British Superbike Championship - Final - Donington - SuperBike
| GSE Racing and Neil Hodgson secured the 2000 British Superbike Championship
in spectacular fashion at Donington Park today with a dramatic win and a second place in the final race of the year. The 26-year old INS Ducati rider
came to the Leicestershire circuit for the final two rounds with a 21 points
deficit and went away as the new British Superbike Champion. Niall Mackenzie
finished the last two races of his British Superbike career in sixth and fourth place respectively.
Having qualified second on the grid behind Championship leader Chris Walker,
Hodgson knew that if Walker won the first race, he would become British Superbike Champion, so the Burnley rider knew his only option was to beat
him. This would be no mean feat as Walker was first off the line, but Hodgson The second race started out as a carbon copy of the first, with Walker getting the holeshot, followed by Hodgson and Reynolds. Hodgson knew that the odds were still against him winning the championship - even if he won the second race, the Championship would still be Walkers if the Suzuki rider finished in fourth position or higher. With this in mind, the INS Ducati rider passed Walker at Goddards at the end of lap two to let battle commence. The Suzuki rider re-took the lead at Craner Curves on lap nine, but Hodgson powered his Ducati around the outside at The Esses three laps later. Ducati riders John Reynolds and James Haydon followed suite and by lap sixteen, with Hodgson leading and Walker in fourth, the two riders were level on points, but with Walker having secured more race victories, the championship could still be his. A cruel twist of fate occurred for Chris Walker on lap 17, when his Suzuki's engine blew up, forcing him into early retirement and ending his hopes of securing the championship - as long as Hodgson finished the race. This wasn't a problem for the GSE Racing rider, as he powered his INS Ducati home in second place behind James Haydon, but actually crossed the line as the new British number one: "I can't believe I've actually won after all this," said Hodgson. "I knew what I had to do to be in with a chance of lifting the title and that was to win both races. The rest would be up to fate. I won race one, which kept the championship alive, but I still had a mountain to climb. I passed Chris and got to the front in race two and that was all I could do. I didn't know that he had gone out of the race and the first thing I knew was when someone came up to me after the race and told me I was champion! "I still can't believe it, but it's great for the team. I've had a fantastic
year with GSE Racing and it's great to be moving up to World Superbikes as
British Champion. We work so well together and are just like a big family, so
you can bet we'll be celebrating tonight!" |