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British SuperBike - Silverstone - July 2000
| The two races were won by
Neil Hodgson and Chris Walker who renewed their ongoing battle by
clashing at Abbey corner on the second lap of race two, causing Hodgson
to crash out unhurt.
Rob Frost, deputising in the Harris Honda Britain team for the injured Shane Byrne, crashed out of the first race but rode through the pain of an injured foot to finish thirteenth in race two. Emmett, who had two disappointing results at Snetterton a week ago, was pleased with the improved performance of his race-kitted Honda VTR1000 SP-1. "We’ve basically gone back to the settings that gave us sixth place at Donington," he said. "We’ve improved the engine’s performance since then," continued the Surrey-based 30-year-old, "and I was able to beat my qualifying time consistently in both today's races. I never thought I’d be happy with two ninths but I feel we’re going in the right direction now." Frost had never ridden a superbike before this weekend’s meeting and was unable to test the V-twin machine before coming to Silverstone. "I got a bad start in the first race," he said, "and highsided in the stadium complex trying to make up for it. "The crash re-broke a bone in my foot, which made left handers really painful," continued the Lincoln rider. "The tyres took some getting used to as well, but I’ve really enjoyed the whole superbike experience" Team Kawasaki's Steve Plater turned in his best performance of the British Superbike Championship with fifth and sixth places in an incident-packed sixth round at Silverstone. The 30-year-old Lincolnshire rider was in top form as he took a first race fifth after a race-long battle, then fought back from an on track collision with another rider to finish in sixth place in the second race. Aussie Marty Craggill, deputising for compatriot Peter Goddard, was forced to retire from the first race with a gear selection problem and the same problem reappeared in race two to restrict him to an 11th place finish. For most of the 20 lap race one battle around Silverstone's National circuit Steve was in the thick of a tense four man scrap for fourth place and just missed out when rival James Haydon took the chequered flag just 31 thousandths of a second ahead. "What a race - I really enjoyed that," said 30-year-old Steve. "The bike was brilliant and I was confident I could get Haydon on the last lap. He made a few mistakes on the 18th and 19th laps but his final lap was inch perfect and I couldn't get past no matter how hard I tried." Craggill had a good start but began to suffer from gear selection problems almost immediately. "I struggled on for as long as I could but eventually I couldn't change gear and had to call it a day," he said. Race two saw his best start of the season and Plater was in fourth place when his Kawasaki was hit from the rear leaving a black mark along his exhaust pipe and relegating him to seventh position. "I got away from the line brilliantly and was just settling down when James Hayden ran into me at the hairpin and forced me to run wide. I quickly got back on the pace and managed to pass my old 600 rival John Crawford but apart from that it was a lonely race," said Steve, who had opted not to race his Team Kawasaki ZX-9R in the Superstock race this weekend but loaned his bike to Team Hawk's Gary Mason, who piloted the bike to fifth place. Steve's sixth place capped his most successful superbike performance to date, drawing praise from Team Kawasaki manager Simon Buckmaster. "This weekend Steve has taken yet another step towards being a genuine contender for the podium positions. He is getting better and better with every meeting." Results
(Silverstone, 2.252 miles) race one, 20 laps: Race two (19
laps): Championship
points after 6 of 12 rounds: |
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