HM Plant

Today’s second Superbike World Championship race at Assen was a difficult one for both HM Plant Ducati riders. James Toseland was forced to retire due to tyre problems and Chris Walker showed determination and true grit to finish in eighth place, despite riding while injured.

As the sun shone at the Dutch circuit, both Toseland and Walker made reasonably good starts to the 16-lap race, slotting into sixth and eighth place respectively. As the battle out front raged between the new Superbike World Champion, Neil Hodgson, Ruben Xaus and Gregorio Lavilla, Toseland got his head down and concentrated on closing down Regis Laconi and Pier Francesco Chili.

Toseland caught and passed Regis Laconi on lap eight to move up to fifth place and make sure he didn’t lose sight of the leading quartet of riders. The 22-year-old rider then managed to pass Chili on lap ten to move up to fourth place and set his sights on the podium position he narrowly missed out on in the first race.

Unfortunately for Toseland, his rear tyre began to disintegrate on lap 13 of 16 and he was forced to retire from the race. Chris Walker came home in a respectable eighth place – a great effort considering the injuries he was carrying.

Down but not out, Toseland is already looking forward to the next round of the championship: “Obviously I’m disappointed that my tyre went off but these things can happen to any rider. Everything was going so well out there and I’m convinced that I would have made it on to the podium, given the opportunity. My thoughts are already on the next round.”

Chris Walker added vital championship points to his tally by finishing the second race at Assen. “I did the best I could out there and despite 110% effort, I just wasn’t able to match the pace of the leading riders. It’s not often that I am glad when a race is over, but I couldn’t wait for the chequered flag today. Now I have to rest and get myself fit again for the next round.”

Ducati Fila

Britain's Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila) wrapped up the 2003 World Superbike Championship with second place in race 1 behind Ruben Xaus and a thrilling victory in race 2 at the Dutch circuit today. Hodgson, who needed just ten points to clinch the title, and his Spanish team-mate put on a fantastic show for the 76,000 strong crowd, which included thousands of British supporters who had crossed the Channel to see Hodgson's title win.

Hodgson becomes the second British rider to win the Superbike crown after Ducati legend Carl Fogarty, and the tenth Ducati rider to win the coveted world title. The Italian manufacturer has dominated the 2003 WSBK championship for streetbike-derived machines and this year, with the new-for-2003 Ducati 999, it has won both the Riders' and Manufacturers' titles.

Ducati Motor Holding President Federico Minoli, commenting on the victory, said: "This is another important chapter in the history of Ducati and the championship-winning 999 will take its pride of place in the Ducati museum! We are very proud of the 999's performance in its first year of racing".

Ducati Corse managing director Claudio Domenicali added: "This is a historic moment for Ducati. Winning the riders' and manufacturers' titles in the 999's first year, in a year in which Ducati has had many commitments, is a prestigious achievement. Substituting the 998 was not an easy task but we have managed to prove that the 999 is already an exceptional machine and that Neil has become a successful and mature rider in his first year with us. This victory has also come about thanks to the support of all our partners and sponsors and special thanks must go to Shell, who developed specific Advance lubricants for our engines, and Michelin, with whom we have now won seven riders' titles".

"It hasn't sunk in yet" declared Neil immediately after he stepped off the podium. "All I can think about is the race, which I was trying to win. I've never suffered from concentration so bad, but at a certain point I was thinking 'this is it, this is it, I'm world champion'. I've been focussed all weekend but because of the battle with Ruben, I just tensed up and was unable to relax and go for the race win.

"It means so much to me to win this championship" he added. "I've been racing since 1990, I've had an up-and-down career but now I've proved a few people wrong by winning the title and I truly feel I can move on from here. I'd just like to dedicate the title to Kathryn and our baby girl, as well as my chief engineer and right-hand man Ernesto Marinelli, who couldn't make it here due to a recent accident".

Ruben Xaus, who rode a storming race to take his fourth win of the year in race 1, immediately congratulated his Ducati Fila team-mate on his championship victory. "Congratulations to Neil and Ducati Fila, who have done a fantastic job all through the year. It was a pretty difficult race because there was so much tension between Neil and myself. I didn't want to make any mistakes but I did, throughout the race. Sometimes I was faster than him, and he was faster than me, we had to take the battle right down to the last lap, when I think Neil relaxed a bit because he knew he was going to be world champion".

