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World Superbike Championship Brands Hatch, European Round Race One

Ben Bostrom took his fourth race win in a row in the World Superbike Championship at Brands this afternoon. The race was red flagged after a spectacular crash by Wild Card rider James Haydon at the exit of Surtees. As Haydon went down after high siding his Yamaha R7 the luckless Robert Ulm had nowhere else to go but up and over the stricken Yamaha. Both machines crashed heavily into the airfence and Ulm’s Ducati burst into flames. The Race Director was left with no choice but to stop the race.

When the race was stopped Ben Bostrom was leading Britain’s Neil Hodgson with Champion Colin Edwards in third. The race was restarted with the new grid decided by the race positions at the end of lap 10. In the restart it was Hodgson on the GSE Ducati and Bostrom on his L&M Ducati that again presented the enthusiastic crowd with all the action. The pair battled out lap after lap, swapping places as they rode around in the scorching sunshine at Brands Hatch. But Bostrom had the advantage; he was just over a second ahead of Hodgson at the end of the first part so he only needed to finish just up behind Hodgson to win. In the end he did just that and crossed the line just 0.316 seconds behind Hodgson to take the win.

Edwards, who was second when the red flag was waved, had done enough on the Castrol Honda to hold onto third, even though it was Bayliss who finished third on the road. But Edwards’ race one advantage held the Texan up for some more valuable championship points. Bayliss finished in fifth in aggregate, with Chili in fourth. Troy Corser had another difficult race, he was way back in eighth. Benelli Sport enjoyed three more championship points when Peter Goddard finished in 13th after a long dice with the Castrol Honda of Tady Okada. Although Goddard beat Okada over the line, Okada finished in front of him, placed 12th on aggregate.

First race aggregate result: 
1 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 36m 41.759s,
2 Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 36m 43.267s, 
3 Colin Edwards, USA (Honda) 36m 50.961s,
4 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 36m 51.775s, 
5 Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 36m 56.393s, 
6 Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 37m 03.641s, 
7 Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 37m 06.005s, 
8 Troy Corser, Australia (Aprilia) 37m 06.995s, 
9 Sean Emmett, GB (Ducati) 37m 07.569s, 
10 Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 37m 08.311s