World Superbike at Brands - Simply the Biggest,
Simply the Best
Brands Hatch, Kent, 24-27 July 2003
23 July 2003
Entitled the European Round of the World Superbike Championship,
the Brands Hatch event could be well be renamed the World Round, such
is the scale and importance of the second British based SBK race of
the season.
Brands Hatch has hosted the biggest World Superbike races
ever, with well over 100,000 spectators cramming into Brands Hatch each
year, the closest race circuit to the metropolis of London. Being located
in the UK, Brands Hatch can feature changeable weather conditions over
the weekend, but in recent years invariably raceday has dawned dry and
sunny – something all involved will welcome once more.
Brands, first used as a cycle track around the base of
the natural amphitheatre which forms the basis for the short ‘Indy
Circuit’, has grown in stature to become one of the classic venues
of all time. The modern breed of riders share the enthusiasm for the
Brands layout that their predecessors did, but this season there is
another twist in the tale. The Dingle Dell Section, out in the woodland
area of he track, has been remodelled to make the approach safer, and
the mods have met with the approval of all those who have raced in the
British Superbike Championship round, held at the end of June.
The attractions of Brands for the British race fans this
season are many and various, with the biggest draw arguably the 2000
British Superbike Champion, Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila 999F03). Leading
the championship by a mammoth 122 points at this stage, Hodgson was
something of an early season winning machine, taking eleven victories
up to round six at Silverstone.
His rivals, especially his own team-mate Ruben Xaus,
can take heart from their own recent upward swings in form. James Toseland
(HM Plant Ducati 998F03) may have been the first to stop Hodgson’s
winning streak (at Oschersleben) but Xaus has taken his place at the
top of the podium three times so far.
It is only right that the three aforementioned riders
top the current table, with the points battle between Xaus in second
and Toseland in third a new and welcome dynamic in what is turning out
to be a fascinating season.
The only rider other than the top three to win this year
is the class veteran Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1 Ducati 998RS). His win
at Laguna has been the highlight of an up and down season for the 39-year-old
rider, one of the most popular ever to stand on top of an SBK podium.
Chili’s privateer success is a fillip for Frenchman
Regis Laconi (NCR Nortel Caracchi 998RS) a rider who has come close
to a win on a few occasions in 2003, but has to go back to his factory
Aprilia career in 2001 to remember his one and only SBK success.
With four-cylinder machines of 1000cc allowed into the
championship this season, Gregorio Lavilla has been a constant force
for the Alstare Suzuki team, taking his GSX-R1000 to five podium finishes.
A win has been just out of reach but Lavilla will be buoyed by the fact
that John Reynolds (former SBK race winner at Brands Hatch) has already
scored a race win on the full Brands circuit, during the British Superbike
round in June.
The local Brands Hatch crowd will be bellowing support
for Chris Walker (HM Plant Ducati 998 F02) another rider who has scored
podiums but not quite a race win yet. At Brands, the scene of many heroics
for the popular rider in his previous British Superbike career, Walker
will be a threat, especially after leaving what could have been difficult
Laguna Seca meeting with a third place to his credit.
In overall sixth at present, Walker heads up Chili and
top Pirelli-supported entrant Steve Martin (DFX Ducati 998RS). Martin
is finding himself under increasing pressure from his team-mate Marco
Borciani, while another top Ducati privateer, Lucio Pedercini (Pedercini
Ducati 998RS) rounds out the top ten after eight meetings of the 12-round/24
race series.
Possibly the most interesting technical entry is that
of the Foggy Petronas FP-1 three-cylinder. A 900c machine by regulation,
the high tech triple has had good and bad results since joining the
series at Valencia in round one, with a front row qualifying for 1996
Champion Troy Corser being the biggest highlight. Still developing apace,
the FP-1 is moving in the correct direction, but for Corser and second
rider James Haydon, the pace of progress has not allowed them to challenge
for podiums.
Wild card riders will pack the Brands grid, and if their
impact at the previous Silverstone round in May is anything to go by,
there will be several candidates for podium success or better come Sunday
afternoon.
Michael Rutter (Renegade Ducati), Leon Haslam (Renegade
Ducati), John Reynolds (Rizla Suzuki), Yukio Kagayama (Rizla Suzuki),
Shane Byrne (Monstermob Ducati) and Dean Ellison (Firepower Ducati)
make an impressive list of wild card riders, with Byrne the best placed
rider in the domestic series.
In the World Supersport Championship all the riders will
be returning to the fray after a long summer lay off (the Supersport
series skipped the Laguna event) and thus the series enters round eight
of its 11 round duration at Brands this weekend.
Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR) has been in
sparkling form for most of the year, scoring four wins, but ending his
most recent race at Misano with a fall. Still suffering from a dislocated
right thumb, Vermeulen is the clear championship leader.
The Supersport series features a particular abundance
of talent and fast machinery this season, and the top three positions
in the championship are filled by machines from three different manufacturers.Katsuaki
Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R600) lies second, Jurgen van den Goorbergh
(Yamaha Belgarda R6) third and a host of possible race winners make
up the bulk of a field. No fewer than 19 full works machines feature
at Brands, plus two wildcards, Jamie Robinson and Tom Sykes.
As well as Vermeulen, Fujiwara, Christian Kellner (Yamaha
Motor Germany R6) and current number one plate holder Fabien Foret (Kawasaki
Racing Team ZX-6RR) have also scored race wins in 2003, the lastof them
a somewhat unlikely success by Foret at Misano, on a machine which is
yet to reach full engine development.
Each race weekend from now on features a full card, as
the season completes its calendar in Europe - the remaining rounds taking
place at Assen, Imola and Magny Cours.
Online Booking – www.brandshatchcircuits.co.uk
See series calendar for SBK
World Superbike Championship 2003
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