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2002
World SuperBike Championship - Round 12 - Assen Race 2 Report September 8th, 2002 |
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Colin Edwards got the best run off the line to lead Neil Hodgson and Troy Bayliss through turn 1 and that order remained the same for the first few laps with Haga in 4th, Xaus 5th. Bayliss went under Hodgson for 2nd early on lap 3 but then ran a little which allowed Hodgson to take the position right back. Xaus got the better of Haga and moved up in to 4th before mechanical gremlins settled in and left him to limp back to the pits. A lap later Bayliss again put a move on Hodgson but ran in too deep and had to run through the gravel and lost a few places as a consequence. Edwards then began his now familiar escape act, leaving Hodgson in 2nd to fight it out with Haga and Chili while Bayliss was in a distant 5th still trying to recover all the ground he lost in that earlier incident where he momentarily took to the gravel. Haga touched the back of Hodgson sending them both in to the gravel, an unfortunate incident but both riders managed to rejoin the track without falling off but lost a lot of time which gifted Bayliss back up in to 3rd place and promoted Chili to 2nd. A lap later Bayliss was forced out and was left to walk back to the pits. This of course meant that if Edwards took the win he would lead the championship by one point over Bayliss. What a turn up for the books! On lap 12 of 16 Edwards was leading from Chili by a country mile, (over7 seconds), with James Toseland in 3rd, Hodgson 4th, Bostrom 5th, Walker 6th and Haga 7th. Noriyuki Haga then slotted his way past both Walker and Bostrom to get back up in to 5th position. Broc Parkes in 8th and Peter Goddard running 11th at this stage of the race. Edwards took another easy win, his seventh in a row. Chili held on for 2nd and Toseland 3rd.
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