The Ducati 999's triumphant day was completed with another victory for the promising young Italian Lorenzo Lanzi (Team Rox Ducati) in the round of the European Superstock Championship.

Steve Martin

Following five weeks break DFX headed to the Netherlands this weekend for the Assen round of the championship. Martin was unable to race in the 2002 Assen round due to injury, but it didn’t take him long to get reacquainted with the 6.1km circuit.

During Friday qualifying Martin was sitting just out of the top ten when a red flag stopped the session with just three minutes to go. The team missed the start by just thirty seconds, meaning that Martin couldn’t get a flying lap and was the first to get the chequered flag. In the last three minutes, with the pack of riders circulating together nearly all the riders improved on their previous best times.

“I was a bit worried watching myself slip back to fourteenth in the last three minutes but as long as I was still in Superpole I knew I would be able to improve on my time and grid position then”.

Every qualifying session is important at Assen, as you don’t know if the next one is going to be wet or dry. The second qualifying session on Saturday morning was in wet conditions and the qualifying times from Friday decided the Superpole entry list. Because of the drying conditions and threatening weather, Superpole was declared as a wet Superpole even though all the riders headed out on slick tyres.

“I think I prefer the one lap Superpoles now that I have had a bit of time to get used to them, it means that you have got to put that good lap together straight away instead of a having a couple of practice goes first. In the end I improved on my Friday qualifying time and was able to move up to the third row of the grid in 12th position”.

Sunday, fog delayed the start of warm up by about an hour due to poor visibility, but after the fog lifted the skies remained clear for both of the Superbike races.

Race one was a fairly lonely ride for Martin, after a good start Martin settled into ninth position. By mid race distance Martin started to struggle with a rapidly deteriorating rear tyre, but was able to maintain the ten-second gap over the next rider until the chequered flag.

“Tyre choice here is always difficult as the weather and track conditions are different every time we go out. I wasn’t expecting too much this week-end so I am happy with this result.”

Due to the tyre problems of the first race in Race two Martin headed out on a tyre that he hadn’t tested during the weekend. Initially Martin was slower off the line and had to work his way up to eleventh position before again making a break and settling in for another lonely ride to the chequered flag.

“I didn’t get such a good start, but then I started to have a bit of fun passing some of the other guys before finding a gap and waiting for the chequered flag”.

Martin now heads to Imola for the next round of the Superbike Championship in eighth position after increasing the gap this weekend.

FG Sport

With the world championship at stake for Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila 999 F03) prudence could have been expected during the first 16-lap World Superbike race at Assen. Instead the large crowd was treated to a full-on display of aggression and racecraft, especially from new champion Hodgson and his team-mate Ruben Xaus.

Xaus ran out the winner by 0.609 seconds after a tough last lap with Hodgson, who secured his first ever World Championship title by finishing second and taking double the points he need to make the crown safe.

Hodgson, who became a father days before the Assen race, lapped the circuit on the slow down lap wearing a t-shirt proclaiming ‘Who’s Your Daddy?’ in honour of his five day old daughter Holly.

He is the first Briton since four-time champion Carl Fogarty in 1999 to win the title, and the second to hail from Lancashire. In third place in race one Pierfrancesco Chili could not replicate his Superpole win, but he rode with conviction throughout to secure the podium from James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati). Chris Walker, Toseland’s team-mate finished fifth, and an outstanding ride from Troy Corser (Foggy Petronas FP-1) put him sixth on the unique three-cylinder 900cc machine.

In the second of the 16 lap races Hodgson got the win he desired, at a faster pace than race one, with Xaus second and Alstare Suzuki’s Gregorio Lavilla (who crashed out of race one) in third place.

Regis Laconi (Ducati NCR) scored fourth in race two after being black-flagged from the opener for returning to his pit, for repairs, not just pit lane.
Chili was fifth in the second running, with young Brit Leon Haslam having an excellent ride to sixth place, earning ten championship points in the process.

