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Edwards turns it around in Assen
By Dan Moakes May 19 2003
Despite a lot of dramatics in the following pack, Colin Edwards found a place in the record books, following another commanding double win at Assen over the weekend. It was 23 podiums in a row for the Texan, whilst Frankie Chili got his 44th and James Toseland his first.
Racegoers at Assen witnessed Colin Edwards notching up his seventh World Superbike victory from seven, something that hasn’t been done since 1991, and an outright record of 23 consecutive podiums. Not only that, but he also took the series lead away from Troy Bayliss for the first time all season. In fact, the Australian had a particularly troubled meeting, fighting back from fifth in race one, and then suffering a non-finish in race two.

The first race saw Neil Hodgson go into the lead from Bayliss, Noriyuki Haga, pole sitter Edwards and Ruben Xaus, but Edwards very quickly moved through to battle it out for the lead with Hodgson. Bayliss struggled to match the Honda man’s pace, and was soon pushed back to fifth, in one go, by both Haga and Xaus.

Hodgson and Edwards tussled for the P1 on the first lap, but the move that put the Honda man in front also cost the Englishman places to the three men following. Whilst Colin made good his escape, Neil got back past Bayliss, only to find he had to coast back to the pits with battery failure.

The field began to spread out from this point onwards, although Haga took his Aprilia past Xaus, and was followed by Bayliss, now that he had made back some of the ground lost initially. This led to a close fight for second, which saw Troy take the advantage away from Noriyuki, and then try to make good on his deficit to Edwards. Meanwhile, after a gap back from fifth man Pier-Francesco Chili, the next group saw James Toseland under attack from Gregorio Lavilla, with Ben Bostrom just off them in eighth. At this stage Chris Walker had dropped out with a sheared rear sprocket.

Whilst Bayliss seemed to slow his pace in the very final stages, he still managed to hold onto second, and team-mate Xaus was equally unable to catch the man ahead, remaining behind Haga at the flag. The battles further back calmed down towards the end, although Lavilla did a good job to keep Bostrom back in a unrepresentative eighth.

Race two was one of those that don’t follow any established pattern, and it threw up an unexpected podium trio. Not so unexpected, however, was Edwards going straight into a lead he was not to lose. This left Hodgson to fend off Bayliss, whilst Haga and Xaus battled it out just behind. Bayliss almost made a pass on Hodgson in the early stages, but failed to make it stick, whilst Xaus passed Haga, only to be repassed not long after.

The Spaniard was soon touring in to the pits with a gear lever problem, not making it back on track for some time, and was ultimately black-flagged. His team-mate was also having trouble, and managed to go off in the process of passing sparring partner Hodgson. This dropped the Australian down to fifth, with a gap back from fourth-placed Chili, and ahead of James Toseland. Bayliss and Toseland managed to drop off the pursuing group of Chris Walker, Ben Bostrom, Gregorio Lavilla and the rest.

But up ahead Chili caught and passed Haga, only for the Aprilia man to come back through. This spurred Noriyuki on in his pursuit of Hodgson, but it ended in disaster, as he managed to run into the rear of the GSE Ducati under braking. Both bikes went off the road, but they were able to make it back again. However, this put Neil down in fifth and Nori into eighth, behind Walker and Bostrom.

At this point the final top three was decided, as champion Bayliss retired from third. The TV cameras didn’t capture what happened to Troy, but he certainly didn’t look happy [he had crashed], especially with Colin Edwards untouchable in the lead, and on course for a one point advantage.

With the top four now spread at various intervals, it was left to Haga, who was looking to come through on Walker and Bostrom, to provide the final action. Ben had put his Ducati in front of the Englishman, but Noriyuki duly caught the pair, and passed them both in turn. Unfortunately for him, Bostrom was able to get him back as the race came to it’s conclusion.

The series now heads to it’s finale in Imola, with the advantage looking to have switched to Honda and Edwards. It will be interesting, to say the least.

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