Hodgson fights hard for 11th win

Neil Hodgson has won both the World Superbike races in the sixth round of the world championship, at Silverstone.

The British rider fought through an ongoing infection to win both races in front of the 83,000 strong crowd despite riding a brand new chassis design.

The first race saw the factory Ducati rider battle it out with former team-mate James Toseland in what was hailed as one of the best races this season. The two riders were joined by Ruben Xaus and Regis Laconi with Toseland, who came back from ninth place, finishing just 0.44 seconds behind the current championship leader, while Hodgson’s team-mate Xaus took third spot.

British Superbike team-mates Yukio Kagayama and John Reynolds took fifth and sixth while Michael Rutter, who is currently second in the British championship, took eighth behind Frankie Chili.

The second race saw Hodgson get a bad start but, cheered on by the massive crowds, he fought back from 10th place to take the win by just over half a second from Gregorio Lavilla

Xaus take another third place but Toseland was relegated to third after Lavilla fought hard to take his Suzuki GSX-R1000 past the two riders.

Yukio Kagayama again took fifth place but Reynolds had to settle for 10th behind Regis Laconi, Frankie Chili, Chris Walker and Michael Rutter.

Rutter’s British Superbike team-mat Sean Emmett has a bad end to the weekend being forced to retire from both races.

To comment on this story click the link on the right to go to our WSB discussion board.