British SuperBike Championship - Round 1 - Results
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John Reynolds powered to a brilliant winning double in the opening round of the British Superbike Championship at Donington Park - the former champion had things relatively comfortable in the opening 25-lapper at his local circuit, but was made to fight every inch of the way in the second as James Haydon hit back strongly. Reynolds, riding the Red Bull Ducati, had claimed the Dunlop Superpole start with a 95.94mph lap, but was beaten off the line in each race by another former champion, Steve Hislop, aboard the Monster Mob Ducati. The Nottingham rider was ahead in the opener by the fourth lap, but Haydon was upping the pressure on the Virgin Mobile Yamaha, twice setting the race's fastest laps, was closing in, only to slide out of contention at the Melbourne Hairpin on the eighth lap. He picked himself up, to take eighth place, but by then Reynolds had won, ahead of Hislop and John Crawford aboard the Clarion Suzuki. Hislop again led the early stages of the second race before Reynolds moved ahead, but any thoughts he had of another easy victory were quickly dispelled by the hard charging Haydon, and on the penultimate lap the Yamaha rider was ahead at McLeans. Reynolds hit back, regaining the lead at Goddards, to set up a final lap 'shoot-out' during which the lead changed a further four times in a furious dice, eventually won by less than a second by the Red Bull Ducati rider. "The first race win was a bit hollow after James went down, but I was full on throughout the second and I really enjoyed that race. I knew that James was behind me and that we would have a go at me, but I won the races, and that is what I have to do," said Reynolds, the champion of 1992. Haydon, who had also crashed during Saturday qualifying, suffering ankle injuries in a 120 miles an hour tumble at Craner Curves: "I hope I have had all of my season's bad luck in this one event. The second was great, but it would have been even better if I had won." In the Privateers Cup, Shane Byrne was also a double winner, aboard the Performance House Suzuki, heading off the challenge of Dean Ellison in the opener, and then Francis Williamson. Australian 'super-kid' Casey Stoner took an impressive maiden victory in the British 125cc Championship, heading off Paul Robinson by almost six seconds, while his fellow countryman Paul Young took the opening round honours in a British Superstock races, decided on aggregate time after Gary Mason's crash brought out the red flags. Remarkably Mason made the re-start and battled through to take second place ahead of Woolsey Coulter. Chris Vermeulen, another Australian, won the British Supersport race by four seconds from his Castrol Honda team-mate Kirk McCarthy with Matt Llewellynn third, while Shane Norval took the British 250cc race by less than half a second from Adrian Coates. Ben Wilson took a last lap victory ahead of James Hutchins in the British Junior Superstock Championship race. BRITISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP - ROUND 1 - DONINGTON PARK British SuperSport Kirk McCarthy finished second in today’s opening 2001 British Supersport encounter at Donington Park today as his Castrol Honda World Supersport counterpart, Chris Vermeulen, cruised to a dominant victory on the new Honda CBR600F Sport. Matt Llewellyn on a Yamaha was third with John McGuinness on the third Castrol Honda finishing fifth as Vermeulen took the opportunity of a wild card ride to secure more development time on the new CBR600. Starting from pole position, McCarthy settled into second place behind the Suzuki of Karl Harris, who crashed unhurt at Macleans corner on lap three of the 16-lapper. McCarthy led for the following four laps before Vermeulen moved into the lead on lap eight. The two Australians took control of the second half of the race around Donington’s 2.5-mile GP circuit with Vermeulen taking victory by 4.4 seconds at the flag. "I thought I had a problem at the start when I saw smoke coming up through the fairing," said McCarthy. "I checked my boots on the straights and they were dry so I guess it was something on the exhaust. It’s not a bad start, considering we only got the new CBR on Friday, but hopefully Chris won’t be doing any more rounds!" Vermeulen returns to World Supersport action in Australia on 22 April but was grateful for the opportunity to ride in the British series. "We were struggling a little in the first world round in Spain," said Vermeulen, 18. "It’s pretty much the same bike but we made some changes to the forks and they felt good." Results –
British SuperSport - Round 1 - Donington Park (2.5 miles, 16 laps): Images from round 1 - Round 2 Preview |
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