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/128636
(Left) Hodgson (48) couldn't repeat his earlier Brands Hatch perfonnance, but he did manage to keep Edwards (2) at bay for a while in race two. (Above) Corser ended up posting 7-3 finishes In the two races and he finished the season third in the championship, in what was his debut year on the factory Aprilia. to stray from the rapidly drying r a c i n g li ne. Walker , desperate to wi n after losing the British title the previous week- On the l a s t lap, Reynolds' clear lea d was cut back by Bayliss, but with o nly a na rrow dry lin e ev ident , it was d i f f i c u l t to see where Bayliss wou ld make his passing move. As it end, slithered his way into contention for th e lead but, on lap 13, an ' am b i- tu rned out, he couldn 't find th a t tious' piece of r iding by Gobert saw him c rash and Hodgson dropped down to ni nth after a spot of g rass place a nd thus Reynolds won his first ever World Superbike race, with Bay liss second and Hodgson third . tracking at the bottom of Graham Hill. Un a bl e to continue , Gobert fourth . Hodgson climbed back up to fin ish trudged off the short dista nce to the pits to ponder race two . B orj a ' s resurrection was develop- Wearing t rick new leathers to cele- ing apace, with th e Spaniard p assing Chi li on lap 16 to head u p a freight brate hi s Wo rld Championshi p suc cess, E dwards shot in to t h e lead, train of seven riders covered by only tw o seconds . close ly pursued by Hodgson, Chili RACE TWO an d Corser. Walker's charging sty le took its toll P u l li ng out a sma ll gap i n the on lap 17, when he overshot the Druids hairpin and lost second to mostly d ry conditions, Edwards' gap was .288 of a second on the first lap, Bayliss . One lap later, Bayliss took the lead at Surtees once more , but t he omino us news fo r a ll the front runners was the form of Edwards, fly- with Hodgson just in his wheeltracks . Determined to make up for his ing through the field on his RCSI and running two se c onds a lap faste r than the lead ers . Meanwhile, Haydon was a v ictim of the wet conditions still lurking around on la p 19 , c rashing afte r lo s ing the front at Druids . A nother first-race d isappoi ntment, Edwards still couldn 't break the tow from Hodgson , with the Englishman fir ing up the inside of him at Druids on lap six . A phenomena lly close race saw the leading three dogged by Chili and Bay liss - with Rey no lds j us t b eh in d t he m, bu t an equal distance ahead of moment on lap 20 for Bayliss gifted Reyno ld s t he lead again , w ith the to p Wa lker , Haydon and Laville . three ri d ing almost as one . Edwa rds , 1 1 seconds down by th at sta ge, h ad his work cut out to make up th e difference t o t he leaders. F ou r ing up to be a classic confrontation, with Rey nolds squeezing every iota of powe r ou t of his D u c a ti to join th e seconds off the lead w ith th ree laps to g o , a resou n di ng c h ee r ra ng o ut as Edw ard s c r as he d at Gr ah am Hill , Stra y in g o ff line o nce too often, Ba yli ss crashed at Druid s o n lap ni ne , endi n g hi s rac e. T he serum at the front was shap- ba ck of th e le ad in g m en. w ithout inj ury , virtuall y guaranteeing Laville , enjoy ing the d ry m ore th an two Brits p o d ium fi n is he s - if the y could keep it wheels down . th e wet, head ed up th e seco n d group of r iders , w ith W al k er and Ha yd on Little did we know that something which look ed like a straight fight between the reigning World Champion and Ducati's old war-horse Paolo Casoli would end up as the most exciting and utterly unique .championship decider - and the race of the year . Forget Oschersieben, where Christian Kellner and Jorg Teuchert took each other out, this was a race with a script no Holl ywood prod ucer would accept. Too implausible by half. The 23 -lap Supersport race got underway in dam pish conditio ns, with the dry line left over from the Superbike contest making tire cho ice more straightforward. A double- pronged Ducati soon suffoca ted Stephane Cham bon's great early-lap attack, when First Paolo Casoli and then Ruben Xaus swept past him. An error pushed Xaus back down the order, to contest third spot with pole man Piergiorgio Bontempi and Pere