in c e I' ve vis ited the podium at this le vel , but it p ro ves the point th at I'm rid ing as we ll a s I have ever ridden . I kept push ing all race ; it pa id off and I'm delighted. I'm tota lly speech le s s about winn ing race two . I just c an 't be liev e it. It m a kes m y job a lot eas ier wh en th e tea m aroun d me is so good a nd I c an ' t thank t hem e n o u g h. I'll remember t h is day for th e rest of my lif e . I want to g o b a c k into Wo rld Superbike for su re , but th is tea m a re re a lly serious a bout doi ng it, s o I hope it is with thern ." Walker was a disa ppoi nted/de lighte d w it h s eco nd , but Ch ili 's blac k mood at losing a race to what he called "a problem with the bike which slowed me down ," was o nly alleviated when his substa ntia l number of fans in England cheered him almost as hard as the conquering loca I heroes at the .sold out press conference. Such was th e le ve l of furor created at the fr ont th at all the other often c lose b att les beh ind were ig nore d by th e major ity , but fa iry ta le number two was a cted out by S light, wh o im p ro ve d o n even h is excellent points s coring finis h in ra ce one to take seventh in th e follow -up. Haga , sound ly be aten a nd som e what rattled by th e whole thing , was a fu ll five seco nds a hea d o f Yana ga wa , with Ha yd on a distant , if qu ietl y imp ress ive , s ixth. Bostrom , finding his race face hidden u nd e r a lmost the la s t box of s uspension parts in the garage, was a forceful eighth , with Mekla u , Aoki, and A lessa ndro Anto nell o (fro m

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