Behind the top six in each race Ivan Clementi was an impressive seventh and eighth on his 750cc Kawasaki Bertocchi machine, even beating Walker into eighth in the second runner – even if Walker ended the race with the same tyre problems that made Toseland retire.

Corser was a still impressive ninth in the re-run, with John Reynolds (Rizla Suzuki) very out of sorts to finish tenth, having been forced to retire in race one. Steve Martin, the first Pirelli equipped rider in the championship, was ninth and 11th. Only 17 riders from 27 finished race one, but 21 finished race two.

Troy Corser

Troy took a superb sixth place in the first Superbike race at Assen today and followed it up with ninth in the second 16-lapper. Troy and the Foggy
Petronas FP1 team were understandably pleased with their result in race one and also with consistency of their new engine. Towards the end of the first race, Troy felt that the bike was losing power, but a post-race check revealed nothing, so Troy used the same bike in race two. But almost from the start of that race, the bike didn't perform as well as it had done in the first race and Troy couldn't push as hard. In the end, Troy rode as hard as he could and brought the bike home in ninth. Race one was won by Spaniard Ruben Xaus with Hodgson's second place (and 20 points) in enough for him to clinch the title. Third went Frankie Chili (Ducati), ahead of James Toseland (Ducati), Chris Walker (Ducati) and then Troy. The second race featured a tremendous three-way battle between Xaus, Hodgson and Gregorio Lavilla (Suzuki). When Lavilla's tyres faded at the three-quarter distance, Xaus and Hodgson went at it hammer and tongs to the flag. When Xaus made the smallest of errors, Hodgson took his chance and ran out the winner by six tenths of a second. Lavilla took third, with Laconi (Ducati) fourth, Chili (Ducati) fifth and Leon Haslam (Ducati) sixth.

TROY Race 1: 6th, Race 2: 9th - "That was probably one of our better weekends of the year and I was happy because the bike ran more consistently then it has done all season. The new engine mods are an improvement and the water temperature stayed constant. After Clementi and Haslam got past, I relaxed a bit and I think that helped me ride the bike better. I then sized them up and was able to pass them to take sixth. Towards the end, I felt that bike wasn't at 100% and asked my team to check it, but they said all was OK, so we used the same bike But it didn't work as well and in the end, I just rode round as hard as I could and grabbed as many points as possible."

Suzuki

Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra rider took a tremendous third place in the second Superbike World Championship race at Assen today. Throughout the race he fought tooth and nail with newly crowned World Champion Neil Hodgson and his Ducati team mate Ruben Xaus, but was forced to ease the pace after his tyres faded at the three-quarter mark. Gregorio's third spot made up for his disappointment in race one; he crashed out whilst in the lead. Gregorio had been leading the race at the time, but fell on fluid spilt on the track by another rider. Xaus went on to win the race, with Hodgson second (and enough points to clinch the title) and Chili third. The second race was a real stormer, with Gregorio hustling Xaus and Hodgson right from the start. In the end, Hodgson took the win, with Xaus runner-up and Gregorio third.

GREGORIO LAVILLA Race 1: DNF, Race 2: 3rd - "In race one, I was in the lead and I felt pretty comfortable. I came round to see yellow flags waving a couple of bikes on part of the track and the next thing I knew was that I was falling! There must have been some oil, fuel or some other liquid on the track and that's what I hit because it all happened so soon. If there had been an oil flag, things might have been different, but I fell and that's that. Race two was fun in the early part and I was with Hodgson and Xaus without a big problem. When my tyre started to go off, I couldn't match their pace and they pulled out a small gap and I could do nothing about it. But, I'm happy to be on the podium again and I want to finish on the podium in all the four remaining races."

Rizla Suzuki rider, John Reynolds, was unlucky in the first race when he retired from the leading battle early on but in race two fought his way to 10th.

Foggy Petronas

Carl Fogarty heaped praise on his Foggy Petronas Racing team following a weekend of sustained progress at round ten of the World Superbike championship at Assen, The Netherlands. Four times World Superbike champion Foggy saw Australian rider Troy Corser clinch a thrilling sixth place in the first race and follow that up with ninth place in race two, won by new world champion Neil Hodgson.