Riba. Casoli's pace saw him go into a .8 of a second lead with his teammate running safety for him as he muscled Cham bon into third. With an 11-poi nt gap between Chambon and Casoli at the top of the table, the race was always going to be something of a war of attrition, with Chambon needing to ride with a cur ious mix of defense and aggressio n. Away and clear at the front, Chambo n's fall to fourth and then fifth was bad news for his cham pionship aspi ratio ns. Even worse news was that the man directly behind him, James Whitham, was making up ti me hand over first, setting the fastest lap on lap four. Pere Riba was the man on the move after that point , passing Xaus and seemi ngly desperate to get ahead of Casoli and' leave his Castrol Honda team with a much coveted win under his belt. Whitham 's pass on Chambon at Druids on lap seven was another blow to the French man, but with Riba crashing at Surtees on the same circuit, his hopes took something of an upturn. Whit ham , on a charge in front of his home crowd, scythed past Karl Muggeri dge short ly before Chambon's Suzuki expired exiting Graham Hill Bend on lap eight, his cham pionship seemingly in tatters. Weeping openly in the pits as Casoli received the news that his only realistic rival was out via his pitboard, the championship looked to be a foregone conclusion. Whitham, however, looking to end a disastrous run of five race crashes with a hom e win, was in spark ing form until a small m istake on the entrance to Westfield bend allo wed Xaus back through into second. A five-ride r chain of Casoli , Xaus, Whitham, Bonte m pi and Mugge ridge wove its way around the Brands circuit two seconds ahead of the only other ma n who cou ld now proba bly now spoil his day, Jorg Teuchert . Closing rapidly, the Germ an rider, plus his teammate Christian Kellner, were making progress that was contrasted with that of Massimo Meregalli , who crashed out on lap 12. Holding a tig ht line on lap 13, Muggeridge took Xaus and Whitham in one fell swoop and screamed past Casoli on the entrance to Surtees. Momentarily losing his cool, Casoli was passed by Xaus and Whitham in rapid fashion, with Kellner taking him on lap 15 at Surt ees. A three-way fight for the lead ensured between Xaus, Muggeridge and Whitham, with Casoli surrendering yet anot her place as he slipped back ward. Languishing at the back of what had suddenly become a seven-rider fight for a podium fin ish, and with his teammate Xaus dropping back to let him pass, Casoli had shot his bolt, for no obvious reason. At this rate, Chambon was once more in line for the championship win, as Casoli would not score enough points to overtake him . Wit h the Japa nese mac hines demonstrating an obvio us advantage, the championship battle took an even more bizarre con volution. Kellner, now also more than mathematica lly possible of taking the championship, went into the lead on lap 16, and, depending on where Teuchert finished , he was now in the position to win overall. With Kellner , however, under strict orders to allow Teuchert to pass and thus win the championship, he had littl e option but to let the ma n he knocked off in the previous race throug h to win. On the last lap , the race order shuffled and reshuffled, but on the charge to the last co mer, Kell ner , now sittin g behin d eve ntua l winn er Mu ggerid ge, pulled ove r to let hi s tea mma te pass . Whitham, in the thick of it, had one final go to pass Teuchert, despite his apparent team orders from Yamaha, and only failed by less than one tenth of a second. With Kellner in fourth and Casoli fifth, the title went to the man who saw his championship hopes languishing in the dust at Oschersleben. "I really didn't think I had a cha nce to win the championshi p aft er all our bad lu ck and bei ng so many points behind: Teuchert said. "My confiden ce was also reduced when the Ducati riders were fast in qualifying . We had a plan that Christian would help me and that 's how it turn ed out. I had to really race James Whitham on the last lap and I ju st manag ed to hold him off over the line. To win th is cham pionship is just incredib le, not just for me but for everyone in the team . An unbelievable day and I can 't put it into words." cue I e ne'IIVs • OCTOB ER 25 . 2000 19