Silverstone; Race 2 Result;
Added on Saturday, June 14th, 2003 by Carole Nash Editor
Silverstone; Race 2 Result;
Neil Hodgson made it a double celebration today, taking a convincing second victory aboard his Fila Ducati 999.
The second race of the day saw Kagayama dive into the lead, but it was Regis Laconi and Gregorio Lavilla who set the pace for the first ten laps or so, before Hodgson drove his way through into the lead. A strong move by Hodgson forced Laconi to run wide and lose places as he skittled off onto the track, but regained the tarmac safely.
That wasn’t the only hard move of the race however. Xaus made a poor start, but got his toreador hat on and began to carve through the field, until he clashed with Reynolds, as they battled over 6th place. Reynolds gave the 6 foot Spaniard a good shove sideways, which sent Xaus off track. But Reynolds damaged his bike and ended up having to make apit stop for repairs.
The amazing Xaus then got his head down and relentlessly pushed his way back up finish in 3rd place by the flag. For once, Xaus rode aggressively, yet flawlessly and there can be no doubt that had Reynolds not made life difficult early on, Xaus would have been pushing Hodgson hard for the win.
But `ifs’ don’t win races and Neil Hodgson held off a superb effort from Suzuki’s Lavilla to take the win. James Toseland was 4th, Kagayama managed to hold onto 5th and Laconi did well to take 6th after his off-track excursion. Chris Walker was 8th and Mike Rutter 9th. Troy Corser retired the Petronas after just 7 laps.
More team news from WSB later this week.
