Yamaha’s Sean Emmett went into the thirteenth meeting of the season with an outside chance of success, providing Hislop hit trouble. In the end, however, it went the other way, and Hislop’s on-track challenger proved to be fellow Ducati rider Michael Rutter.

Hislop’s best lap in practice proved quicker than Valentino Rossi’s time for the British Grand Prix, with the Scot securing his fifth pole position of 2002. Emmett could do no better than fifth, so that row one was completed by Rutter, Shane Byrne and John Reynolds, his Rizla Suzuki now sporting an orange livery. Emmett headed up former IFC team-mate Paul Brown, returning with the D&B team, with Glen Richards and Dean Ellison next. Steve Plater’s Yamaha lined up only thirteenth.

Race one began with Hislop leading off from Reynolds, Rutter, Byrne, Emmett, Karl Harris, Brown and Richards. ‘Shakey’ Byrne was an early casualty, going down at Coppice on lap one, and this moved Emmett up to fifth. Sean then went one better on the final corner of the same lap, when he overtook Rutter, who tried to fight back without success.

Emmett was certainly in determined mood. His next target was former Red Bull Ducati team-mate Reynolds, who he passed on the inside at the Old Hairpin. Then the Yamaha man set about leader Hislop, who he went on to pass at the exact same place, in a very close manoeuvre. Further back, Richards was now in front of Brown, who had John Crawford behind him, with Harris now having fallen back from his earlier sixth position.

The lead group of Emmett, Hislop, Reynolds and Rutter were being caught by Richards, who had a bit of a gap to claw back, and there was also clean air back to the sixth bike, which now belonged to Crawford, also on an orange Suzuki this time out. Rutter put his Renegade Ducati up to third, passing Reynolds at the Melbourne hairpin. The 2001 champion tried to fight back immediately, but Rutter held him off.

Emmett and Hislop were opening a gap to the next pair, but the leader’s race, and his title hopes, were wrecked when he had a big crash at the Fogarty Esses, which Hislop was lucky to avoid. The Scot stayed on track, but he had allowed Rutter and Reynolds through in the incident. Knowing the championship was now safe, however, Steve was happy enough to sit in third and let the leading pair squabble over the race win. He was under no threat from behind at this point, with Richards, Simon Crafar and Crawford out of touch, and he let the gap ahead of him grow as the race wound up.

Rutter and Reynolds remained close to the finish, although the Ducati man maintained his lead, but it was surely third placed Hislop who was the happiest man at the circuit. Richards’ late season form was confirmed with fourth, from Crafar, Crawford, Harris, Ellison and Gary Mason on the Honda. Plater’s Yamaha was another non-finisher.

With nothing much at stake in race two, Hislop was out to confirm his crown in style with a win, and Rutter also knew that his second overall was now secure, as the injured Emmett was non-starting. Hislop marked his success with a switch to a pink crash helmet, as opposed to the yellow one of recent times.

This time the start saw Rutter get the jump, from Hislop, Reynolds, Byrne, Brown, Richards and Harris. Byrne made his way past Reynolds for P3, but the Suzuki man got his place back a few corners later. Meanwhile, Richards was working on Brown, and Hislop was soon into the lead when he passed Rutter.

As the race settled down, the first two remained in close contact, but pulled out a big gap over their pursuers. The battle for third became a tussle between Reynolds, the charging Plater, Byrne and Richards, with the remainder lagging behind this group. Plater replicated Emmett’s earlier move on Reynolds while, up front, Rutter was hounding the new champion.

Reynolds’ Suzuki began to go backwards, with Byrne passing him into the Esses, and Richards also moving through on him. Indeed, ‘JR’ was unable to stay with the second group at this stage, and had to settle in for sixth. The front two were running a pace all of their own, with Hislop finally breaking Troy Corser’s 1996 lap record, but it was Rutter who had the best of it. The Ducati man made his move at the Melbourne hairpin, and was in front from here to the end, although never by much.

Third place passed briefly to Byrne, who made it through at the Esses, but Plater came right back at Melbourne, to cement an impressive ride through the field. In fact, Byrne was then relegated to fifth at Redgate, with Richards overtaking on his 750 machine. This order was maintained to the finish, with Reynolds coming home sixth, from Ellison, Crawford, Mason and Crafar.

This site will bring you a season review in due course, and we look forward to seeing another great championship in 2003. Steve Hislop should defend his title, and the usual suspects will be right on his tail.

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