Hodgson left in a twist as the Texas tornado whirls into action

126,000 fans see home hopes dashed at Brands Hatch, writes Mike Nicks.

A Texas twister named Colin Edwards raged over Brands Hatch yesterday and wrecked the Briton Neil Hodgson's hopes of victory in the European round of the World Superbike Championship.

"I didn't come here to play footsie or tiddlywinks," Edwards said, before winning both 65-mile races before 126,000 fans who sweated in sultry weather at Britain's biggest motorcycling frenzy.

"I rode the wheels off my bike but Colin was fantastic today," Hodgson admitted. It was a day of anticlimax for the former British champion, who was seeking his first win of the season after qualifying in pole position.

Edwards, 28, took advantage of a rare opportunity to narrow the gap on the series leader Troy Bayliss, who rode with a cracked rib after taking a battering in a practice crash on Saturday. Ahead of each race the Australian rested until the last moment on a shaded track-side chair before mounting his 1,000cc Ducati - but he still managed to come away with a pair of podium finishes.

"It's a long, hard race here even when you're not injured, but I'm not letting this slow me down," he said.

Bayliss now leads Edwards by 39 points, with six races remaining. Hodgson retains a clear third place in the series and can take consolation from being the best non-factory rider at Brands, on his British-owned HM Plant Ducati, and the best finisher on Dunlop tyres in a year in which Michelin is clearly fielding the superior rubber.

The massive crowd, perhaps one of the biggest in the British sporting calendar, lined the 2.62-mile Kent circuit in the hope of seeing Hodgson victorious and his 21-year-old team-mate James Toseland claim his first podium position. But it was a double disappointment: Toseland lost places after running wide on a corner in the first race before crashing out of the second event.

Hodgson led the first 65-mile race from the grid but Edwards powered past the British rider after two laps; by lap 20 he had built a lead of almost two seconds.

Hodgson raised a storm of cheers and blaring hooters when he closed up in the final laps, but there was no messing with the Texan as Edwards claimed his fourth victory of the season. Bayliss cruised into third place and then headed straight to his motorhome for some massage treatment.

The rest of the Britons had mixed fortunes. Chris Walker finished sixth on his under-powered Kawasaki, and was the best of the 750cc four-cylinder bikes. "I just wish I had another 20 horsepower," he said afterwards.

Michael Rutter threw away the advantage of qualifying on the front row by crashing his Renegade Ducati.

Hodgson ripped into another lead in the second race, but again Edwards forced by after a handful of laps. Hodgson broke back in front, but once the American got ahead again he established a clear gap. It was his third consecutive world superbike race, the 25th of his career and his second double victory at Brands Hatch.

"The championship is still attainable," he said. "We have new parts coming for my Honda, and Michelin are always coming out with new tyres."

The former British superbike champion James Whitham broke an elbow in a 120mph fall during a crash-plagued World Supersport race, won after three restarts by the Frenchman Fabien Foret.

The crowd gave a tumultuous welcome to the debut racetrack appearance of the Petronas FP1 motorcycle built by the former World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty. Riders Troy Corser and James Haydon performed two demonstration laps each on the 900cc three-cylinder machines, which had been completed only three days earlier, and Fogarty also took a quick spin.

"We will start testing in three weeks," he said. "If everything goes well during the winter I can't see any reason why our riders can't win straight away at the first race in Spain next season."

The elegant turquoise bikes, insured for £250,000 each and named after a Malaysian oil company, have already missed a deadline for approval to race this season.

But the ebullient Fogarty, famous for his aggression on the track before he retired from racing in September 2000, added: "We're very proud of them. We had only a couple of months to build them and I didn't want to produce a big ugly thing like some of the Japanese bikes."