By Glenn LeSanto

Ben Bostrom took his fourth race win in a row in the World Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch in England 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 highsiding his Yamaha YZF-R7 the luckless Robert Ulm had nowhere else to go but up and over the stricken Yamaha. Both machines crashed heavily into the Air Fence 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 behind Hodgson to win. In the end he did just that and crossed the line just 0.316-second 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’s 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) 36:41.759
2. Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 36:43.267
3. Colin Edwards, USA (Honda) 36:50.961
4. Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Suzuki) 36:51.775
5. Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 36:56.393
6. Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 37:03.641
7. Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 37:06.005
8. Troy Corser, Australia (Aprilia) 37:06.995
9. Sean Emmett, GB (Ducati) 37:07.569
10. Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 37:08.311