To top all this we now have a new British World Champion who has been searching for this most elusive of titles for the past 20yrs!! Steve Abbot and Jamie Biggs finally won the World title in a close fought race where any one of 5 teams could have won the title in that last race. Aftyer a relatively good start Steve Abbott then struggled throughout the rest of the race with clutch slip and in the end finished in 5th place. Jorg Steinhausen finished third to end the season on 151 points, an identical score to Abbott’s. But because Steve Abbott had won three races this year, compared to Steinhausen’s single victory and he’s the new Superside World Champion. It was excitement from the go as one man Jorg Steinhausen only just made it to the line after being forced to change his engine - just twenty minutes before the race was due to start!

The race proved to be a battle from the start as Tom Hanks took the holeshot, but within a few laps it was the usual fight between Steve Webster and Klaus Klaffenbock that grabbed the attention of the spectators and the television cameras. The battle raged on in front, complete with multi lead changes and a host of fairing banging, while the situation behind them hung completely in the balance. Steinhausen moved up to third ahead of Hanks, Abbott was struggling with clutch slip back in fifth but Schlosser was catching him fast. If the situation stayed the same Abbott and Steinhausen would share 151 points, with Abbott taking the championship by those extra wins.

Schlosser and Hanni got to within less than half-a-second of Abbott. If they had passed Abbott, Steinhausen would have been champion. One lap later though Schlosser suddenly slowed down, maybe he had had a mechanical problem. In fact it wasn’t until afterwards that we all found out that Schlosser had realised that if he had passed Abbott it would have seriously affected the balance of the championship, so he played the game and decided to slow down to allow the title to take its own course.That course was the championship title went to Abbott after the race was stopped by a freak accident involving Mick Frith (the passenger of Bill Philp). Frith had got his arm caught between the rear wheel and the fairing somehow, and despite frantic efforts, Frith was unable to attract the attention of Bill Philp. He couldn’t tell him of his predicament so had to endure almost half a lap before Philp realised what had happened and stopped. Mick Frith was immediately rushed to hospital with serious skin, tendon and muscle damage to his right hand, wrist and arm. The initial diagnosis is that he will heal and should retain most of the use of his wrist and hand. Because of the urgent need to get an ambulance onto track, the race was red flagged. The result, taken back to lap 13 meant that Klaffenbock was leading the race, Webster was second, Steinhausen third, Hanks fourth and Abbott fifth.

Steve Abbott and Jamie Biggs crossed the line in fifth and were completely unaware that this meant they had won the World title. They soon found out though when they pulled into the pit lane and were greeted by their ecstatic team. “It hasn’t sunk in yet,” said an emotional Abbott, “but I’m sure it will after we’ve had a bit of a celebration tonight!”

Well done guys, it’s been a long, hard struggle but you’ve made it. Congratulations from us all.

The FIM have released the provisional dates for World Superbike in 2003. Superside will compete at all the European rounds of the World Superbike series but only one of the away rounds of Australia, Japan, Malaysia or the United States. This will be confirmed as soon as possible