Troy’s team-mate James Haydon was declared unfit after suffering a hand injury in a qualifying crash. Carl said: “It is nice to get a result like that at Assen, where there are so many British fans and which was always a special place for me as a racer. Troy’s top six was probably better than we could have hoped for at this stage of the project. He rode a great race and the fact that his bike was more consistent, and running cooler, shows that there is a lot more to come next year. Today was great for the team who have worked hard all year and never complain.

“I am pleased for Neil Hodgson. I know what it’s like to win a world title here, which is like a home from home. He will just feel relieved at the moment as he has been under pressure all year because he was expected to win. He can now enjoy the last few races, although I don’t think the fact that you are a world champion ever sinks in.”

Troy said: “This weekend has given everyone a lift and shows that we are making progress. The sixth place in the first race was what I thought we were capable of going into this round. I knew I had a big gap behind me and that I didn’t have to push too early. So I sat there in eighth and saved the tyres a little bit. With two laps to go I upped the pace and, when Clementi missed a gear in the final chicane of the penultimate lap I was able to out-draught him down the straight and take him going into turn one. Then I got right on the back of Leon and, coming out of the hairpin, I knew I was quicker than him through the second chicane. The bike ran consistently throughout that race and the temperature stayed consistent. My Michelin tyres were also good, sliding a little but, again, consistently.

“The second race was more difficult as the bike did not feel the same and was dropping off throughout. The same riders that I could catch in the first race were just pulling away as I had lost a bit of torque.”

James said: “I had cortisone and ant-inflammatory injections last night but was still in agony this morning and there was no way that I can race. I am gutted because I love Assen and there are so many British fans. I had been really hoping I would be able to go out on a high at the end of this season.”

Rizla Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki rider John Reynolds showed Dutch race fans his true courage by fighting against hopeless odds to secure a 10th place finish in the second race of the 10th round of the World Superbike Championship at Assen in Holland.

JR, on his Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000, was unlucky in the first race when he retired from the leading battle early on. Determined to make amends in the second event, the Nottingham rider made a good start but ran off the circuit at the final chicane at the end of the second lap, relegating him from the leading group to 17th on track and effectively out of contention for top honours.

JR gritted his teeth and managed to fight his way to 10th by the end of the race, beating many of the World Championship series regular riders and winning plenty of new fans in the process.

Rizla Suzuki was competing at the Dutch 10th round of with JR as a lone rider after team mate Yukio Kagayama broke his pelvis in an accident at the Cadwell Park round of BSB last month. Ducati's Neil Hodgson finished second to his team mate Ruben Xaus in the first race to claim his first World Superbike Championship, before going on to win the second race. Alstare Suzuki rider Gregorio Lavilla was third in the second race on his GSX-R1000 after posting the fastest speed down the straight of 180mph.

Dutchman Thomas Mulder was the lucky winner of a pillion ride with John Reynolds around the 6.027-mile long Assen circuit. The 37-year-old sales representative who lives in Assen town, won the opportunity by entering a competition on Radio Noordzee. He said: "That was fantastic and very fast, it was perfect. The kerbs felt very close and the track was small, that is the fastest I have ever driven, I would like to do it again. I have done loop-the-loops on hang-gliders, but that was not nearly as exciting as my bike ride with JR."

John Reynolds:
"I was trying too hard today. I really wanted to get up and fight for the win in both races but it didn't happen.

"In race one we had the pace to challenge for the podium but I had to retire. In the second race I was more determined than ever to do well but I went off track on the second lap. I got back on the circuit and put my head down to catch and pass as many riders as I could.

"Assen is one of the best tracks in the world and I really rate the circuit and the fans. I think we deserved a better result this weekend and I will be making amends when we visit Brands Hatch next weekend for the penultimate British Superbike round."

Gary Keogh, Brand Manager Rizla:
"We wouldn't have came to Assen World Superbikes if we didn't think we could be competitive and a fifth place in qualifying, the ability to run with the leaders in both races and a fantastic display of bike riding skills to come from 17th to 10th place in race two have proved this team has what it takes to race at the very highest level.

"I am very excited by bringing Rizla Suzuki to Holland and all our Rizla guests have enjoyed a great day. I think we will have won a lot of new international fans this weekend and can't wait for the opportunity to take on the WSB boys again in the future."